Leave it to Dickens and the BBC

Hello,
So I hope you are all enjoying the holidays! I'm looking forward to family festivities tonight and tomorrow. Got the hot chocolate going on. It's all good.

If everything goes as planned I'm gonna space out my Best of 2009. Here's the first.

Best Television Literary Adaptation: Little Dorrit

This was really no contest in 2009. As always it's the BBC that raises the bar for bringing literature to television. Television is often denigrated for how it kowtows to the lowest in our nature. Like reality television for instance. However, while network television has given up on the literary mini-series, PBS/BBC/Masterpiece Theater continues to serve us bibliophiles. They did not disappoint earlier this spring with their spate of Dickens adaptations.

Little Dorrit, having aired to great acclaim on BBC in fall 2008, was the mini-series I was looking forward to the most. And it did not let me down. All my thoughts on the series as a whole can be found here. In retrospect it's still my opinion that Dorrit was topical and dramatic, with brilliant performances. Claire Foy and Matthew McFadayen are wonderful as our protagonists. As an audience member I openly cheered for their mutual happiness, as they overcame the misery that surrounds them. Andy Serkis is a wonderful Dickenesque villian, although perhaps it was a mistake to give him so much exposition. Screenwriter Andrew Davies finds a way to include the absurdism of economic bureacracy, as well as the humanity of these characters. Also if you don't shed a tear for poor young Chivers, well then I think you're not human.

I just have to add that part of the fun of experiencing Dorrit was being able to share my reactions with those on The Egalitarian Bookworm and Dickensblog. I suggest checking out their reactions to Dorrit. Trust me, they are much smarter than I am. Little Dorrit is available on DVD, as well as online. It's well worth checking out.

If I haven't convinced you enough to check this out then here's a trailer from BBC:



Have a great weekend! Book Slave