This made-for-TV adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden stars Gennie James as spoiled-rotten Mary Lennox. When her parents die of cholera, Mary is whisked from her home in India to live in the forbidding Victorian mansion of her flint-hearted uncle (
Derek Jacobi). Thanks to the friendship--and vivid imagination--of gardener's son Jadrien Steele, Mary learns that life is lived best when one cares for others. At the same time, her uncle begins to act like a human being. The only false note in this otherwise flawless production was the decision to clumsily frame the story with the narration of the adult Mary Lennox. Blessed with a top-rank British cast, including
Michael Hordern,
Billie Whitelaw,
Lucy Gutteridge and
Alison Doody (Harrison Ford's vis-a-vis in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, this 1987
Secret Garden was first telecast as a
Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide