The Charles Dickens Masterworks Collection

Step into Dickens' lively world with Nell and her grandfather in The Old Curiosity Shop, Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson) in Bleak House, Arthur Clennam (Matthew Macfadyen) in Little Dorrit, Fagin (Timothy Spall) in Oliver Twist, and Pip (Ioan Gruffudd) and Miss Haversham (Charlotte Rampling) in Great Expectations. A must-have for your collection, plus "making-of" extra feature.

Oliver Twist
A dramatic retelling of a Dickens classic
This gripping and emotionally powerful adaptation from one of British television's most exciting new writers breathes new life into the popular Dickens story. On a dark and stormy winter's night in a miserable, dank room, lit only by a few candles, Oliver is born into a life of poverty and misfortune. Growing up in a workhouse, watching the suffering and cruelty endured by the boys at the hands of his masters, Oliver decides he wants more and sets out for London. There he meets the Artful Dodger, Nancy, Fagin and the boys and gets the first warm welcome of his life - unaware that this kindness requires its own type of payment to be collected by the evil Bill Sykes. A chance meeting with Mr Brownlow and Rose sees Oliver's fortunes change. But there are those unknown to Oliver determined to ruin and destroy his life...

The Old Curiosity Shop
Sir Derek Jacobi (The Golden Compass, Gosford Park) and Toby Jones (Infamous) star in this all new adaptation of the Dickens classic also featuring Sophie Vavasseur (Becoming Jane) as Little Nell.
Little Nell Trent lives with her doting grandfather (Jacobi) in his London shop, the Old Curiosity Shop, a magical place filled from wall to wall with dust-laden treasures. Unbeknownst to Nell, her grandfather is secretly gambling every night and is deeply in debt to the evil Quilp (Jones). When Quilp seizes the Old Curiosity Shop in payment of debt, Nell and her grandfather are forced to flee London and seek refuge elsewhere with Quilp and a mysterious stranger in hot pursuit. The production also stars Zoë Wanamaker (Doctor Who, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) and Martin Freeman (the original UK The Office).

Bleak House
Acclaimed writer Andrew Davies (Bridget Jones' Diary, 1995's Pride and Prejudice) turns his talents to one of Charles Dickens' most brilliant novels - arguably the greatest ever depiction of Victorian London. Fresh and imaginative, yet faithful to the original, this thrilling fast-paced adaptation is shot with a contemporary edge.

At its heart is the story of the icily beautiful Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson, The X Files), who nurses a dark secret, and the merciless lawyer Tulkinghorn (Charles Dance, Gosford Park), who seeks to uncover it. The generous John Jarndyce (Denis Lawson, Star Wars), struggling with his own past, and his two young wards Richard and Ada, are all caught up, like Lady Dedlock, in the infamous case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, which will make one of them rich beyond imagination if it can ever be brought to a conclusion. As Tulkinghorn digs deeper into Lady Dedlock's past, he unearths a secret that will change their lives forever, and which is almost as astounding as the final outcome of the Jarndyce case.

Little Dorrit
Acclaimed screenwriter Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House) crafts an all new Dickens adaptation starring Academy Award® nominee Tom Courtenay (The Golden Compass), Matthew Macfadyen (MI-5, Pride and Prejudice) and newcomer Claire Foy (Being Human).

This gripping new series brings to life Dickens's powerful story of struggle and hardship in 1820s London. When Arthur Clennam (Macfadyen) returns to England after many years abroad, his curiosity is piqued by the presence in his mother's house of a young seamstress, Amy Dorrit (Foy). His quest to discover the truth about "Little Dorrit" takes him to the Marshalsea Debtors Prison, where he discovers that the dark shadows of debt stretch far and wide in a web of desperation and deceit.

Filled with humorous yet tragic characters, Little Dorrit is a stirring rags to riches story, exposing the underbelly of nineteenth century British society as only Charles Dickens can.

Great Expectations
One of the most definitive adaptations of Charles Dickens' classic novel distinguishes itself with a reverent faithfulness to the book and brilliant performances by the entire cast. Ioan Gruffudd (Horation Hornblower, Titanic) plays Pip, a young man whose life changes when eccentric, wealthy spinster Miss Haversham (screen veteran Charlotte Rampling, Farewell, My Lovely) sends for him. As the story unfolds against an authentic British backdrop, the actors bring new depth and meaning to a wonderful drama.

