TV WEEKEND; 'Lost Empire' Series, Based on Priestly Book
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR

THE seven-part "Lost Empires," the new "Masterpiece Theater" presentation getting under way on Channel 13 Sunday at 9 P.M., does not lend itself to tidy summary blurbs. Produced by June
Howson for Granada Television, the gorgeously mounted mini-series is not nearly as successful as it so insistently intends. The source material, a 1965 book by J. B. Priestley - the program's host, Alistair Cooke, calls it "a sort of memoir" - resists smooth dramatization. There is not one but several plots, all wrapped around the coming of age of a young man who, unfortunately, is not quite as fascinating as he assumes. Yet, "Lost Empires" is filled with wonderful characters and bravura turns, enough surely to
satisfy those with a keen eye for memorable details.

There is a miscalculation at the very beginning. The scene opens with a kind of "flash forward" to 1916 and the patriotic fervor that gripped Britons during World War I. Military pageants are played on
stages in the continuing effort to recruit army volunteers. In Europe, on the edge of a battlefield, a lovely blond young woman entertains the troops singing "They Wouldn't Believe Me." A sudden raid disrupts the show, and a soldier calls out to the woman. Running away from her protectors, she finds the soldier wounded in a ditch. She is Nancy Ellis (Beatie Edney), as it turns out, and he is Richard Herncastle (Colin Firth), the hero of our story.

This dreamlike sequence is beautifully realized (it will be repeated in the final episode) but it creates the impression that "Lost Empires" is going to be another variation of "Oh! What a Lovely War." But that is hardly so. lan Curteis's script now returns to the autumn of 1913 when 18-year-old Richard, having just lost both his parents in the same year, is approached by his Uncle Nick (John Castle) to travel with him as part of his magic act known, with a partial bow to Kipling, as "The Great Ganga Dun." The lad from the rural North Country will join his difficult, somewhat sinister uncle in a world of glitter and depravity, along the way losing his innocence while the country at large prepares for a war that will destroy a kind of national innocence.

The "Empires" of the title refer to the names given many English music halls of the time. Richard and Nick are part of a troupe spending much of its time touring the provinces, with an occasional big-time in London, Richard, an aspiring painter, finds himself surrounded by singers, comedians, acrobats
beautiful women who are not exactly the sort he would have brought home to mother. He immediately falls hopelessly in love with Nancy, who on being standoffish. He could easily have poor little Cissie (Gillian Bevan), but she is Uncle Nick's current diversion and Richard doesn't want family problems.
And then there is the alluring Julie Blane (Carmen Du Sautoy), reduced to vaudeville by alcoholism and in the midst of an unsavory relationship with the bitter and sadistic comic Tommy Beamish (Brian Glover). Julie a good of time teasing Richard, but she clearly is a good bet for easing his growing sexual frustrations.

Surrounding this core group of principals, directed by Alan Grint, is a splendid gang of odd characters. The outstanding example in this Sunday's episode Is Harry Burrard, the old comic who has suddenly lost his ability to make audiences laugh. Harry is a ridiculous, pathetic creature, frantically warding off the humiliation of failure. And he is played by none other than Lord Olivier, bringing his legendary Impersonation of John Osborne's Archie Rice up to throwing in memories of Charlie Chaplin in  Limelight." It is the kind of bravura turn that popping up in "Lost Empires/' just when Richard's quests threaten every so often to become tedious.

The eventually turns out to be a collection of decidedly incompatible stories. One episode, involving a "disappearing act," is something of a caper. Another, following a murder, turns into a story. There is the melodramatic love affair, and there is the inevitable experience of disillusionment found behind the
of the footlights. Perhaps the most obvious fault in "Lost Empires" is that it tries to do too much. However, the considerable amount that it does exceptionally well is heartily recommended.