"Dickensian" - BBC1. Wonderful !

[Cockney Sparrow]

...... but yesterday (whilst I was attending an obelisk building morning!) the subject of Sunday tea-time drama came up .........

Sunday tea-time - es of course, part of my childhood. Obelisk building?? - perhaps you could elaborate a little, a little unexpected in this thread (in fact, where it would it be expected?

We've enjoyed the series very much, and look forward to the resolutions in the various plot elements - chickens coming home to roost, etc....

[Ferretfancy]

And Jagger's clerk, Lowten, who was bribed to not find any evidence against Compeyson is from Pickwick Papers. It's been a hit locally here and has generated a lot of discussion about characters - Manning (who is locked up for the murder) must be based on Hortense (BH) who was based on the real-life murderer Maria Manning, Rev. Chadband (BH) who helped Dodger escape was blackmailed to do it because he'd been one of Nancy's clients, etc.

So many people have decided to start reading Dickens again but yesterday (whilst I was attending an obelisk building morning!) the subject of Sunday tea-time drama came up and the fact that Dickens was a regular staple years back - does anyone remember? All in all I think it's been a bit hit except for the two-hander mentioned by ardcarp which jarred because part of the fun is the rapid switching from one storyline to the other.

As you do. I suppose it was hauled upright by teams of slaves some of whom were crushed under sledges?

[ardcarp]

This sums it up rather well, I think:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/02/19/the-dickensian-finale-deserved-so-much-more-from-the-bbc---revie/

[Nick Armstrong]

Since I've only recently finished Episode 10 of the 20, I think I'd better not read this thread yet....

[mangerton]

This sums it up rather well, I think:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/0...e-bbc---revie/

Yes, it does, and it's certainly correct in the remarks about how it was moved hither and thither around the schedules, with the denouement coming earlier this evening. It's just as well my tivo box has a "series link", or I'd have missed it.

Typical BBC. There's no point in complaining; they'll just come up with some self-serving, specious, reasons.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Since I've only recently finished Episode 10 of the 20, I think I'd better not read this thread yet....

- and it was your enthusiasm that persuaded me to give the whole series a second chance after I'd given up after ten minutes of the first episode. Very, very grateful that you did - it's been riveting. I even greatly admired the "birth" episode: just the two sisters for a twenty-minute "scene": brilliant acting from Alexandra Moen here. (I'll say no more until Forumistas have caught up - but I thought it was a stroke of genius to interrupt the scatter-gun plot shifts for this key scene.) Most things worked extremely well as a "prequel" to events in the pertinent novels - the Bumbles the biggest exception IMO). And Satis House cannot be in London!!!

BUT - I did find the last ten minutes of the last episode redundant and as annoying as the first ten of episode one. (LOOK AWAY NOW, CALI AND ANYONE ELSE WHO HASN'T SEEN IT YET)

Marley's ghost doesn't appear until seven years after his death.

I shall miss this series.

[Nick Armstrong]

- and it was your enthusiasm that persuaded me to give the whole series a second chance after I'd given up after ten minutes of the first episode. Very, very grateful that you did - it's been riveting. [/SIZE]

I shall miss this series.

I did look away.... Thanks!

Truth be told, I'm rationing myself and want to watch them only when the moment's right... and lots of things have been in the way lately.

V glad you loved it - rest assured my tardiness is not to do with failing enthusiasm!

[ardcarp]

I did find the last ten minutes of the last episode redundant.......

I disagree there ferney. It tied up certain loose ends, but left plenty flapping for a possible second series. I must say I was lost in admiration for Tony Jordan's ingenuity, for the sometimes excellent acting, and for achieving the backdrop of Victorian London with only stage-quality sets. My disbelief was for the most part suspended. And why not a jolly sing-song in the Three Cripples? Oops, sorry, don't read that bit Calibs.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And why not a jolly sing-song in the Three Cripples?

LOOK AWAY NOW, CALI

Well, leaving aside the point that Nancy was singing an aria from an Opera not staged until seven years after the novel in which she was murdered was published, I did think it made it more "Bartian" than "Dickensian". (Together with the seven-year gap I mentioned earlier, and the alteration of Oliver's "back-history", and the [read "my"] feeling that the writers were hedging their bets on a "we'll put this in to finish off, but leave enough open if we get a second series commissioned" ... I think that the series deserved a better conclusion.)

[Ferretfancy]

LOOK AWAY NOW, CALI

Well, leaving aside the point that Nancy was singing an aria from an Opera not staged until seven years after the novel in which she was murdered was published, I did think it made it more "Bartian" than "Dickensian". (Together with the seven-year gap I mentioned earlier, and the alteration of Oliver's "back-history", and the [read "my"] feeling that the writers were hedging their bets on a "we'll put this in to finish off, but leave enough open if we get a second series commissioned" ... I think that the series deserved a better conclusion.)

I thought that the final scene with Oliver and Dodger, leading to the final shot of the deserted street was a masterstroke. I saw a set of Dickens in a book sale yesterday and was nearly tempted, the print was too small, but I'll certainly read Bleak House again soon.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I thought that the final scene with Oliver and Dodger, leading to the final shot of the deserted street was a masterstroke. I saw a set of Dickens in a book sale yesterday and was nearly tempted, the print was too small, but I'll certainly read Bleak House again soon.

Yes - the deserted street was a great idea. And, by coincidence, I started to reread Bleak House last night! (It's very good.)

[vinteuil]

And, by coincidence, I started to reread Bleak House last night! (It's very good.)

... Ain't it, tho' ! - but catastrophically let down by the bits narrated by Esther Summerson, I always think. Lordy but she's irritating...

In the end I love it as a portrait of London - and one of the best portraits there is. The clue to the entire book is in the very first word of the text...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... Ain't it, tho' ! - but catastrophically let down by the bits narrated by Esther Summerson, I always think. Lordy but she's irritating...

In the end I love it as a portrait of London - and one of the best portraits there is. The clue to the entire book is in the very first word of the text...

- marvellous use of punctuation here, too: a lesser writer (not necessarily one who writes for Lesser) would have fallen into the temptation of using an exclamation mark!


Thinking further about the last ten minutes or so of Dickensian - yes, I found it trite and sentimental, and spoilt some otherwise excellent writing ...

... so - authentically Dickensian, then.

[ardcarp]

On the principle that whodunnit fiction ususlly picks the least likely 'who' as the murderer, I had wondered whether either Sir Lester or Mrs Cratchit were possible perpetrators. On the subject of anachronicity, not to mention modifying back-stories, it doesn't bother me one bit. It was a good romp. I wonder what other authors' oeuvres would lend themselves to the Tony Jordan treatment?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

SPOILER!

Yes - I had forgotten to say how Anna's predictions about the murderer were much closer than my own! Whatever happened to Little Nell, by the way? She seems to have been forgotten in the last couple of weeks.