Dirk and Lee's Vision, 1987

On to 1988, when that January the BBC ran THE VISION,

- a then timely warning about the American takeover of Europe by satellite TV, with disturbing ulterior motives. The fascinating foursome here are Dirk Bogarde as the British TV anchor man recruited by the rich fundamentalists, headed by Lee Remick in what seems like Margaret Thatcher mode, to lend their crusade respectability; with Eileen Atkins as his wife and Helena Bonham-Carter as his daughter.

 
Dirk did another engaging interview, with Philip Oakes, to discuss it. It marked his return to the BBC after 40 years. At 66 with 60 films and 3 novels and 4 best-selling volumes of autobiography behind him, "Bogarde was emphatically still a star. He has a star's arrogance, a star's ego and deservedly so. When he left England 20 years ago it was because British audiences, who recalled him fondly as a Rank Organisaton charmer, shied away from the mature and serious Bogarde as revealed in films such as THE SERVANT and ACCIDENT, both directed by Joseph Losey. After the boring and predictable films he was offered, Bogarde packed his bags and moved first to Italy, then to France where he worked with some of the great names of European cinema: Visconti, Resnais, Fassbinder and Cavani.  

It would certainly be fascinating to get a box set now of these lost Lee Remick productions: SUMMER AND SMOKE, THE AMBASSADORS and THE VISION ... how about it BBC ?