 

Oliver Twist

The Artful Dodger	---	Adam Arnold
Charlotte	---	Ruby Bentall
Mr Fang	---	Rob Brydon
Pearly	---	Connor Catchpole
The Quack	---	Paul Chahidi
Mouthy	---	Alfie Childs
Rose	---	Morven Christie
Doctor	---	Nigel Cooke
Stick	---	Reece Dos-Santos
Baby Oliver	---	Louis Edleston
Mr Bumble	---	Gregor Fisher
Mr Brownlow	---	Edward Fox
Mr. Limberry	---	Vincent Franklin
Agnes	---	Mariah Gale
Noah Claypole	---	Adam Gillen
Mrs Sowerberry	---	Michelle Gomez
Ginge	---	Jordan Grehs
Bill Sikes	---	Tom Hardy
Jury Member	---	James Harper
Spike	---	Callum Higgins
Oakum Boy	---	Peter Kirkham
Mrs Corney	---	Sarah Lancashire
Geezer	---	Jordan Long
Molly	---	Helen Lymbery
Mrs Bedwin	---	Anna Massey
Oliver Twist	---	William Miller
Scrappy Boy	---	Keenan Munn-Francis
Muzzer	---	Oliver Murray
Head Peeler	---	Jake Nightingale
Nancy	---	Sophie Okonedo
Handles	---	Niall O'Mara
Court Official	---	Steven O'Neill
Urchin	---	John C. Pipkin
Monks	---	Julian Rhind-Tutt
Chancer	---	Anton Saunders
Mr Sowerberry	---	John Sessions
Butcher	---	John Snowden
Fagin	---	Timothy Spall
Mr. Slipsby	---	Edward Tudor-Pole
Sally	---	Nicola Walker
Cal	---	Callum Yeoman

Written by Charles Dickens
Screenplay by Sarah Phelps
Directed by Coky Giedroyc
Produced by Sarah Brown
Executive Produced by Rebecca Eaton, Kate Harwood
Original Music by Martin Phipps
Cinematography by Matt Gray
Film Editing by Mark Thornton
Costume Design by Amy Roberts

The Old Curiosity Shop

Grandfather	---	Derek Jacobi
Daniel Quilp	---	Toby Jones
Nell Trent	---	Sophie Vavasseur
Sally Brass	---	Gina McKee
Samson Brass	---	Adam Godley
Betsy Quilp	---	Anna Madeley
Jacob	---	Adrian Rawlins
Geoff Breton	---	Dick Swiveller
Freddie Trent	---	Bryan Dick
Mrs. Jarley	---	Zoë Wanamaker
Mr. Codlin	---	Martin Freeman
Mr. Short	---	Steve Pemberton
Kit Nubbles	---	George MacKay
Mrs. Jiniwin	---	Josie Lawrence
Mr. Liggers	---	Bradley Walsh
The Marchioness	---	Charlene McKenna
Reverend Pratchett	---	Jonathan Coy
Mrs. Nubbles	---	Kelly Campbell
Innkeeper	---	Michael Webber
Mrs. George	---	Elizabeth Bennett
Constable	---	Gerry O'Brien

Written by Charles Dickens, Martyn Heresford
Directed by Brian Percival
Produced by Andrew Benson
Executive Produced by Rebecca Eaton, Andrew Lowe, Gareth Neame
Original Music by Stephen McKeon
Cinematography by Peter Greenhalgh
Film Editing by Tony Cranstoun
Costume Design by Lorna Marie Mugan

Bleak House

Esther Summerson	---	Anna Maxwell Martin
John Jarndyce	---	Denis Lawson
Ada Clare	---	Carey Mulligan
Lady Dedlock	---	Gillian Anderson
Clamb	---	Tom Georgeson
Mr. Tulkinghorn	---	Charles Dance
Richard Carstone	---	Patrick Kennedy
Sir Leicester Dedlock	---	Timothy West
Guppy	---	Burn Gorman
Sergeant George	---	Hugo Speer
Miss Flite	---	Pauline Collins
Smallweed	---	Philip Davis
Harold Skimpole	---	Nathaniel Parker
Bucket	---	Alun Armstrong
Mrs. Rouncewell	---	Anne Reid
Hortense	---	Lilo Baur
Charley Neckett	---	Katie Angelou
Judy	---	Loo Brealey
Phil Squod	---	Michael Smiley
Rosa	---	Emma Williams
Jo	---	Harry Eden
Allan Woodcourt	---	Richard Harrington
Caddy Turveydrop	---	Nathalie Press
Snagsby	---	Sean McGinley
Krook	---	Johnny Vegas
Prince Turveydrop	---	Bryan Dick
Nemo	---	John Lynch
Mr. Bayham Badger	---	Richard Griffiths
Mrs. Badger	---	Joanna David

