ianlouisiana Mr Boyd's novel has this quote from Henry James on the frontispiece and is written in a style that combines Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Burgess to great effect. It follows Logan Mountstuart from his days as a rather unpleasant, arrogant public school man till his death aged 85,and is in the form of a journal. The TV series is made as a straightforward tale and suffers a lack of a narrative voice. Mountstuart had a "nearly" life.He was "nearly" a successful novelist. He was "nearly" closely involved in some pivotal moments of the 20th century. In his early life he was "nearly" as clever as he thought he was. Mr Boyd wrote the screenplay so presumably was happy with the way his work was presented on screen. Personally I found the novel had been adapted for 21st century BBC TV presentation rather clumsily,with certain aspects coarsened. Logan's love life is somewhat de - sensitized to fit in with the medium's obsession with straining bodies and tangled sheets. Such is the abysmal quality of far too many TV productions today that "Any human heart" stands out as a work of really high quality amongst the dross. The actors - as so often - seem far from my conception of the characters they play:even the great Mr J.Broadbent is a way away from my idea of an elderly Mountstuart.But this is purely subjective and shouldn't be allowed to diminish your enjoyment of a superior TV series. Whilst in the novel Mountstuart is never entirely either likable or admirable,his televised version is less ambivalent. Unlike Master Copperfield he has no doubt as to who will turn out to be the hero of his story.

ferdinand1932 When Woody Allen cited all the great things in life in the film 'Manhattan', the critic Pauline Kael said that he had assembled a list and not lived. That is a paraphrase but it is true of this pale simpering simulacrum of a biography in this TV series.A writer takes a known form - the biography, and turns it into the legend of scoundrel through the 20th century. Trouble with that is it becomes ironic by necessity as the viewer is already wise to its genre; so to make it interesting it has to be a joke inside another joke.The book may have offered better qualities in narration but in a TV series this is very superficial montage driven sequence of episodes. Sure, it looks lovely, but the middle classes are easily taken in with nice costumes, locations, and people eating food with olive oil and garlic. And it must be about time to have another martini.Unfortunately it's a waste of time. It has moments of emotion which one sees as being close to real but it really fails because it has to move on to the next silly sex, drink, failed novel adventure.Oh well; real life can be just as disappointing, but at least in this series you can have another double of pure grain alcohol to forget about it.

hasnoform Certainly very well made and exceptionally well-acted. An interesting story of a man's life and the trials and happiness he is subjected to. The main character seems often irrevocably drawn back to memories of his past, painful ones and the melancholy of happiness which has missed his grasp. Tom Hollander was incredible, the release he had in some of his scenes and his whole characterisation was immaculate. Matthew McFaddyn too was engaging. Exceptionally good dialogue too which is essential for any drama, or any comedy for that matter, to work. Intriguing insight into corruption and the way people in positions of power are able to twist the lives of those beneath them.

paul2001sw-1 There's a section in the memoirs of the philosopher Bertrand Russell where he recalls an unexpected sexual encounter; he writes of it (in among weighty reflections on the meaning of life and the foundations of mathematics) with an almost puerile glee, like a child remembering being locked in the sweet shop. And there was something of the same tone - of baffled exultation, if you like - in a short story by the writer William Boyd, supposedly comprising a portion of the journals of a middle aged man called Logan Mountstewart (note the spelling), recounting a not dissimilar tale. Boyd must have enjoyed writing this, because a few years later he reconstructed the entire life of a renamed Mounstuart, in his novel 'Any Human Heart'. The author gave his character an accidentally interesting life, so that he happens to witness many key stories in 20th century history; but what really gives the book its quality is the believable nature of Logan's narrative voice.As a television drama, it's not nearly so successful. Most obviously, Logan's own words are lost, leaving us the story without the commentary. In its place, tedious flashbacks, and scenes of an elderly Logan reviewing his life, just in case we had forgotten the plot. Secondly, television is a much less imaginative medium, and many drama series set over decades struggle to truly convey the passage of time. 'Our Friends in the North' was one that succeeded; this one does not. The random happenings in Logan's life no longer appear like chance events, retrospectively interesting, in a story driven by its own imperatives, but rather as implausible plot; instead of Logan making acquaintances who transpire to be famous, there's a feeling of shallow name-dropping (here he meets Hemmingway, there the Duchess of Windsor); and coincidences seem contrived when they're all there is. The background of ordinary life, behind which Boyd so successfully disguised his somewhat preposterous tale, is lost. I'm reminded of the disastrous television adaptation of 'A Dance to the Music of Time'; that was worse, as it compressed not one book but thirteen, but there's something of the same problem here. There are also other similarities, in the tale of an aristocratic writer in an where aristocracy is in decline. I didn't see the similarities when I read the book, but they are enhanced not just because of the televisual medium but for other reasons as well: the simplification of the character of Peter Scabius (making him an almost Widmerpool-style figure), and a reluctance to paint the world of Logan's youth in anything other than familiar 'Brideshead'-style colours. Related to the latter, the desire for a certain aesthetic has led the director to cast a stunningly beautiful woman in the role of almost everyone with whom Logan has an affair; the younger Logan is also very dashing, although the older Logan is allowed to age (he still has a final fling, however, with a very pretty French lady, and before that, with an attractive prostitute). While the original character had a messy personal life, there was never the feeling of perpetual glamour one gets when watching this production. To make it worse, we have to be shown Logan having sex with every one of them, an unimaginative and eventually tiresomely repetitive decision. What can be slyly implied in one line of a book becomes an endless succession of sweaty bodies, as if we couldn't be trusted to imagine it for ourselves.This feels like a bitter review. But the book was good. It's become a series that is merely good looking; and sadly, utterly lacking in heart.