Monday, January 10, 2011

Gillian Anderson in Bleak House





Screened over 15 episodes in 2005, this series must lay a decent claim to the title of best ever Dickens adaptation, as well as being arguably Davies’s most ambitious undertaking. Produced in a soap opera format – twice weekly 30-minute episodes – to echo the novel’s original serialisation, it managed to introduce an enormous cast of characters with minimum effort, while reliably building up dramatic suspense. With stand-out performances from Gillian Anderson and Charles Dance, it looked dark and gorgeous. Dickens for TV addicts
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4 comments:

  1. BobJanuary 10, 2011 at 5:35 PM

    Thanks for posting on this - it starts up again this week. I've seen it twice now and never fail to marvel at the high caliber of the production.
    The casting is impeccable. The best Dickens adaptation hands down. The others can't seem to avoid the syrupy sentimentality that is often so cloying.

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  2. HermesJanuary 10, 2011 at 5:40 PM

    Perhaps one of the best Dickens yet

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  3. SweetpeaJanuary 11, 2011 at 9:41 AM

    I will admit it here publicly, Hermes, because I so respect your contributions, but I despise Dickens for the most part. Yet THIS - this Bleak House - fabulous! Gillian Anderson was SUPERB and brought a different tone to me that I'd not felt about [ever!] Dickens before.

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  4. HermesJanuary 11, 2011 at 11:14 AM

    That's okay a lot of his writings seem cliched and over-written and having read several biographies I don't like his character at all, particularly the dusgraceful way he treated his wife and the 'odd' relationships with her susters.

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