Written by Charles Dickens
Screenplay by Andrew Davies
Directed by Justin Chadwick, Susanna White
Produced by Nigel Stafford-Clarke
Executive Produced by Rebecca Eaton, Sally Haynes, Laura Mackie
Original Music by John Lunn
Cinematography by Kieran McGuigan
Film Editing by Paul Knight, Jason Krasucki

Little Dorrit

Amy Dorrit	---	Claire Foy
Arthur Clennam	---	Matthew Macfadyen
Mr. Dorrit	---	Tom Courtenay
Jeremiah Flintwinch	---	Alun Armstrong
Mrs. Clennam	---	Judy Parfitt
Pancks	---	Eddie Marsan
Fanny Dorrit	---	Emma Pierson
Rigaud	---	Andy Serkis
Mrs. Plornish	---	Rosie Cavaliero
John Chivery	---	Russell Tovey
Cavalletto	---	Jason Thorpe
Edmund Sparkler	---	Sebastian Armesto
Frederick Dorrit	---	James Fleet
Pet Gowan	---	Georgia King
Chivery	---	Ron Cook
Henry Gowan	---	Alex Wyndham
Mr. Meagles	---	Bill Paterson
Tattycoram	---	Freema Agyeman
Daniel Doyce	---	Zubin Varla
Mrs. Meagles	---	Janine Duvitski
Mrs. Merdle	---	Amanda Redman
Mr. Merdle	---	Anton Lesser
Scary Butler	---	Nicholas Jones
Maggy	---	Eve Myles
Tip Dorrit	---	Arthur Darvill
Affery Flintwinch	---	Sue Johnston
Miss Wade	---	Maxine Peake
Flora Finching	---	Ruth Jones
Mrs. General	---	Pam Ferris
Plornish	---	Jason Watkins
Mr. F's Aunt	---	Annette Crosbie
Doctor	---	Geoffrey Whitehead
Mr. Casby	---	John Alderton
Lawyer	---	Nicholas Blane
Rugg	---	Geoffrey McGivern
Tite Barnacle	---	Robert Hardy
Tite Barnacle Jr.	---	Darren Boyd
Mrs. Gowan	---	Harriet Walter
Mr. Clennam	---	Ian McElhinney
Bath Attendant	---	Stephen Marcus
Bank Porter	---	George Potts
Stagehand	---	Stuart McLoughlin

Written by Charles Dickens, Andrew Davies
Directed by Adam Smith, Dearbhla Walsh, Diarmuid Lawrence
Produced by Lisa Asborne
Executive Produced by Rebecca Eaton, Anne Pivcevic
Original Music by John Lunn
Cinematography by Owen McPolin, Lukas Strebel, Alan Almond
Film Editing by Philip Kloss, Nick Arthurs, David Head
Costume design by Barbara Kidd

Great Expectations

Pip	---	Ioan Gruffudd
Estella	---	Justine Waddell
Miss Havisham	---	Charlotte Rampling
Young Biddy	---	Laura Aikman
Wopsle	---	Nicholas Blane
Sarah Pocket	---	Selina Cadell
Miss Skiffins	---	Jo Cameron Brown
Biddy	---	Emma Cunniffe
Orlick	---	Tony Curran
Young Herbert	---	Laurence Dobiesz
Sheriff's Officer	---	Leo Dolan
Maid	---	Sarah Durham
Police Officer	---	Michael Eaves
Herbert Pocket	---	Daniel Evans
Young Estella	---	Gemma Gregory
Abel Magwitch	---	Bernard Hill
Bentley Drummle	---	James Hillier
Matthew Pocket	---	David Horovitch
Gaoler	---	Alex Leppard
Pip's Servant	---	Roland Manookian
Jaggers	---	Ian McDiarmid
Startop	---	Ifan Meredith
Molly	---	Laila Morse
Pumblechook	---	Terence Rigby
Joe Gargery	---	Clive Russell
Mrs Joe	---	Lesley Sharp
Estella's Attendant	---	Angela Sims
Clara	---	Philippa Stanton
Sergeant	---	Reggie Stewart
Presiding Finch	---	Richard Stirling

