The Glittering Prizes


The Glittering Prizes is a British television drama by Frederic Raphael about the changing lives of a group of Cambridge students, starting in 1952 and following them through to middle age in the 1970s. It was first broadcast on BBC2 in January 1976 and later adapted into a novel of the same name.

Episodes

Episode 1 ‘An Early Life’ aired 21 January 1976
Plot outline: It is the mid-1950s, Adam Morris begins his career as a Cambridge undergraduate on a scholarship. Some of Adam's views about class and religious faith are tested by an aristocratic fellow undergraduate who shares his rooms. The series's characters are introduced by their involvement in a play by the Cambridge Footlights.
Episode 2 ‘A Love Life’ aired 28 January 1976
Plot outline: Still the mid fifties., Adam marries Barbara, despite parental opposition, whilst Joyce finds herself pregnant by Alan but marries Dan.
Episode 3 ‘A Past Life’ aired 4 February 1976
Plot outline: The early 1960s, Adam has a bruising encounter with a famous writer Stephen Taylor who was once a fascist sympathiser but then goes on to write an Oscar-winning screenplay.
Episode 4 ‘A Country Life’ aired 11 February 1976
Plot outline: The mid sixties. Set at a boys' approved school Joyce must finally face up to some unpleasant truths about her seemingly idyllic marriage to Dan, now a teacher, when their old Cambridge friend Alan, now a media personality, drops in.
Episode 5 ‘An Academic Life’ aired 18 February 1976
Plot Outline: the late sixties. Accusations of racism are made by student militants at a plate glass university featuring, Dinsdale Landen as Gavin Pope, Ray Smith (actor) as Austin Denny, Clive Merrison as Bill Bourne, Suzanne Stone as Joann Bourne, Tim Pigott-Smith as Tim Dent, Carolle Rousseau as Jeanne Dent.
Episode 6 ‘A Double Life’ aired 25 February 1976
Plot outline: It’s 1976, Adam, by now a famous writer, copes with the death of his father and tragedies in the personal lives of some old Cambridge friends.

Related works