The Charles Dickens Masterworks Collection (Oliver
Twist/Old Curiosity Shop/Bleak House/Little Dorrit/Great
Expectations/BBC DVD)
Picture:
C/C/C+/C+/C Sound: C+ Extras: C/D/C+/B-/C+ Main Programs: C+/B-/B-/B-/B-
Of all
the classic British literature, adapting Agatha Christie and Charles Dickens
always offers unique obstacles in translating as the books are so influential,
visual, innovative, clever and known.
They also offer the high early end of what we might consider
franchises. The BBC has issued five
recent adaptations that have been better than the usual in The Charles Dickens Masterworks Collection. Also all sold separately, we have covered
some of them and/or similar adaptations as the following below will show:
Oliver Twist
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8262/Oliver+Twist+(2007/BBC+DVD
This is
the version included in this set.
Old Curiosity Shop
We
previously covered only this 4.5 hour version:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3548/The+Old+Curiosity+Shop+(1979+Brit
That is
also a BBC version and an older one, as well as one that works better than this
Sir Derek Jacoby adaptation that is only 92 minutes, which is really not enough
time to cover this material. Toby Jones and Zoe Wanamaker also star.
Bleak House (including the Blu-ray set)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8578/Bleak+House+(2005/Charles+Dickens
This is
the version included in this set.
Little Dorrit
It has
been a while (1988) since anyone adapted this 1855 – 57 series of stories about
British class division at its worst as it focuses on a debtor’s prison and the
children of a man there so long that they live there and can go in and out
anytime. A metaphor that informs the
rest of the tale, the story is terrific and this adaptation is better than
expected, but I still thought there was more to get out of the material. Matthew Macfadyen heads the cast and is
overly long on 4 DVDs in 14 parts!
Great Expectations
We
previously covered only this version:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2694/Great+Expectations+(1999/British+TV
For
whatever reason, despite the above version, BBC decided to do it yet again, but
like Old Curiosity Shop, is just too
short and even the great Charlotte Rampling cannot make it more interesting
than the 1999 version.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on all five versions fares better for
the recent mini-series than older telefilms, though only Blu-rays of those
older productions will show if it is a transfer problem or if softness and
motion blur are from the source. All
have Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo all about on par with each other, as these might
be good recordings, but nothing special.
Extras on titles newly covered here include nothing on Old Curiosity Shop and single,
informative making of featurettes on Little
Dorrit and Great Expectations. The whole set is only for diehard fans or as
a gift, while Blu-ray owners might want to start with Bleak House and wait on the others.
Points to the nice packaging though; a slidecase box that opens like a
booklet and has its DVDs in paper holders as if it were a Dickens book.
- Nicholas Sheffo
