Season 1 • Episode 20
LatestRussia, 1820. Natasha and her children are staying with Nikolai and Maria at Bald Hills while Pierre is away. Nikolai falls asleep and thinks back to the year after the burning of Moscow, when the Rostovs were living in reduced circumstances in the city. Maria Bolkonskya came to visit them and Nikolai's pride prevented him from being polite to her. Countess Rostova insisted he return the courtesy by calling on her. When he did so, he reluctantly revealed to Maria that he had nothing to offer her and that was the reason why he felt he couldn't marry her. Nikolai wakes to find Maria, who is now his wife, and their son at his side. The pair discuss buying back the Rostov home at Otradnoe....
The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.
Production
BBC pulled off epic scale on threadbare 1972 budget.
Writing
Tolstoy's philosophical digests actually make it to screen.
Creator
David Conroy
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was the most expensive TV drama ever made at the time, costing £600,000—roughly £8 million today. The BBC nearly went bankrupt.
Soviet television actually aired this British adaptation because their own planned version collapsed. Cold War irony: Brits succeeded where Russians failed at depicting Russian glory.
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