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TV series
Poster for To Be the Best

To Be the Best

1992 · 1 season

A polished, old-fashioned family saga where boardroom feuds and marital strains play out with earnest, soapy seriousness.

Genres
Drama
Overview
To Be the Best is a two-part 1991 British television serial, based on Barbara Taylor Bradford's 1988 novel of the same name, a follow-up to A Woman of Substance (1984) and Hold the Dream (1987). It stars Lindsay Wagner as Paula O'Neill (née Harte), taking over the role from Deborah Kerr. Paula O'Neill feuds with her cousins as she fights to save her grandmother's business, and struggles to salvage her marriage.

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Genres
Drama
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • romanticstrength 1 of 3
  • tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
easy-watch, 2 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • family
  • power
  • betrayal
  • ambition
  • love
Places
  • big city
  • workplace
  • single country house
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
  • serialised
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action2
Horror0
Humour2
Realism7
Romance5
Tension4
Darkness4
Complexity5
Emotional weight6

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Cast

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Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Created by
Barbara Taylor Bradford, Elliott Baker
Written by
Elliott Baker
Starring
Lindsay Wagner, Stephanie Beacham, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Cazenove, Stuart Wilson, James Saito, Fiona Fullerton, Gary Cady
Music
Alan Parker
Cinematography
Alan Doberman
Length
1 seasons, 2 episodes
Network
London Weekend Television, Antenne 2
Country
United Kingdom, France
Languages
English

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