Bleak? House

Tonight our family finished the final episode of Andrew Davies' 2005 adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House. Andrew Davies will be better known to many as the writer of the widely acclaimed 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Wow, just as an aside, I think it's really exciting that Andrew Davies is also inolved in a TV series of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit, and featuring an impressive cast. I don't think it will be coming out until mid-late 2009 though.

Anyway, back to Bleak House. I was put off watching the film mainly due to it's dreary sounding name. At 15 episodes and 8 hours long, it took us a couple of weeks. Pretty much from about the second episode I was hooked. New plots and characters were continually introduced, and the suspense was never abated. Here's a page at BBC's website, listing the main characters.

If you enjoyed North and South or Our Mutual Friend, you will love this film. Centering around a drawn-out court case refered to as Jandcye and Jandyce, the story focusses in on three young people; Esther Summerson, Ada Clare and Richard Carstone. Mr. Jandyce takes them into his care when they come and stay at his home, Bleak House, so that they can be close to the courthouse. I'm not going to go into much more detail. As is Charles Dickens' unique style, the plot is a seemingly inextricable web of characters and sub-plots involving romance, secrets, bribery and spontaneous combustion. David Round, a law lecturer at Canterbury University said that the case covered in Bleak House is a very realistic picture of exactly what did go on in Victorian England.

This is a great film, thoroughly recommended!

"I think Bleak House may not be so bleak after all"