Anthony Higgins in 1970s

1976

Hadleigh

Hadleigh was a wildly popular television serial that came on every Friday evening for years in Britain with a loyal following of fans. The character of Hadleigh represented a way of life that was fast disappearing in Britain in the 1970s. He had class, good looks, taste, education, noble behavior, lineage and land. Many people were jealous of the landed gentry and Hadleigh comes up against many foils throughout his journey to maintain his heritage.

Higgins plays young Gregory Baker, a financier, who is one of Hadleigh's deceivers. He appears in four episodes and it is a complex but interesting role with little redeeming moral quality: Gregory, seemingly sweet and friendly, is not a nice boy, anything but. He is a snake in the grass and a swindler. Higgins chose to take the challenge to play against the matinee idol type and he does it well.

The story mentions that Gregory's father had had money, lost it and then died. Gregory might still be in shock about it; he is driven and focused on scheming to make a lot of money quickly. He seems to resent that Hadleigh was born to a life of ease while he must work at it.

Gregory plays up to Hadleigh but he has designs on taking advantage of him, first by taking liberties with Hadleigh's estranged wife and then by exploiting Hadleigh's finances by attempting to manipulate the stock market, sell his own investments "short" but get out in time to make a profit and cause Hadleigh's ((and other investors') investments to depreciate, (a serious crime that would result in a prison sentence today.)

We learn more about Gregory through interesting confessional scenes with his sister, who also seems to be scheming against Hadleigh. One would think that Gregory would have a lot of girlfriends but he was only interested in Hadleigh's wife. There is a moment where he confides that Jennifer, Hadleigh's wife, may not have cared for him after all. The doubt that crosses his face for a moment is a sudden puncture in his inflated confidence. It is sad and almost endearing. One wonders if Gregory will ever find satisfaction in love and life.

The role of Gregory is almost a precursor to the hypocritical Abdullah in "Lace". But, Abdullah, having been born to money and comfort, seems so simple compared to Gregory. Hadleigh's script is many-layered and Gregory's character is seriously flawed, neurotic and, ultimately, a tragic waste of intelligence.

Higgins is good in Hadleigh. As in most of his roles you can see all the little nuances that he adds. He took a role that could have been nothing with a different actor and infused a lot of sweet oozing charm into it. His face looks so earnest that he is perfect to be a "confidence" man. Gregory could not defeat heroic Hadleigh's superior intelligence and in the end... he seems a lonely character.

© Judie Feldman 2010

Rehearsal photos are at Behind the scene.