Lindsay Wagner stars as Paula O'Neill in this made-for-TV miniseries based on the best-selling novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford. Paula's grandmother, Emma Harte, took a failing department store and turned it into the powerful Harte Industries retail empire, and now that Paula has inherited the family business, she is determined to expand their international success by launching a new store in Hong Kong. However, Paula's cousins Jonathan (
Christopher Cazenove) and Sarah (Claire Oberman) are determined to wrest control of the company away from Paula, and begin running interference in her plans for global expansion. Paula soon learns that Harte Industries is on financially shaky ground, and her personal life begins to crumble under the strain of keeping Hart Enterprises afloat. As Jonathan uses the firm's financial woes to his advantage, Paula finds that Jack Figg (
Anthony Hopkins), the company's head of security, may be her last line of defense against her devious relatives. Originally broadcast in August 1992, To Be the Best was a follow-up to 1983's
A Woman of Substance, another miniseries based on a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel, which covered Paula's life before she took over the family business;
Diane Baker played Paula in the earlier series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide