I haven't seen this series since it was first broadcast, and I was all of 17 when I saw it so possibly my memory of it is distorted. But I do remember it being hauntingly beautiful in its on-location (as I remember it) rural setting, not least the underwater scene where Toby (Michael Maloney), a young student about to go to Oxford, discovers the submerged bell of the title; and I was impressed by Ian Holm as the repressed homosexual head of the community in which the action takes place. The drama, based on Iris Murdoch's novel, struck me as very powerful, and my hope of being able to see it again has been rekindled by the discovery that the score was by Marc Wilkinson, who also scored Peter Shaffer's "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" and that terribly titled but wonderful film "Blood on Satan's Claw".
Apologies for not being able to offer a more in-depth review, but since nobody else seems to have written about this series here and I fondly remember it, I hope this review stirs more into being written.