Fame Is the Spur (TV series)

Fame Is the Spur is a British television mini-series consisting of 8 episodes which first aired on the BBC in 1982.^[1] It was based on the 1940 novel Fame Is the Spur by Howard Spring. It depicts a socialist politician who betrays his early beliefs as he grows older, and was believed to be based upon the Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. It had previously been adapted as a film Fame Is the Spur by the Boulting Brothers in 1947.

Fame Is the Spur
Genre	Drama
Based on	Fame Is the Spur by Howard Spring
Directed by	David Giles
Starring	Tim Pigott-Smith Julia Sawalha Joanna David
Composer	Alan Price
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Producer	Richard Beynon
Editor	John Barclay
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	8 January (1982-01-08) – 26 February 1982 (1982-02-26)

The series starred Tim Pigott-Smith as Hamer Shawcross, prior to his success in The Jewel in the Crown. Joanna David played Shawcross's wife and George Costigan co-starred as Tom Hannaway.^[2]

Premise

The story chronicles the careers of three working-class boys (Hamer, Arnold and Tom) from Manchester and their descendants spanning the momentous years from 1877 to the onset of the Second World War.^[3]

Hamer, whose youthful socialist zeal is soon converted to personal ambition, exploiting the Labour Party movement to become a Member of Parliament, marrying well and eventually entering the House of Lords.

Arnold is the sensitive and courageous pioneer of Trade Union growth.

Tome is the perky opportunist who progresses from rag-and-bone man to tycoon and a knighthood following his own self-help philosophy.

Their fortunes are intertwined in a vivid, often melodramatic tapestry of events involving friendships and betrayals, births, marriages and deaths. The female characters are particularly strong, among them Hamer's wife Anne, with a burning social conscience; Ellen as his implacable mother; Pen Muff, the courageous political activist and wife of Arnold, and Polly, Tom's socially ambitious wife.^[4]

References

1. "Fame is the Spur (1981)". Archived from the original on 29 January 2009.
2. Tim Pigott-Smith (1 June 2017). Do You Know Who I Am?: A Memoir. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 164–165. ISBN 978-1-4729-3425-3.
3. Panorama newspaper TV and Radio Guide; 23/05/1983-29/05/1983
4. Panorama newspaper TV and Radio Guide; 23/05/1983-29/05/1983

External links

• Fame is the Spur at IMDb