This excellent mini-series was screened by BBC TV in 1987 as a three hour, 40 minute TV movie! And it holds the attention throughout - I have watched it four times over the years thanks to video. I don't think it has ever been released on DVD, but if it ever does become available - grab it. Michele Morgan is an absolute triumph: what a truly stunning actress she is. Without spoiling the mystery ... Morgan plays a glamorous psychologist whose businessman husband (her third) is killed in a plane crash. Shortly after the funeral her world is turned upside down: bailiffs arrive at her apartment to repossess her furniture: this wealthy widow is, in fact, broke - her late husband has taken out loans in her name, and forged her signature to do so. Whilst his bureau is being taken away a secret drawer is discovered, containing a wallet with mysterious contents. From then onwards Morgan's life becomes the stuff of detective novels. She is followed, discovers more secrets than you can shake a stick at, turns detective, travels to Geneva and Rome, and can trust no-one except her three children and her ex-husband, a high ranking policeman. The only trouble is they refuse to believe what is happening, so she basically has to unravel the mystery alone, until she meets up with a figure from her husband's past, Vivi, played by Jeanne Moreau. What is so clever about The Secret Drawer is the genuinely believable interplay between Morgan and her three screen children, all of whom have interesting personal lives which run parallel to the sleuthing being done by their mother. In particular, the gorgeous Marie France-Pisier, as Morgan's eldest daughter, is excellent and very funny (though not exactly a comedy-drama, The Secret Drawer has many funny moments and is played with a very light touch). I can really recommend this wonderful series/film ... you can keep your depressing Prime Suspects/Trial and Retributions - Michele Morgan knocks them all into a cocked hat.
