Natalie, Byron... all of them. If they are supposed to be in their 20's... I just don't see it. I still love the series though. I can look past that, and the other acting flaws. But... what are their actual ages supposed to be. Then maybe Natalie won't irritate me as much. She acts like a teenager. Byron about the same.
In the book Natalie is in her early to mid 20s, as is Byron. However, Ali McGraw was in her mid-40s when this movie was shot. I had seen War and Remembrance before Winds of War, and was quite taken aback the first time I saw McGraw's middle-aged face. Ali McGraw in "Goodbye, Columbus" would have been a more appropriate choice age-wise, but since the producers don't time travel, they were stuck with her at 45. Pug in the book is also supposed to be younger than Robert Mitchum, which creates some believability issues in regards to his interactions with Pamela. Topol's age vs. John Houseman's is also skewed, but Topol has been playing men 30 years older since he was in his 20s, so that should bother no one.
The age issues wouldn't be such a huge deal if the acting was better. Overall, I expected Winds of War to have the same masterpiece-quality I saw with War and Remembrance, and it really fell short. Jane Seymour and John Gielgud really brought something special to the production and made 25+ hours of viewing seem to fly by. Please don't let any problems you had with Winds of War deter you from watching War and Remembrance -- 1500 very memorable minutes.
Having not read the book, I assumed that Byron was supposed to be about 25, Natalie about 38, and Pug in his early 60s.
We're never *told* in the series how old they are (other than the hint from Byron's Bible inscription, which assuming it was given to him at birth or at his Christening would make him about 27). So, it's only annoying if you've read the book and know full well that Natalie is supposed to be twentysomething. I honestly assumed until I started visting this board, that Natalie was around a dozen years Byron's senior, so initially had no problems with the casting.
Rhoda does mention something about "4 years" but she wouldn't have known how old Natalie was. Also, 4 years is not an age gap that most sensible mothers would have worried about, unusual as it probably was at the time.
I agree that Sir John Gielgud is sublime in W&M. Outstanding. In fact, there is plenty of wonderful acting in that series, with the concentration camp scenes particularly strong.
I'm re-reading the novel for the first time in decades and here are some ages when the novel opens: Pug is specifically stated to be 49, Rhoda is 45, Pamela is 28, Byron is a year out of college, so is 22-3 and Natalie appears to be around 3-4 years older.
I saw this mini-series when I was eighteen and it was first broadcast so twenty something was older and people in their late forties seemed ancient. The age issue with the actors then, as well as today, wasn't really a factor for me. Especially since I didn't read the book until after seeing the mini-series. Jan Micheal Vincent, for years, always looked younger than his actually age and Ally McGraw's character was a few years older than Vincent's so it worked for me. Same thing goes for Robert Mitchum, who bought Pug Henry to life. Despite this, I still think after all these years that TWoW is a masterpiece adaptation of an excellent novel.
Yes, Jan Michael Vincent is actually 39 and Ali McGraw 44. I read the book three years ago, and I think Natalie is in her early 30s & Byron his early 20s (at the oldest). Other points: 1) Byron is sitting looking at some SUPERMAN comics and saying 'what treasures' they are. Not in 1939 they weren't - SUPERMAN only had his own title that year. It's NOW that they're priceless. 2) The absurdest character in this is Hitler, of course. He is pure cartoon, and outdoes Dick Shawn's performance in SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER IN GERMANY. The fact that the actors playing the German generals play it straight (as they should) only makes the raving carpet-chewing Hitler seem the more preposterous. We should have outgrown this nonsense even by 1983.