This is quite the best version of this over-rated fable due in great part to Peter Cushing's subtle and moving reading of Winston Smith. He was an actor of only a very few identities but he was very good at 'playing the text' which means that even the most fantastic tale is utterly believable and gripping.
Save for a few filmed inserts, this is a live performance and that also adds something quite magical to the piece. For once the story becomes a compelling adventure rather than the clumsy and misdirected polemic that it is sometimes staged as.
Subsequent versions have been grounded too much in designer's desire to create a 'nightmare world' in which the action takes place. In the 1980s version the impact of the 'message' is lessened by unconvincing filth and modish gloom. Here the barren sets and simple costumes leave more space for the action.
A little confusion may arise because Wilfred Bramble appears in two parts but in general, as was often was the case at the BBC, the low budget actually adds to the thing.