The Barchester Chronicles

The darker side of small-town life is revealed in this Masterpiece Theatre miniseries adapted from two Anthony Trollope novels. When church reform is threatened in Barchester, a clergyman (Donald Pleasence) faces a crisis of religious proportions. He butts heads with his archdeacon son-in-law (Nigel Hawthorne), and an all-out power struggle ensues with the arrival of a new bishop (Clive Swift), his pushy wife (Geraldine McEwan) and a devious chaplain (Alan Rickman).