`Voice Of The Heart' Is Vintage Bradford

``Voice of the Heart,'' two-part miniseries, 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Channel 11.

In the world of escape fiction, Barbara Taylor Bradford holds a middle position, according to my friend who knows these things: somewhere between Judith Krantz, who does trendy New York-based novels, and Danielle Steel, who is kind of a West Coast (read: California) version of Krantz.

Bradford, according to my friend, is a more earnest, serious writer, who likes to do stories with put-upon heroines - which is certainly the case with ``Voice of the Heart,'' the Bradford novel being dramatized in two parts, starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday on KSTW-TV. The previous dramatization of Bradford's ``A Woman of Substance'' was seen on Channel 11, as was its sequel, for which Bradford wrote the script.

A capsule description of the plot claims it's ``the story of two beautiful, ambitious women whose profound friendship is racked by bitter jealousy and ultimate betrayal.'' They are played by Lindsay Wagner and Victoria Tennant.

Certainly ``Voice of the Heart'' has a opening that will grab you: Wagner is shown living in a mansion, but she appears unhappy - and becomes even more so when a menacing man with glasses lands, via helicopter. Wagner heads for the beach, jumps into a speedboat and flees, only to be followed by the man with dark glasses in another boat. In a fit of panic Wagner allows her boat to hit an obstruction, and it explodes. Cut to the man in glasses carrying a dripping Wagner into the house.

Is she dead? Never fear - Wagner is one of the stars and the movie is just beginning. Cut to New York City, where Lady Francesca, played by Tennant, learns that Katharine Tempest, the character played by Wagner, is coming to New York and insists upon seeing her. She demurs, saying it has been a decade since they last met and Lady Francesca never wants to see Katharine again.

OK, so we're all set for a flashback story that begins in London a dozen years before, when Katharine Tempest is the toast of London in a Shakespearean production. Then we're introduced to Victor Mason, played by James Brolin, an American actor/

director who has cast Katharine to star in his remake of ``Wuthering Heights.'' Lady Francesca's brother, Kim, played by Pip Torrens, is smitten with Katharine. When he invites her to a late after-theater supper, Katharine brings Victor along, and the die is cast: Lady Francesca and Victor will have an on-again, off-again, obstacle-ridden romance the rest of the film.

Barbara Taylor Bradford never seems to run out of story lines, and ``Voice of the Heart'' includes any number of ill-fated romances, unhappy love affairs, fake biographies, financial woes, hidden homosexuality, long-term vengeance, sexual abuse, nightmares, terrorism, great success and wealth.

Lady Francesca becomes a famous biographer whose books ``cry out to be made into movies''; Katharine is nominated for an Oscar for ``Wuthering Heights.'' But their friendship founders on A Lie!

On the whole, Bradford is kinder to her women than her male characters. There's Nick Latimer, a famous scriptwriter who starts out hating Katharine, then falls madly in love with her, yet loses her to Mike Lazarus, the dark-glasses-wearing nemesis of Katharine's life. Lady Francesca's father is played as a kind of engaging twit, clearly under the thumb of Doris Asterman, a wildly rich woman who loves him. She's so rich she can buy a villa in the south of France just because she feels like it.

The performances are almost uniformly good, especially that of Honor Blackman, who brings a welcome sense of comedy and style to the role of Doris, and Neil Dickson, appealing as Nick. Richard Johnson is likable as Lady Francesca's father, and Torrens does all he can with the role of Lady Francesca's brother.

Wagner and Tennant, both of whom are familiar to viewers, are playing close to type. Tennant brings her understated British cool to the role of Lady Francesca, much as she did as the woman madly in love wth Robert Mitchum in ``War and Remembrance'' and ``Winds of War.'' Wagner brings a nice flair to the role of the successful but tormented actress.

Stuart Wilson is convincingly menacing as the revenge-seeking Mike Lazarus, and Kathryn Leigh Scott is glamorous as Brolin's vengeful wife, Arlene.

The only weak link in all of this is Brolin, unconvincing as the colorful actor/director who causes Tennant to carry a torch for more than a decade. Bradford's stories need performances just a bit larger than life. Brolin's is, if anything, smaller than life.