Written by Charles Dickens, Tony Marchant
Directed by Julian Jarrold
Produced by David Snodin
Executive Produced by Rebecca Eaton, Michael Wearing
Original Music by Peter Salem
Cinematography by David Odd
Film Editing by Chris Gill
Costume Design by Odile Dicks-Mireaux

Oliver Twist
"Given the strength of the cast, this adaptation of Oliver Twist couldn't possibly go wrong - and it doesn't. A who's who of acting talent captures perfectly Dickens's army of exaggerated grotesques, with an unusual and wholly believable Fagin from Timothy Spall at its heart. Tom Hardy is Bill Sikes and Sophie Okonedo is Nancy, with show-stopping turns from the likes of Rob Brydon, Sarah Lancashire, Anna Massey, Michelle Gomez and Edward Fox among a sensational supporting cast. There are bound to be comparisons with Bleak House, but this is a more straightforward adaptation with the strength of the performances dominating a painterly setting. Having got off to a rip-roaring start, it promises to be essential viewing for the rest of the week." David Chater, The Times

"Sarah Phelps' brilliantly ugly adaptation ... Oozing evil all the way, it was a million miles from the cuddly, Sunday-teatime spirit of former Dickens-based TV series." Matt Baylis, Daily Express

"Oliver Twist was very watchable ... this adaptation looked the business, with lashings of gin and filth and rags, bad complexions, battered hats and poor oral health. The central performances crackled nicely. As Oliver, William Miller squeezed as much as he could into a character doomed to do little more than be dragged by his ear from pillar to post. The irresistible Timothy Spall put in an agreeable Fagin, his yellow-fanged grin hovering between compassion and self-preservation, his Mitteleuropean vowels (‘Good moroning‘) just about staying this side of panto. Sarah Lancashire purred and cackled as the scheming, slatternly Mrs Corney, a sexual magnet for Mr Bumble (a sweating Rab C Nesbitt in a tricorn hat)..." Phil Hogan, Observer

"...tight, lucid plotting (writer Sarah Phelps's EastEnders skill showing through) and some wonderful performances, played against type, Timothy Spall's Fagin being leeringly cuddly, and Tom Hardy's Bill Sikes sexy as well as clearly psychotic. Sophie Okonedo was the most touching Nancy I have ever seen." Hermione Eyre, Independent On Sunday

"...excellent ... It manages to feel modern, yet also faithful - somewhere between melodrama and gritty realism, but funny, too, in a dark and sarky way ... And it all looks wonderful - bad skin, bad teeth, muck, food symbolism all over the place. On my new flat-screen TV (at last!), it's like having my own Hogarth come to life in the living room. You can almost smell the pisspots, the sweat, the farts, the hypocrisy, the social injustice ... The new Oliver Twist is dark, funny and real - please can we have more telly like this?" Sam Wollaston, Guardian

"...with this Dickensian evergreen it is the differences that we look out for. Here there was an entire bucketful. Penned by a former EastEnders scriptwriter in nightly instalments, this was a bold, modern, sleek, dramatic exaggeration of Dickens's story: Nancy became black, Oliver feisty and Fagin exotic like an overweight, Yiddish, Eastern European Boy George. Tom Hardy was magnificent as Bill Sikes and conveyed raw, psychopathic violence." Stephen Pile, Daily Telegraph

"...it is wonderful to see this red-blooded adaptation embracing the ugliness and squalor of 19th-century London and rescuing Dickens's novel from sentimentality ... Instead of loveable old Fagin, here is Timothy Spall as a horribly plausible grotesque meeting his maker at the end of a rope, with Tom Hardy's Sikes snarling like a Soprano with a baseball bat. If the best classic adaptations engineer a controlled collision between the past and the present, this one generates a considerable bang." David Chater, The Times

"...from uniformly strong performances to a script that delights in the book's slang ... there's still been much to admire..." Jonathan Wright, Guardian

"The actor playing Oliver was terribly good..." David Stephenson, Express on Sunday

"...it had an hour-long opener that was fun, gripping and dramatic ... It had some excellent sets and scenery and it was easy to be drawn in to the action." Jon Wise, People

