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Summary: Just a quick comment about the picture and sound
Review: A lot of other reviewers have said everything I could say to sketch the plot and setting of this superb series. I was a bit hesitant about buying this because some people thought the video and sound were awful. I took the plunge anyway. While this has obviously not been digitally remastered, it is still quite watchable. If you remember what watching color broadcast was like in the late 1970's, what the picture and sound quality was like, that is exactly what the DVD is like. Not the super sharp images and digital sound we have all gotten used to ( distant stuff can be a bit fuzzy and it is occasionally a little dark in spots), but the story is so good you quickly stop noticing.
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Summary: Great Story , Terrible Tranfer
Review: A masterpiece of television mini-series from the 1980's. However the DVD transfer is terribe. It is obvious that the source material has not come from a digitally remastered copy. There is artifact in all scences, the image is not sharp and colours poor . Somebody needs to find the original negatives and do some justice to a great work of art .
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Summary: Putting the record straight ...
Review: A number of reviewers have said that this is a BBC production. It wasn't.It was produced (like Brideshead Revisited) by Granada Television and comes from a golden period in British TV programme making where there was a genuine rivalry to make quality TV programmes between the BBC and other independent companies which not only entertain but also educate. The Jewel in the Crown has to be one of the best TV series ever made anywhere. The massive scope of the story and the fantastic acting and filming make the series immortal. Add to that the period setting and it doesn't age at all. Just a shame us Brits have to buy the DVD version from the US because they can't be bothered to produce it over this side of the pond!!! Two words of advice "BUY IT"
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Summary: Haunting, vivid, subtle, moving, powerful series
Review: A really extraordinarily well-done series, beautifully written, subtle, deep, true, with extraordinary acting, music, images you will never forget. It also brings home more than anything I've ever seen what 20th century colonialism was like in India, and in some respects anywhere. It is good on so many levels, wonderful characters you fear, love, find fascinating. The series was completely original.
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Summary: Not really a review, more a riposte
Review: A riposte to Mr Darragh O'Donoghue (see above), that is. Thank goodness that the TV producers thought it proper to respect the book they were using. It rarely happens. Mr O'Donoghue seems to be looking for some pacey, racey bit of instant gratification. And political correctness, of course. His complaint that "non-white characters are marginalised" is every bit as daft as moaning that Jane Austen doesn't spend time telling us about the horny-handed sons of toil. Paul Scott (and the TV people) gave us characters we could very nearly (but not quite) loathe, as genuine representatives of 'Empah'. The mushy David Lean film he prefers gives us spadefuls of righteous indignation but no gut target for that indignation. (Oh, & gorgeous camerawork too, if you're a 'chocolate-box' fan.) Mr O'Donoghue: get the slippers on, the cocoa in the mug, and settle down to a few cosey reruns of 'Glenroe'. Will Biddy or Miley make the tay? Let's wait for next week's thrilling installment .....
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Summary: entertaining and informative !!!
Review: a very good, intresting, informative and intresting series. must see !!!
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Summary: A stirring glimpse into the last days of the Raj
Review: For me, watching an entire series by myself, The Jewel in the Crown, based on The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott, was a guilty pleasure. Pleasure because it was excellent in the tradition of the best of British, and guilty because it filled the greater part of eight videocassettes, for a total of 750 minutes. I felt slightly less decadent than I might have because I watched it on library copies. The story invokes the tumultuous last days of the British raj in India. Although it is perceived from a British point of view, it is sympathetic for the most part to the aspirations of the various sects making up the hodgepodge of peoples populating the Indian nation, and the plot emphasizes the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. The white British citizens during the dying days of the British empire hold a love-hate relationship with India. The English pine for England while being alternately enchanted by the culture or repelled by the teeming squalor of this turbulent emerging nation. The fact that India on its own was a closed society may explain her historical acquiescence to British rule. There was a rigid caste system in India, and since the highest ranking maharajahs looked up to the paler-skinned colonists, therefore the rest of India must too. Some of the characters on both sides could be considered a bit archetypal were it not for their fleshing out and convincing portrayal by an exceptional cast of actors. We can only feel sympathy for a handsome, intelligent man like Hari Kumar who is at home neither among the English he was brought up with nor his fellow Indians. At the beginning, he does not even speak Hindi. His is the heart of a dilemma common to "colonial" countries. And the struggle which pits groups against each other, such as Hindu against Moslem, is a distillation of the diversity of the peoples in India. Today, the only common language of India is English, and it is therefore its official one, an ironic postscript to the rule of the Raj. Throughout the series, compelling footage of old British newsreels is shown. It threads the episodes together while highlighting the pomposity (pretensions that are surprisingly poignant) on both sides of the former regime.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible transfer - just get the VHS format.
Review: Great story and strong performances - but, ugh, what a lousy transfer to DVD. The images are grainy and the sound muddied. That said - the performances are uniformly excellent. Pass on the DVD and get the somewhat superior VHS version.
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Summary: Genuine, gripping portrayal of life in India laid bare.
Review: Gripping! Involving! Outrageous! Insightful! and more! The awful abuses of power by those that ruled, the British Raj causes one to sense that justice can be terribly one sided. The entrapment by those British subjects who had a sense of affection and fairness and strong sympathy for the Indians causes drama upon drama to unfold. The enormous guilt of the system was a heavy burden for many, both pro and con who were a part of the system that ruled India for generations. Tender love stories between the races and the consequences in those times bring the viewer to reflect on ones own culture today. You must see this series.
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Summary: Excellent series - Appalling digital transfer
Review: Heed Spoffo's warning. While the series itself is wonderful and certainly worth owning, I have NEVER seen a worse DVD transfer. Even my seedy Madacy Entertainment copy of Fritz Lang's 1226 "Metropolis" is of higher quality. The visuals are fuzzy and grainy at the same time, and there are severe block artifacts everytime the screen gets even slightly dark. All scenes shot at night or in the darkness are almost unwatchable because of the visual noise. The sound seemed alright to me at first, but then I turned the volume up a bit and found that there is a kind of low-pitch static, like machine noise underneath the vocals and music. Please buy the VHS tapes - and let A&E know that this is simply unacceptable!
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