I agree with the previous reviewer that it was excellent, but would like to point out that neither family was Bavarian. The old aristocratic von Felden family lived in Baden in south Germany, and the Jewish Merz family were in Berlin.
More than 30 years after watching it on TV, the characters and many lines from it remain vivid in my memory (these include my title, the fact that I still call meatballs 'klops', and very occasionally like to indulge in 'second breakfast') and that's a test of quality. At long last I am reading the book. A word of caution there - snippets of dialogue and transcripts of documents occasionally appear in French or German without translation. Lucky for me I can read both, but difficult if you can't. I have a feeling that the TV series did the same, eg 'Jules a sa maîtresse près de Namur'.
Irene Handl was certainly magnificent in her role as 'Frau Geheimrat' but all the cast were terrific. A wonderful piece of TV well worth reviving.
