Exactly 40 years ago, the final episode of the television adaption of Alex Haley’s Pulitzer-winning novel Roots attracted 100 million viewers, a record beaten only by the finale of M*A*S*H a few years later. Now a new four-part adaptation of Roots, already garlanded with honours in the United States, has come to the British small screen.

It is a glossy, twenty-first-century, no-expense-spared production, full of cinematographic fireworks, lush colour and visual detail. But beyond the swelling orchestration and big splashy landscapes, it also manages to convey the deep emotional intimacy of Haley’s chronicle of slavery.

Roots originally sat somewhere on the section of the bookshelves marked “faction” – now it is more widely considered to be fiction. An African American writer in search of his slave ancestors, Haley framed his story with his own narrative of exploration (in the current series, this is delivered by a mellifluous voice-over by Laurence Fishburne).