Dickens' ambitious masterpiece, dramatised by the BBC in 1985, remains the benchmark by which all other period dramas can be measured. The casting is particularly inspired but the success of this epic series really rests with the editor who manages to maintain a finely judged pace which, like the BBC's earlier War And Peace (Antony Hopkins version), gives the original novel a chance to breathe whilst also maintaining momentum.
The famous London fog dominates the novel as it does here, allowing for a nightmarish quality and a lovely fluidity of camerawork so that we glide from one little locale to another with ease and conviction, all building to a convincingly cruel world in which there are only a few islands of humanity which eventually become connected.. Bleak House is Dickens' most angry novel and Denholm Elliot is magnificent as a John Jarndyce outraged by Society's inequalities. TP Mcenna provides a wonderful counterpoint.as his charming but loathsome leech of a friend, Harold Skimpole. The plot, of course, revolves round Mr Jarndyce's three young wards and Suzanne Burden does particularly well with Esther, the main character. Personally, I really liked Philip Franks' performance as an optimistic young man, Richard Carstone, brought to despair by bitter experience. This brings us to Dame Diana Rigg's tragic Lady Dedlock and one of television drama's greatest performances. La Rigg doesn't shy away from the cold imperious mask Lady Dedlock wears, her severe hairstyle emphasising her haughtiness and total lack of feeling, Behind that mask is a mind racing ever more desperately in a bid to escape the deadly trap which into which Lady Dedlock's heart has led her. And then comes the self-realisation that there might be no escape. All of this is achieved by the late dame without a hint of melodrama, with few words, but with eyes that speak volumes.
Bleak House is particularly rich in secondary characters, almost as memorable as those in David Copperfield. Sylvia Coleridge gives us poor mad Miss Flite, twittering musically like all of her trapped birds, and the ever wonderful Sam Kelly captures Mr Snagsby with equal success.
I cannot recommend this wonderful production more highly, with its musicality, its cinematography, its editing and its beautiful performances. Don't try to watch it all in one go. Two episodes nightly will furnish you with a wonderfully entertaining week because this is the BBC at its very best , in the middle of its golden decade, the 1980s, when it respected its viewers' intelligence and honoured the classic writers who inspired its epic dramas.
The famous London fog dominates the novel as it does here, allowing for a nightmarish quality and a lovely fluidity of camerawork so that we glide from one little locale to another with ease and conviction, all building to a convincingly cruel world in which there are only a few islands of humanity which eventually become connected.. Bleak House is Dickens' most angry novel and Denholm Elliot is magnificent as a John Jarndyce outraged by Society's inequalities. TP Mcenna provides a wonderful counterpoint.as his charming but loathsome leech of a friend, Harold Skimpole. The plot, of course, revolves round Mr Jarndyce's three young wards and Suzanne Burden does particularly well with Esther, the main character. Personally, I really liked Philip Franks' performance as an optimistic young man, Richard Carstone, brought to despair by bitter experience. This brings us to Dame Diana Rigg's tragic Lady Dedlock and one of television drama's greatest performances. La Rigg doesn't shy away from the cold imperious mask Lady Dedlock wears, her severe hairstyle emphasising her haughtiness and total lack of feeling, Behind that mask is a mind racing ever more desperately in a bid to escape the deadly trap which into which Lady Dedlock's heart has led her. And then comes the self-realisation that there might be no escape. All of this is achieved by the late dame without a hint of melodrama, with few words, but with eyes that speak volumes.
Bleak House is particularly rich in secondary characters, almost as memorable as those in David Copperfield. Sylvia Coleridge gives us poor mad Miss Flite, twittering musically like all of her trapped birds, and the ever wonderful Sam Kelly captures Mr Snagsby with equal success.
I cannot recommend this wonderful production more highly, with its musicality, its cinematography, its editing and its beautiful performances. Don't try to watch it all in one go. Two episodes nightly will furnish you with a wonderfully entertaining week because this is the BBC at its very best , in the middle of its golden decade, the 1980s, when it respected its viewers' intelligence and honoured the classic writers who inspired its epic dramas.