Scenes from a marriage

The sad and bitter tale of a man who, like Job, has everything he cares about taken away from him. Tony Last is the English squire through and through but his very name sounds the doom of his dynasty. Waugh uses his own experience as a cuckold to show the inexorable triumph of the new, commercial England over the older, subtler ways of life rooted in the great country houses and their estates. Andrew Sachs renders an already restrained tale with just the right amount of buttoned-up tension, making the most of the rare moments of black humour. Tony's grieving scenes after his great tragedy pierce the heart with their hopeless irony, as we know full well his wife will not care a jot. Waugh has few greater moments than this.

3 people found this helpful