"It's grand to see the BBC doing what it does best for Christmas - classic costume drama with a part for all our national treasures. Sarah Phelps's new adaptation of Dickens's favourite is a world away from the schmaltz of the musical and brings to the fore all the grotesqueries and darkness of the novel. From the brutality of the workhouse under the iron rod of Mr Bumble (Gregor Fisher), aided by the slyly cruel Mrs Corney (Sarah Lancashire), to the uneasy fraternity of Fagin's den, this Oliver Twist is set firmly in a world where poverty is a sin to be punished in the hope of God's forgiveness, where unpredictable violence is taken for granted, children are randomly sentenced to hang and kindness is a rarer commodity than food or money ... Oliver, played here by William Miller with a steely resilience not often brought out in dramatic adaptations ... Timothy Spall is splendid in the role, all manky teeth and squinty-eyed leering, but with an edge of pathos ... Bill Sykes, played by the brilliant Tom Hardy with the unnatural calm and sudden eruptions of violence of the psychopath. Edward Fox was born to be Mr Brownlow ... and Green Wing's Julian Rhind-Tutt is truly chilling as Mr Monks ... Please BBC, we want some more." Stephanie Merritt, Observer

"...excellent..." Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror

"...three hours of terrific TV ... what Phelps lacks in prior knowledge of Oliver Twist, she more than makes up for in enthusiasm. Her adaptation is wonderfully lucid, with a compelling narrative drive. A major rethink has occurred ... the real casting coup is 11-year-old William Miller as an Oliver far removed from the wan child actor who usually inhabits the role. Miller is also probably a far cry from the somewhat soupy Oliver that Dickens created, but the story is better for it, while Fagin (and, to a degree, Bill Sikes) is less out-and-out villain and misunderstood victim." Gerard Gilbert, Independent

"TV joy: Timothy Spall in BBC1's Oliver Twist." Ian Hyland, News of the World

"Ours is a time of contention and care over race and culture: thus Nancy, rendered close to saintliness, was played by the black actress Sophie Okonedo, there were black boys' faces in the workhouse and in Fagin's den - and Fagin himself, a Gothic performance by Timothy Spall, is played as a very Jewish, but not an evil, Jew ... This series gives him a conscience and an explanation: it is tougher on the causes for the criminals than it is on their crimes - except those of the ‘gentleman', Mr Monks, and the parochial officials, Mrs Corney the workhouse boss and Mr Bumble the beadle, both milked to the last drop by Sarah Lancashire and Gregor Fisher." John Lloyd, Financial Times

"The script skips along, as you'd expect from an EastEnders' scribe, the minor characters are lovingly rendered, and the world created is grimy and captivating." Gareth McLean, Guardian

"You may already know the classic tale, but the startling acting means that this exciting adaptation still has plenty of reasons to be watched." Lucy Tobin, Daily Express

"The last episode of this Charles Dickens' classic will leave you wanting more!" Sun

"Here, at last, is a TV version he [Dickens] might have been pleased to watch." Matt Baylis, Daily Express

Bleak House

"This gorgeous and exhilarating new series was like watching Dickens filmed by the director of Spooks, with the latest nervy, pacey, zooming camerawork fashionably on show ... this was an impressive and beautiful translation of a Victorian soap opera into contemporary television terms."-Stephen Pile, Daily Telegraph

"The pace never lets up ... ... The performances are uniformly excellent"-Pete Clark, London Evening Standard

"...it is exquisite costume drama showing the BBC at its best. Even Esther's pox deserves a Bafta all of its own."-Sunday Times

"A luminous, instantly addictive piece of television ... Not that anyone should be singled out from a cast that was so uniformly impressive. If Maxwell Martin seemed able to express entire pages in a glance, she was matched by a ravishing Gillian Anderson as the arrogant, tragic Lady Dedlock. Denis Lawson brought a rare lightness of touch to the elusive character of John Jarndyce, Charles Dance a genuinely vulpine quality to the lawyer Tulkinghorn. Further down the cast list, Johnny Vegas as Krook and Burn Gorman as Guppy were especially memorable. All in all, the prospect of spending further episodes in this company feels not only enticing, but entirely thrilling."-Gerard O'Donovan, Daily Telegraph

Little Dorrit
"Little Dorrit ... is turning into one of the most compelling TV productions of the year." Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail

