The Pillars of the Earth

one of the decade's best, The Pillars of the Earth is currently streaming in the UK on Studiocanal Presents Amazon Channel with a 8/10 audience score that speaks for itself. 8 episodes — the right length to tell the story it is telling. Television that earns its era label is rarer than the number of shows attempting it suggests — most of what gets called prestige TV is really just expensive TV. The Pillars of the Earth is one of the genuine examples: the craft is there in the writing, the performances, and the way it handles its subject matter. Robert Bathurst's involvement signals the kind of production that attracts serious talent and uses it properly. Available now on streaming — no excuses left for not watching it.

The Pillars of the Earth follows a path that stands out in a crowded field. A sweeping epic of good and evil, treachery and intrigue, violence and beauty, a sensuous, spirited story set against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles in 12th Century England. Robert Bathurst and Donald Sutherland lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It aired in 2010. The writing trusts the audience to sit with ambiguity rather than wrapping every episode in a tidy conclusion — it is the approach that separates good drama from great.

The show you recommend to people who say they do not really watch TV. The Pillars of the Earth tends to convert them. The complete run is available and worth treating as a single long film if your schedule allows. The quality of the character writing is the reason it holds up on rewatch, when you can see the groundwork being laid in early episodes for things that only pay off much later. One of the more rewarding dramas of its era, and one that rewards the patience it asks of you. Robert Bathurst is the centre of it, and it is one of their strongest performances on record.