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The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I really wanted to love this series, and at first, It drew me in for the first few episodes, but then after that and by the ending, I was left with a feeling of lack of tying in of the story. We begin the story with a set of characters that then changes. New characters are introduced, such as miss manners aunt, but then later on, there is really no tie in at the end. It didn't make sense to me. We also hear that Hari Kumar is released from jail eventually, but it is rather anticlimactic. We never know what ends up happening to miss manners aunt and the child of Miss manners and kumar. In the end the "bad guy" gets it, but again it's all rather anticlimactic. no justice really was done, and this story is begging for justice. I didn't read the novels, so I have no idea how true to the novels the series is, but I was completely let down by the second half and feel I wasted hours of my life watching it.

During lunch I usually turn the TV on...And there was that beautiful story I decided to record it and watch it latter. I thought it was a movie and this got me to 12 midnight but abruptly stop with the credit? This is when I realised it was part of a TV series so search the net to find more about it. This episode unlike its TV programme was called "Crossing the River" and luckily the first one. Even more lucky I found the next episode was on the day after I made my search several days after the first screening! I know very little about India beside the film "Passage to India" but this grubbed me from the start, it started with my year of birth over 70 years ago India under British rules and about to worry of Japanese attack.... But the life of these days was so well represented and also the culture clash worsen by cross culture the is an Indian who has been "Britishised" and back in India has to deal with the conflict. These days I have much trouble to follow a story without subtitles and deplore greatly there weren't any. It's such a shame as many people of my age have hearing difficulty I'm surprise broadcaster can't see this as I would have thought such work is directed mainly to my age group. Just the same it's very enjoyable.

Daphne Manners (Susan Wooldridge) is an orphan, having lost her father and brother in the early going of World War II. She travels to Mayapore, India to work in a local hospital and to visit her aunt who lives in a neighboring community. Unexpectedly, she meets Hari Kumar (Art Malik), an Indian gentleman who was raised in England from the age of two, at the best schools, but whose own father died and left him penniless. Although an alliance is strictly taboo at the time, the two of them fall in love. Soon after, Daphne is raped by hooligans and chief of police Ronald Merrick (Tim Pigott-Smith) wrongly arrests and tortures Kumar. With Gandhi already urging Indians to break away from Britain, the rape and bungled arrest serves as a lightning rod for acute trouble between the Brits and the Indian population. Meanwhile, Merrick becomes a rising star in the British army, two sisters, Sarah and Susan, search for personal happiness in the crumbling empire, a former missionary lady (Peggy Ashcroft) endures the loss of her greatest friend and, subsequently, her mind, because of prejudice, and Guy Perron (Charles Dance) becomes a witness to the lethal personality of Merrick. How will over "three hundred years" of British rule in India end? Did you say badly? This lengthy but outstanding series has really too many happenings to relate in a brief review. Yet, the relationship between Daphne and Hari is the springboard to everything else that occurs in this complex and lovely story. The British had, and still do have, much to offer the world as a civilization but its empire reached too far when it trampled under the basic rights of its conquered people and territories, as seen in this examination of India. All of the actors in this film are beyond compare, with Pigott-Smith a wonder as the evil and misguided police commander. The scenery is likewise breathtaking, the costumes are authentic to the times, and the cinematography is very beautiful. If you have any interest whatsoever in the history of the world, or in the basic struggle of the human race, you should make time for this monumental series, as soon as possible. It is a richly rewarding, touching and truthful look at a pivotal time in the history of mankind.

I can't understand why there are so many negative comments on 'The Jewel in the Crown'. What a well-made series with great performances. Yes, it does tend to drag during the first three or four episodes but anyone who's read 'The Raj Quartet' would realize that the book is just so - several seemingly unrelated events taking place in a larger political context. The series was definitely better than the books and effectively recreated the political milieu of the time. I could read the quartet only after having seen the mini. Kudos to Ken Taylor for his adaptation of a convoluted epic. Definitely a Herculean task. And kudos to the directors (Christopher Morahan & Jim O'Brien) who despite the mammoth task of filming a period piece did it with panache. Anyone who has worked in India (especially a foreign crew) would know just how frustrating an experience it can be. Yet, they've come out with a magnificent product. Truly a classic. Fine viewing. Definitely recommended.