Too much of everything

The Age of Commercialism

Don't listen to the negative reviews

As Good As It Gets

This is an excellent series and would have made a really good full length movie.The acting is perfect in this as are the period sets and a flawless plot. There is not a single person in the whole series who is likable but this just adds to the intrigue.The Charmer is very clever at conning women into bed and out of money but he is poorly educated and does not have the common sense of being able to play his cons properly and is easily distracted by various women, he is always playing the next woman in order to settle accounts with his past.The elderly boyfriend of one of the Charmers conquests becomes the hunter and is determined to bring him down – not ever realising that it will be his own undoing as well and he will lose the one thing he wants out of it all.I pray that Hollywood never remakes this as they will ruin it – as they do with most remakes. This film is about a story – not about the actors – which is why it is so good. Buy the DVD

"Not too tight, old boy," says Ralph Gorse at the end of The Charmer. We've spent nearly 312 minutes leading up to this point. They are 312 well spent minutes. Gorse (Nigel Havers) is a charming English con man in the early Thirties. He lives by his amoral wits, seducing, enticing and working the side deals. He wants everything he isn't and everything he hasn't. Eventually he works his way up to murder. The Charmer, a wonderful Masterpiece Theater presentation now twenty years old, maintains every bit of its queasy allure, thanks in large part to Havers, to Rosemary Leach and to Bernard Hepton. Leach plays Joan Plumleigh-Bruce, a somewhat frumpy upper-middle class, snobbish Englishwoman, a widow who attracts Gorse's attention because of her property and her income. Hepton plays Donald Stimpson, a man who wears round, thick eyeglasses, has a rather silly mustache and is a property broker. He is a long-time friend and wooer of Joan, and he also fancies a marriage to her, to her income and to her property. The idea of a regular bit of the old bed springs is attractive to Stimpson, too. When Gorse meets Donald and, through him, Joan, the main pieces in this sly, malicious and self-serving game come into play. In the course of this six-part series we will watch Gorse woo and manipulate, empty bank accounts, impregnate, cause a fire with fatal results, seduce, and murder. Following his trail like a middle-aged, self-serving angel of retribution is Donald. And Donald pulls along in his wake Joan, a woman who knows she was had and scorned, who still loves her Rafe but has Donald whispering to her that Rafe must be held accountable. Donald, of course, would like nothing better than to see Gorse brought down, partly because he detests Gorse and partly because he is sure that will be the path back to Joan's heart, bed and finances. Is there anyone likable in this drama? Not really, and that's so satisfying. It is the ability of Gorse, Joan and Donald to ignore their real motives and fail to hide their real moral characters from us that gives us so much pleasure. By the end of the drama, Gorse, Joan and Donald each in their own way find a comeuppance that allows us to think our own upright moral characters might even be real. Nigel Havers has a particularly tough job giving us the picture of Ralph Gorse. Havers must show us what a heel the man is, yet he also must make us see Gorse's charm. We know when Gorse is thinking up some disreputable betrayal for his own benefit. We can see how he is justifying a death. Havers also is able to show us how seductive, how pleasant, how companionable Gorse can be when he wants to. Rosemary Leach gives us a wonderful portrayal of a singularly unlikable, self-deluding woman who wants to be loved, who flutters at Gorse's attentions, who rather likes Donald's insistent courting and who thinks nothing of giving her young Irish maid condescending disdain. And last, we have Bernard Hepton, in my view one of the best of Britain's skilled character actors. With those thick glasses and that mustache, Hepton turns Donald Stimpson into a figure of slightly pompous amusement for us; that is, until we begin to realize just how resentful Stimpson is becoming, and how relentless he is in the pursuit of bringing down Gorse. Hepton turns Stimpson into a little man dangerous to underestimate, who simply won't let go. The Charmer is murderous black comedy that is a great deal of fun, and features three outstanding performances.

Nigel Havers plays a seducing lying murderer con man in this mini-series. The way the story is written, you wonder if he will get away with his schemes or faces the conquests. It is well written that you keep guessing to the end. The Charmer is one of the best out of the Masterpiece Theater TV show.

This is one masterpiece of a mini-series. The twists and turns of this thriller will leave you remembering it for a LONG time. Havers is perfect, as are the rest of the cast.