Serjeant Musgraves Dance (DVD)

Patrick McGoohan and John Thaw star in this intense television adaptation of John Arden's remarkable play, adapted here by Arden himself. Acknowledged as one of the most important dramatic works to explore the futility and dehumanisation of war, Serjeant Musgrave's Dance is set against a background of 19th century imperialist conflict and, in a performance considered one of his finest, McGoohan brings typical intensity to the character of Musgrave and his maniacal attempt to confront a horrified town with the realities of war.

Serjeant Musgrave and his small band of deserters arrive in an impoverished northern coal town. Traumatised by atrocities witnessed in a nameless colonial conflict they hold the snow-bound town hostage — and a new cycle of brutality begins.