(the TV adaptation by Andrew Davies)
Allegedly �the greatest love story ever told' (with 'Crocodile Dundee' notwithstanding), this epic adaptation of the 1965 movie classic is a masterful re-telling of a toiling barrage of human emotion pummeled against revolutionary Russia, circa 1920. Starring the beautiful Keira (�Bend It Like Beckham�) Knightley as Lara, the handsome Hans Matheson as Yury who becomes obsessed with her (I am a man, I�m not gay, but he is� er, handsome, not gay that is!) and the evil Sam Neill who just plain gets in the way at the best and worst of times, the attention to detail is impeccable (as in Tom Hanks� movie �The Road To Perdition�) and the scope enormous.
However implausible the coincidences are that keep splitting up the two lovers and then re-uniting them, the unavoidable moral of the story is to live each day as it is your last. With a total running time of over 4 hours, which is even longer than the movie version, the sad ending is joyous in being so poetically executed.
Dr Zhivago really is the nicest bloke - and while this tale is far more hard-going than �Romeo and Juliet� in its drawn-out pacing, this story is� er� a story at the end of the day. And nothing this intense, romantic or ultimately heart-breaking could ever happen in real-life. (STEVE RUDD)