"Little Dorrit was brilliant, obviously. Dickens, Andrew Davies, lots of money, top names... how could it be anything other than brilliant? And because it's Dickens, those top names can get away with a little bit more showing off and look-at-me acting than they would be able to in, say, Jane Austen. Alun Armstrong certainly seems to think so - snorting, and growling and gurning away as the foul Jeremiah Flintwinch. Splendid. Oh, and by happy circumstance, because of the current economic climate it's also suddenly very relevant." Sam Wollaston, Guardian

"...what a smashing Dickens it is, this Little Twist, this Bleak Expectations, this Tale of Two Hard Times, credit-crunched down from a sprawling million or so pages of all-but-unreadable Victorian satire into a manageable 21st-century, 14-parter by (who else?) Andrew Davies and a back-slappingly, high-fivingly ‘wooooo!' cast of quite stupendous brilliance ... Oh, and Tom Courtenay, as Mr Dorrit, is superb." Kathryn Flett, Observer

"It is a worthy successor to 2005's soap-style Bleak House: grimly atmospheric and intriguingly pacy ... With recession drawing in, there could be no better time to screen this Dickens novel ... and Andrew Davies's adaptation is full of gloomy resonances: poverty, financial mismanagement, dark secrets and guilt." Victoria Segal, Sunday Times

"Little Dorrit had everything you could wish for in a BBC costume drama. Script by Andrew Davies? Obviously. Scruffy urchins in flat caps riding on the back of carts full of cabbages? Check. The immaculate-but-grubby production values that guarantee the period detail is tatty enough to look ‘authentic' but not so squalid it can't be sold to American television? Definitely. A string of the nation's finest actors queuing up to dress up in bonnets and woolly sideburns (not to mention the women)? Oh yes ... It was a grim, dark mystery, a classic mix of menace and whimsy." Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror

"I am hooked already ... it's got a cast that reads like the guest list of a Bafta tea party and, shot in high definition, you can see every pore and yellowing tooth." Richard Arnold, People

"This being Davies, it's distractingly gorgeous - all distressed paintwork, shadows, a vast cast of glittering brilliance and, if I remember the book rightly, some rather unexpected racial and lesbian overtones. Courtenay is terrific as the pompous, deluded William Dorrit..." Christina Patterson, Independent

"...it is studded with stars ... it looks gorgeous and the resonances with modern life have been turned up to 11." Cole Moreton, Independent On Sunday

"...sumptuous ... top-notch costume drama ... a sublime and brilliantly acted one..." Virginia Blackburn, Daily Express

"This was a handsome, excellent dramatisation with a streamlined script and a fine cast ... The whole thing looked wonderful and the credit-crunch chic of Mrs Clennam's accommodation with its wooden floors and distressed green-painted walls has given me ideas for the sitting-room." Stephen Pile, Daily Telegraph

"...this was an orgy of character acting, with Alun Armstrong, Bill Paterson, Maxine Peake, Judy Parfitt and Andy Serkis all performing vigorously. It was the central relationship between Dorrit and daughter that spellbound, however. Tom Courtenay played Mr Dorrit as a symphony of guile and self-delusion - a tune that Amy looked as if she had heard a few hundred times too often. The newcomer Claire Foy was terrific, a combo of realism, anger and accidental charm. Andrew Davies's typically savvy script presented the novel as a metaphor for the prison that is life. Those who weren't either in the Marshalsea or Marseilles Gaol were incarcerated by their class, marriage, dysfunctional family or oppressive secrets." Andrew Billen, The Times

"So far, the only unqualified beneficiary of the credit crunch has been Little Dorrit ... When this serial was given the go-ahead, the head of BBC Drama Productions couldn't possibly have known just how relevant a story about a young woman raised in a debtors' jail would be." Toby Young, Independent On Sunday

"It's Charles Dickens, it's adapted by Andrew Davies, it's the BBC, 14 cold winter evenings lie ahead: you know already if you are going to be watching, don't you? There are character actors with faces seemingly designed by nature to inhabit a Dickensian scene ... this adaptation is as good quality as usual and promises to be as enjoyable as Bleak House." Andrea Mullaney, Scotsman

"Every week, Little Dorrit guarantees the viewer a couple of half-hour interludes of total content." David Chater, The Times

