(PBS Primetime, 1984) [a 1983 British mini-series from which aired in the U.S. on PBS, starring American actor Sam Neill as Sidney Reilly (whose birth name was Sigmund Rosenblum) -- considered the greatest British spy who ever lived; He was a Russian-born man educated in Britain -- whose exploits ranged from saving diplomats in the jungles of South America to inflitrating the German High Command during World War I; He made and lost several fortunes, had many love affairs and wives which scandalously overlapped; a mystery surrounds whether he died in Russia or was "turned" into a double agent; In comparison with the fictional life of James Bond, Reillly's life may prove the old adage that "truth is stranger than fiction"; The mini-series was based upon a couple of books about Reilly written by Robin Bruce Lockhart; some historians are convinced a number of Lockhart's sources provided him with disinformation or were otherwise innacurate; but this only fueled the fire of legend about him...; David Suchet, who perhaps is best known in as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, was also in the cast of this production from Euston Films (U.K.) released by British Thames Television]
[this is a cue from incidental music from the 1955 motion picture "The Gadfly" which was the basis of the THEME adapted by British composer/adapter Harry Rabinowitz (see below.)] Original Composer: Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich (ASCAP) Orig. Publisher (of "Romance"): G. Schirmer & Co. (ASCAP) U.S. Copyright Date: U.S. Renewal Date: Recordings:
[this theme is extracted from "Romance" -- a cue from incidental music for the film "The Gadfly" (1955) -- by the 20th-century Russian classical composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975), as you see above.] Adapter/Arranger: Harry Rabinowitz (ASCAP) Orig. Publisher (of "Romance"): G. Schirmer & Co. (ASCAP) 1983 Publisher: Standard Music, Ltd. (London), US representative: Agga Music Company, Inc. 2001 Publisher: [listed without publisher in the ASCAP database] U.S. Copyright Date: U.S. Renewal Date: Adaptation Date: 1983 Recordings: CD: "Public Television's Greatest Hits" (1990) The United Kingdom Symphony Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz, M. B. E. BMG Records 60470-2-RC CD: "SHOSTAKOVICH: The Gadfly/Five Days-Five Nights" The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine conducted by Theodre Kuchar Naxos Classical 8.553229