After the first two episodes (two more to come this evening, then 16 more...!), I am an unconditional fan of this series.
I wondered if Dr Who/Sherlock-like tricksiness might await (or the sort of overwrought, grandiose cliché & caricature that spoilt the 'And Then There Were None' Christie adaptation, so far at least).
In fact I thought that it was beautifully well conceived and realised. I found that I was instantly convinced by (indeed, excited by) the premise - that many of Dickens’s characters were coexisting in London, and coincided and interacted in ways that didn’t make it into specific novels… That Little Nell’s grandfather, Silas Wegg, Mr Venus et al. were clients/debtors of Messrs. Scrooge & Marley; that the latter knew and had some trade with Fagin; that Mr Bumble and Fagin and Scrooge and Mr Pickwick and his mates all ate and drank in the same boozer… Likewise, the prequel setting - Marley still alive, the future Lady Dedlock canoodling with the future Nemo, and other familiar characters seen in their youth (I shan’t spoil a couple of the coups de théâtre… ). And all done in just the right style, I think.
Can't wait for the rest....
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I wondered if Dr Who/Sherlock-like tricksiness might await (or the sort of overwrought, grandiose cliché & caricature that spoilt the 'And Then There Were None' Christie adaptation, so far at least).
In fact I thought that it was beautifully well conceived and realised. I found that I was instantly convinced by (indeed, excited by) the premise - that many of Dickens’s characters were coexisting in London, and coincided and interacted in ways that didn’t make it into specific novels… That Little Nell’s grandfather, Silas Wegg, Mr Venus et al. were clients/debtors of Messrs. Scrooge & Marley; that the latter knew and had some trade with Fagin; that Mr Bumble and Fagin and Scrooge and Mr Pickwick and his mates all ate and drank in the same boozer… Likewise, the prequel setting - Marley still alive, the future Lady Dedlock canoodling with the future Nemo, and other familiar characters seen in their youth (I shan’t spoil a couple of the coups de théâtre… ). And all done in just the right style, I think.
Can't wait for the rest....
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) might throw those who are not well versed in Dickens but then, subsequently, I decided to suspend all knowledge of former plots but remember the characters and treat it as a wonderful soap opera - of the type Dickens might have written (as his novels were of course published in weekly parts)
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