"It is the book that George Bernard Shaw said made him a socialist. It is about blame ... and the emotional dimension of debt. It is about occluded, impenetrable financial systems, bureaucracy, spin, embezzlement and the self-perpetuating mechanism of social injustice. Its concerns are our concerns, and its problems are still with us, except that the Marshalsea prison is now the site of luxury flats, mortgaged up to the hilt. It's a witheringly appropriate choice for today and this adaptation gets it just right, turning the bad Dickensian bipolarities (satirical gurning one moment, saccharine sentiment the next) to the good: the caricatures here are actually funny and the emotional stuff genuinely touching. Ruth Jones as Flora Finching is both. Dickens said he laughed aloud as he wrote her dialogue, but here there was pathos too ... Andrew Davies cuts a clear cross section through Dickens's ants' nest. He has done a great job cooking up all the fabulous ingredients Dickens dumped in the basket of the book ... I rather like the liberties Davies has taken ... this Little Dorrit is a bit of a triumph." Hermione Eyre, Independent On Sunday

"I loved Little Dorrit." Jane Kelly, London Evening Standard

"Loved it .... Bring back the Marshalsea for all the new debtors." Michele Hanson, Guardian

"Little Dorrit goes from strength to strength." David Chater, The Times

"...handsome, soap-sized chunks of Dickens..." Gerard Gilbert, Independent

"The production values are indeed high and it's obvious where the budget, rumoured to be £10million, has been spent, with immaculate sets and some great exteriors at the house in the country where the batty Meagles (Bill Paterson, Sea Of Souls) and his wife (Janine Duvitski, The Worst Week Of My Life) live ... Writer Andrew Davies and director Dearbhla Walsh have deftly sketched some classic Dickens characters, not least Alun Armstrong's quirky Jeremiah Flintwinch and Mrs Flintwinch, played by the studied Sue Johnston. The Flintwinches wait on the redoubtable Mrs Clenman, who is splendidly realised by Judy Parfitt ... Arthur is played by Matthew Macfayden and it may well be his best work since Spooks. He gives the character a sophisticated, modern resonance as he sets out to discover the dark secret that haunts the family." David Stephenson, Express on Sunday

"...what an absolute treat it is to be told one of Dickens' lesser known stories. Especially as you've no idea what's going to happen but are confident that it's going to be a real corker. There was an awful lot of plot to get through in Sunday night's mouth-watering opening course and tonight the world of the Dorrits opens out to us a little more in one superbly realised set after another. For the cast - headed by newcomer Claire Foy as the kind and clear-eyed Amy Dorrit - it's a chance to really put their stamp on a character. Gwen from Torchwood (Eve Myles) is quite unrecognisable tonight as Amy's friend Maggy. But this week's standout moment sees Ruth Jones from Gavin and Stacey as a be-ribboned Flora Finching making an entrance that leaves Matthew Macfayden's Arthur Clennam well and truly lost for words." Jane Simon, Daily Mirror

"It's pretty soon clear that this is not a novel for the novice adaptor, tangling malicious motive and buried secrets into a mare's-nest of enigmas ... Tom Courtenay is terrific as William Dorrit, a humbugging beggar, ludicrously vain of his only honorific, ‘The Father of the Marshalsea', even though it is evidence of his hopeless fecklessness. Matthew Macfadyen makes a persuasively gloomy Arthur Clennam, numbly enduring his mother's coldness (Judy Parfitt in glacial form). And Maxine Peake does a scary turn as Miss Wade, a malevolent stalker with a hint of sapphic appetite to her. It doesn't exactly hurt the drama's chances either, that its themes of betrayed trust, ruinous indebtedness and financial skulduggery are so precisely fitted to the moment." Tom Sutcliffe, Independent

"Dickens' Little Dorrit ... has a theme for the times and a plot as complex as any default credit swap. Let us simply say that thanks largely to bent financiers, the characters enjoy many reversals of fortune and the Treasury (aka the ‘Circumlocution Office') gets a bum rap. The bankers may all be dodgy but in the enfolding autumn gloom, this series looks certain to be a banker for the Beeb."
Andrew Gilligan, London Evening Standard

"That Dickens was a pre-eminent storyteller who cared deeply about the injustices of his age is made abundantly clear in this production. But the triumph of the way in which every actor takes his or her role - however small - and plays it to the hilt. According to its adaptor Andrew Davies: ‘We all recall our junior school teachers as amazing and grotesque, but as we grow older, we tend not to notice how incredible and peculiar people are. We lose that, but Dickens retained that ability to see just how extraordinary people are.' This Little Dorrit is bursting at the seams with the extraordinariness of people." David Chater, The Times

