Any Human Heart

While it's not the triumph that "Downton" was, it's a special, lovely miniseries that lingers in your imagination like a richly drawn memoir.

It is a long journey and at times a slow one, but with more than a few delightful oases.

Any Human Heart is a kind of "Forrest Gump" for the literate: an intimate, picaresque chronicling of the life of a fictional British writer who intersects with notable events, ideas and personages of the 20th century in ways both amusing and catastrophic.

As handsome as the production is, the nature of Boyd's novel makes the miniseries episodic, and the tone of those encounters tends to be highly uneven. While experiencing abundant tragedy in his life, the protagonist's vulnerability doesn't translate very well in carrying the story, even with such a stalwart trio of actors playing him.

Even the people who matter to him most are sketchily drawn, while others are almost laughable caricatures, including a friend's saucy cheating wife, purred by Kim Cattrall.

The conceit of Boyd's book and this mini-epic is provocative, but unfortunately, the reality is something else.