BBC STAGES AN INTRIGUING FAMILY CIRCUS.

Byline: DAVID KRONKE TV Critic

DEPENDING ON how you approach them, family reunions are occasions for great drama or tedium. Writer/director Stephen Poliakoff's ``Almost Strangers'' very neatly splits the difference, examining an extended family's somewhat reluctant reunion with a sense of mystery that nearly approaches menace. Alas, the first family secret he reveals is the deepest secret, and those that follow, while convincing and at times moving, aren't uniformly absorbing.

The BBC America miniseries opens with Raymond (Michael Gambon of ``Gosford Park''), a failure by family standards, taking his wife and grown son Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen) to his reunion while dreading the whole impending event. Hundreds have gathered at a posh London hotel, where a seemingly oppressive schedule of events awaits. There, Raymond sees photos of his father clowning about, a distinctive occurrence about which he has no memory. More curiously, slides of a very young Daniel in festive regalia crop up; again, no one likewise recalls the circumstances. Why are all these memories repressed?

More worthy of investigation, from Daniel's point of view, is a fetching and pithy distant relative, Rebecca (Claire Skinner), who is constantly huddling with her brother Charles (Toby Stephens) and who, Daniel is distressed to learn, has garnered the eye of more than one of the male attendees. Daniel also encounters the elegant matriarch Alice (Lindsay Duncan), who may have an agenda behind the easy manner in which she befriends him.

As the mysteries quickly unfold, answers to their subsequent questions come haltingly. Raymond, something of a black sheep, embarrasses Daniel with a drunken, rambling reproach of the event's genteel civility, then abruptly falls ill. Alarming as this is, it does allow Daniel to spend more time with Rebecca.

Tragedy, rejection, madness and illicit passion are some of the secrets the family has buried, and the fact that not all the family's trees sport the same branches is another bewildering curiosity. Obviously, some of the revelations resonate more than others, and Rebecca's secret, alas, is one of the lesser intrigues to be uncovered.

Still, Poliakoff juggles many stories deftly, and imbues his tale with a graceful melancholy and wit. The cast is uniformly excellent, with Macfadyen, who was excellent as a tortured United Nations soldier in BBC America's ``Peacekeepers'' miniseries, recalling a slightly younger Clive Owen as the bewildered focal point in all these internecine connections between people he doesn't even remember encountering.

``Almost Strangers'' pointedly notes that no matter how irrelevant far- reaching family ties may seem, they're nonetheless something that cannot be escaped.

ALMOST STRANGERS - Three stars

What: Drama about a family reunion that revives tragic secrets, starring Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Gambon, Timothy Spall, Lindsay Duncan and Claire Skinner.

Where: BBC America.

When: Parts 1 and 2: 5 to 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. tonight, 3 to 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday. Part 3: 7 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday and 1 to 2:30 a.m. Monday.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Matthew Macfadyen, left, Michael Gambon and Jill Baker reluctantly attend a family reunion in ``Almost Strangers.''