"Tune in to see Tom Courtenay's performance alone - he is extraordinary as the father of the Marshalsea, a helpless, charming, malicious old baby ... All the staff are Rada trained, of course, serving up a wide range of tea, cakes and physical deformities - wheezy snarl from Mr Alun Armstrong a house speciality... " Hermione Eyre, Independent On Sunday

"It must be hard to play anyone so thoroughly good as Amy without coming a cross as unbearably pious or just plain dull, but newcomer Claire Foy really gives her life ... Mrs Clennam (a fantastically icy Judy Parfitt)..." Clare Heal, Express on Sunday

"Tonight [Episode 4] there is a big development in the race to win Amy's hand in marriage. When Mr Dorrit senses what has happened, he gives a masterclass in self-pity - it would be worth watching the entire series just to see those few minutes. Similarly, it is always great fun seeing the two Dorrit brothers together (Tom Courtenay and James Fleet): they make a sublimely funny, pathetic - and convincing - pair of siblings." David Chater, The Times

"Andrew Davies's sure-footed Dickens adaptation continues with a heartbreaking scene between Amy and the loved-up, jug-eared John Chivery (Russell Tovey). Great stuff." Gerard Gilbert, Independent

"...John's devoted love for little Amy is rather joyous to watch." Anna Lowman, Guardian

"...a brilliant cloak-and-dagger menace materialises in the form of Rigaud. He's played with a rakish earring, false nose and French accent by Andy Serkis ... Watch out also for a strikingly frail performance by Tom Courtenay as Little Dorrit's father ... and Maxine Peake as the mysterious Miss Wade..."
Bella Todd, Time Out

"... there's murder afoot as the mysterious French villain Rigaud (Andy Serkis) stalks London's streets, leaving you perched on the edge of your seat as another half-hour episode ends all too soon."
Jane Simon, Daily Mirror

"...Jeremiah Flintwinch (a hunched, lop-sided Alun Armstrong as a cross between Max Wall and a sinister Humpty Dumpty) ... In her enormous ruffle and ancient wheelchair, Judy Parfitt plays the Eileen Atkins role of the grand dame going for a Bafta as Mrs Clennam ... Maxine Peake doing a good impression of Miranda Richardson as the mysterious Miss Wade." Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror

"Tattycoram [Freema Agyeman] is not a central but she's wonderfully bonkers and rather daring ... Little Dorrit herself, beautifully played by Claire Foy, is the total opposite of Tattycoram ... I also like the strong performances by Matthew Macfadyen, the marvellous Judy Parfitt, Andy Serkis and Eddie Marsan."
Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail

"Though Dickens intended his story as a savage satire on the injustices of the age, it's also a wonderfully rich story peppered with colourful characters from all strata of 19th-century London life, as well as a deliciously wicked French villain." Irish Independent

"More stars than you can spot and enough bonnets and top hats to keep your ears warm until Christmas ... It all adds up to a fabulous, entertaining period piece, perfect for the darkening nights as winter draws in." Scottish Daily Record

"The best time with your feet up television." Rachel Ward, Sunday Telegraph

"The BBC does these costume dramas so well ITV doesn't even attempt them (Heartbeat doesn't count). They're what the BBC does best." Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror

 

 

 

 

Bleak House

BAFTA® Awards
2006 – Best Actress -Anna Maxwell
2006 – Best Drama Serial
2006 – Best Costume Design
2006 – Best Editing Fictional Entertainment
2006 – Best Production Design

Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist, Dickens' second novel, was originally published in installments from 1837 through to 1839 and later published as a book.

Sarah Phelps was working for the Royal Shakespeare Company before she took part in a BBC initiative to find new writers.

Bleak House
After Dickens tried unsuccessfully to recover damages from a magazine that had pirated A Christmas Carol, he wrote Bleak House as an exposé of the Court of Chancery. Thanks in part to Dickens, the court was abolished in 1873.

Many scenes were filmed in 17th-century Balls Park Mansion, Hertfordshire - from the Deadlock's drawing room and Kenge's chambers, to Tulkinghorn's office and the garrets above Krook's shop.