Bleak House (2005/Charles Dickens/BBC Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B-/C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
Charles
Dickens’ Bleak House was such a
successful mini-series event for the BBC in 1985 with Diana Rigg & Denholm Elliott,
which they decided to try again in 2005 with Gillian Anderson and Charles
Dance. Comprised of 15 episodes, most a
half-hour each, it is a decent adaptation of the book, if with some slight
lightening of the material and in its zest to cover the whole book, stretches the
timeout a little more than it should.
The tale
of inheritance, justice gone wrong, secrets, evil manipulations and class
division in 19th Century England is as fresh as ever and is on par
with the 1985 production. Two young
people unexpectedly become the inheritors of the Jarndyce Estate, but others
feel they are entitled and will do anything to stop them. For something you would see on Masterpiece
Theater, this is not as stuffy or boring as this kind of British TV gets, which
is to its advantage. It is not
well-rounded all the way, but worth seeing, especially if you have
Blu-ray. Warren Clarke, Ian Richardson
and Pauline Collins are among the supporting cast who keeps this interesting.
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image has some limits for being an older HD
production, but fares rather well throughout despite some softness, but we have
seen worse in 1080p presentations, so the makers did their best with the format
they had. The anamorphically enhanced
DVD is much weaker and this is the second time the BBC has issued this on DVD,
so this is likely an older transfer. The
PCM 2.0 Stereo on the Blu-ray is not bad, but not great and we guess no 5.1
upgrade was made as the audio was not recorded with that in mind. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the DVD is
weaker, but not by as much as the picture.
Extras include stills, separate on camera interviews with Anderson,
Dance and Denis Lawson and audio commentary tracks on three of the episodes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
