Hold the Dream is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
two-part
miniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
made in 1986, based on the novel of the same name by
Barbara Taylor BradfordBarbara Taylor Bradford OBE is an English novelist, and one of the world's most beloved storytellers. Her debut novel, A Woman of Substance, was published in 1979 and has sold over 32 million copies worldwide. To date, she has written 27 novels -- all bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic...
. It is the second book in the Emma Harte series, following
A Woman of SubstanceA Woman of Substance is a British/American television miniseries, produced in 1984. It is based on the 1979 book of the same name by the author Barbara Taylor Bradford.- Plot :In 1970, Emma Harte is a wealthy, formidable businesswoman...
.
Hold the Dream continues the story of
Emma HarteEmma Harte is the protagonist of the novel A Woman of Substance. In the 1984 TV mini-series, the character was played by actresses Deborah Kerr and Jenny Seagrove....
, played by
Deborah KerrDeborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...
, with
Jenny SeagroveJennifer Ann Seagrove is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and rose to fame playing the lead in a TV dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance and the 1983 film Local Hero...
, who played the young Emma taking over the part of Paula Fairley.
Plot
Paula Fairley, now head of the Harte chain of department stores, has taken on the burden of preserving Emma's legacy. However, she suffers dissent within her extended family, in particular her devious cousin Jonathan Ainsley.
Her marriage to Jim Fairley is unhappy, leading her into the arms of her childhood sweetheart, Shane O'Neill (Stephen Collins), grandson of Blackie O'Neill (
Liam NeesonLiam John Neeson, OBE is an Irish actor who has been nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and three Golden Globe Awards.He has starred in a number of notable roles including Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List, Michael Collins in Michael Collins, Peyton Westlake in Darkman, Jean Valjean in Les...
). Struggling to prove herself in a male dominated world, just like her grandmother before her, Paula would suffer heartache and loss that mirrors the life of her grandmother. Emma's request that Paula hold her dream is what drives Paula to fight and overcome personal tragedy and come out on top, so as to save the Harte name for the next generation.
Cast
- Jenny Seagrove
Jennifer Ann Seagrove is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and rose to fame playing the lead in a TV dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance and the 1983 film Local Hero...
as Paula Fairley
- Stephen Collins as Shane O'Neill
- Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...
as Emma Harte
- James Brolin
James Brolin is an American actor, producer and director, best known for his roles in soap operas, movies, sitcoms, and television. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin and husband of singer/actress Barbra Streisand.-Early life:...
as Ross Nelson
- Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...
as Edwina, Lady Dunvale
- Paul Daneman
Paul Daneman was an English film, television, theatre and voice actor.Paul Frederick Daneman was born in Islington, London. He attended the Haberdashers' Aske's School and Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow and studied stage design at Reading University where he joined the dramatic...
as David Amory
- Fiona Fullerton
Fiona Elizabeth Fullerton is a Nigerian-born British actress.She is perhaps best known for her role as KGB spy Pola Ivanova in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill and as Alice in the 1972 film Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.Fullerton made her film debut in 1969 with a role in Run Wild, Run...
as Skye Smith
- Suzanna Hamilton
Suzanna Hamilton is an English actress. She is most famous for her performance as Julia in the modern film adaptation of George Orwell's classic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.-Early career:...
as Emily Barkstone
- Nigel Havers
Nigel Allan Havers is an English actor. He is probably best known for his BAFTA-nominated role as Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, and for his role as Dr. Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series Don't Wait Up...
as Jim Fairley
- John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
as Henry Rossiter
- Liam Neeson
Liam John Neeson, OBE is an Irish actor who has been nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and three Golden Globe Awards.He has starred in a number of notable roles including Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List, Michael Collins in Michael Collins, Peyton Westlake in Darkman, Jean Valjean in Les...
as Blackie O'Neill
- Pauline Yates
Pauline Yates is an English actress best known for playing Elizabeth Perrin in the BBC television sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin...
as Daisy Amory
- Valentine Pelka
Valentine Pelka is an English actor who has starred in film and on television.-Biography:Pelka was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire to an actress mother and a civil engineer father. His mother is Irish, and his father is Polish. His sister is Kazia Pelka an actress who starred in Brookside, amongst...
as Winston Harte
- Sarah-Jane Varley
Sarah-Jane Varley is a British actress, best known for playing Sarah Foster in the 1980s BBC drama Howards' Way. She also played Estella in the 1981 BBC adaptation of Great Expectations.-External links:...
as Sally Harte
- Paul Geoffrey as Anthony, Earl of Dunvale
- Dominic Jephcott
Dominic Jephcott is a RADA-trained British actor.He has played in several roles, including Sir Andrew Ffoulkes in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Mount in Good and Bad at Games, Reggie in The Jewel in the Crown, Det. Sgt. Hobson BA in The Beiderbecke Affair Dominic Jephcott (born 28 July 1957) is a...
as Jonathan Ainsley
- Victoria Wicks
Victoria Wicks is a British actress best known for her television work playing Sally Smedley in Drop the Dead Donkey, Mrs Gideon in The Mighty Boosh, Harriet Lawes, the Head of Roundview College in Skins, and for her work with Howard Barker's theatre company, The Wrestling School...
as Sarah Lowther
- David Swift as John Cross
- Nicholas Farrell
Nicholas Farrell is an English stage, film and television actor. His early screen career included the role of Aubrey Montague in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. In 1983, he starred as Edmund Bertram in a television adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park...
as Sebastian Cross
- Richard Morant
Richard Morant was an English actor.Morant was born in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire. He was a nephew of actors Bill and Linden Travers, and a cousin of actress Penelope Wilton...
as Malcolm Perring
- Bruce Boa
Bruce Boa was a Canadian actor, who found success playing the token North American in British films and television....
as Dale Stevens
- Denyse Alexander
Denyse Alexander is a British film and television actress. She is married to Jack Gold.-Selected filmography:* Orders to Kill * The Medusa Touch * The Sailor's Return * Lady Jane -Television roles:...
as Gaye Sloane
- Amanda Boxer
Amanda Boxer is an English actress who is best known for her television work and her performance in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Almeida Theatre and The Painter by Rebecca Lenkiewicz at the Arcola Theatre....
as Minerva
- Kate Harper as Elaine Vickers
- Christopher Muncke as Sonny Vickers
- Ralph Watson
Ralph Watson is a British actor whose credits include Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green Doctor Who , Porridge, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, The Bill, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Casualty.-References:...
as Sam Fellowes