Dennis King: Watch the precursor to 'Downton Abbey'

Essentially, the story focuses on two warring factions of the prosperous Forsyte family — led by cousins Soames Forsyte (Lewis) and Jolyon Forsyte (Rupert Graves).

Soames is a straight-laced and ruthless solicitor whose only weakness is his obsession for the beautiful, remote Irene (Gina McKee) and later his love for his pampered daughter Fleur (Emma Griffiths Malin). Young Jolyon, on the other hand, is a freethinking artist who shockingly abandons his stiff wife to live in sin with his children's spirited nanny and thus is cast into a bohemian exile.

Over the course of 30 years, the lives of these two very difference cousins intersect in some dramatically intricate and surprising (and sometimes all too coincidental) ways, resulting in great love and joy for one and in frustration and tragedy for the other.

“Forsyte Saga” fans will likely want to add this new set to their video libraries, but the 2002 remake will always stand in the shadow of the richer, deeper and more satisfyingly complex version from 1967.