Paula O`Neill is struggling to keep a business empire and marriage intact. Jack Figg, head of a major security firm, is her only ally in the effort to keep her enemies from destroying everything she holds dear.

Sounds like what they call a major novel for television, and it is: It's a two-part CBS miniseries based on "To Be the Best," Barbara Taylor Bradford's best-seller set in the power capitals of the world, which include England, Hong Kong and the US. It will be aired Sunday and Tuesday nights at 9 on Channels 6 and 7.

"Best" stars Anthony Hopkins as Figg and Lindsay Wagner as O'Neill. They're supported by Stephanie Beacham and Christopher Cazenove.

The miniseries is a calculated blend of British and American hokum, combining the attractions of the protean and busy Brit Hopkins with erstwhile "Bionic Woman" Wagner, without whom no miniseries is complete.

Hopkins, bidding to be Sir Laurence Olivier's heir as a star crossing over from high to popular culture, touts his classical stage roles while developing his repertoire of freaky characters (Dr. Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs," the title role in "The Elephant Man"). His television career is an amalgam of class and kitsch, everything from his portrayal of Astrov in "Uncle Vanya" for BBC Television and Hitler in "The Bunker" (for which he won an Emmy Award) to roles in "All Creatures Great and Small" and "Hollywood Wives."

Wagner is virtually synonymous with the movie made for television. From 1988 to 1991, she completed eight television movies, three miniseries and a weekly series.

Beacham, another Britisher, is Sable Colby on the series "The Colbys." Cazenove has recently appeared in the feature film "Three Men and a Little Lady."

Bradford, the best-seller machine, is of course the true star. A typist and cub reporter at the Yorkshire Evening Post, she catapulted into fashion and decorating writing and editing before trying fiction, with spectacular commercial results. "Best" is her fifth novel, the last in a trilogy about the Harte family. "A Woman of Substance," which was her first novel in 1979, and "Hold the Dream," her third novel in 1985, were the predecessors.

Bradford also wrote another novel, "Act of Will," published in 1986.