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Happy Dickens Day
7/2/12 07:25As today is the official celebration of Charles Dickens' centenary I wanted to talk about the parts of the BBC’s Dickens season that I watched in December 2011. However, I feel bad that posting about this so late means anyone who wants to watch the programs will have missed the opportunity to catch up with many of these programs on iPlayer.
How does everyone feel about posts on tv that isn’t available to everyone anymore? And how do those of you who can’t use the iPlayer service, because of country restrictions, feel about posts on BBC programs? Do you want me to continue to talk about tv, even if it isn’t easy for everyone to access, or would you rather I kept that chat off my blog after this post, because it makes you frustrated?
On to the Dickens Day content:
‘Great Expectations’: Oh I luuuurrrrved this. I luuurved it. So Dickens sexy, if you know what I mean – lush, gothically weird and with a few dark, homo-erotic moments sprinkled over the storyline from the book. Gillian Anderson was excellent as the younger than normal Miss Havisham. She fully got across the fact that Miss Havisham is only so evil because she’s been horrendously damaged by a con-man, but that her relationship with Estella is still creepy and dangerous for the young girl. I also <3 Ray Winston’s performance as the seedy, but honourable Magwitch.
This is the kind of gothic styled production that I enjoy watching so much. There was a great perverse artistry in the costuming and in some of the horrible acts shown, like Magwitch’s leg chains being soldered while still on his ankles. There’s a slicing wonder for the viewer to extract from the twisted nature of the human emotions being shown. There can be something horrendously attractive about watching people being cruel in a particularly clever or artful manner, especially when they’re costumed to the eyes in creepy/pretty clothes.
Still the viewer is never encouraged to enter this piece as a close up voyeur of ‘deliciously’ styled pain, cut off from all the mundane reality of being hurt. Instead, they’re shown the full range of ways in which pain affects people and the way that it can be presented with polished, visual impact. Is there the potential for an intersection between horror and beauty when the viewer watches Estella hold herself haughty and hateful, in watching Miss Havisham go up in flames, or even in watching Magwitch’s final death in this production? Sure. Is the viewer encouraged to focus solely on the beauty at the expense of the reality of painful emotions? Nuuh. Pip and every other character’s emotions are always clearly on display, so that the viewer can’t help but see them as real people who don’t deserve the hurt they’re experiencing, even as the costuming seduces the senses.
Three back to back parts was just the right pacing for this adaptation. I am (harshly) going to compare the new Great Expectations film to this adaptation, when it comes out this year.
Highlight: Umm EVERYTHING, but especially the friendship between Pip and Herbert Pocket, as well as the scene where Herbert teaches Pip to dance.
‘Mrs Dickens Christmas’: If, like me, you knew nothing much about Catherine Dickens, then this was a very informative program about her life and why the Dickens’ marriage fell apart. I know the BBC is supposed to be known for its balance, but I was still amazed that this program was shown in the middle of the celebrations for Dickens centenary, because it is so (rightly) critical of Dickens behaviour towards Catherine. Sue Perkins was a fabulous presenter for this project, as she captured the irritation any feminist viewer must have felt as they learned that a man so revered for being a literary genius, potentially used his novels to openly mock his wife. His wife, who, just by the way, had ten children before he dumped her for a younger woman.
Lots of fascinating stuff about the role of the Victorian woman was included to provide context for Catherine and Charles’ relationship. The whole thing was topped off by Perkins’ extended dramatic readings from parts of Dickens’ novels, which illustrated the points being made. And of course that made me want to read more Dickens (but not Oliver Twist, no matter how much exciting Nancy and Bill stuff is read out I’m not going to be tricked into reading that again).
Highlight: Learning all the odd pet names Dickens called his kids by and finding out that Lucifer Box was one of them. Mark Gatiss you require me to be so knowledgeable to get all your jokes!
‘Armando Iannucci on Dickens’: Iannuci’s program was much more of a Dickens tribute (he quickly mentioned marriage difficulties, without dwelling too much on the fact that Dickens was the driving force behind the split). Iannucci spent much of his time talking about passages from ‘David Copperfield’, I suppose because it’s always called the most biographical of his novels, which made it easier for me to understand what he was getting at as that’s one of the novels I’ve actually read (and I enjoyed it).
Iannucci also goes off to find out what various people like about Dickens, which I enjoyed and people had very smart things to say. I’m still not convinced that Dickens is that funny, despite the attempts of three comedians, to make him sound hilarious. He can raise a laugh with word play, created some outright laughable characters and used funny names, but his wit isn’t very penetrating. I still find myself having to remember that the techniques he uses are funny, rather than smirking spontaneously. Still, this program was passionate and made me want to pick up a new Dickens novel soon.
Highlight: Seeing all of Dickens work arranged in one pile and feeling excited that there’s so much for me to look forward to.
‘Edwin Drood’ : ( I know he was a terrible person who killed his father, but I still felt really sorry for John Jasper at the end of this program. Edwin Drood was a total pill and I almost wished he had been murdered, despite his fabulous hair.
I’ve never read the book, which is Dickens’ last and unfinished novel, so I read the wikipedia article to see how the television adaptation matched up to the original plot. I’m pretty sure that I liked this adaptation better than I’d have liked any ending by Dickens, even though John Jasper did still have to die. There was a lot of room for the viewer to see him as a tragic hero and feel empathy for him, which he deserved, having been rejected by his father for the blond, blue eyed Edwin.
Random note: Can anyone who has read the novel tell me, are the Landless characters mixed race in Dickens original, or was that a decision taken by the creative team working on this adaptation? If it was their decision it was a fantastic one (no death and some romance for Helena at the end).
Highlight: Bazzard the helpful clerk is super funny, with his distaste for the hellish indoors and his desire to be an amateur sleuth.
If anyone fancies a night of Dickens this year, to commemorate his great work (if not his approach to his personal life - really, he was a terrible man) I recommend getting your hands on the the recent BBC min-series of ‘Little Dorrit’, or their version of ‘Oliver Twist’ (that story is so messed up, but I will watch every adaptation of it ever and look Tom Hardy and Sophie Okenedo are Bill and Nancy in this version). ITV also made had a great go at producing ‘Oliver’ (look, it’s the lovely Marc Warren doing weird, *gazes*). Or you could fall back on a solid favourite, ‘The Muppet’s Christmas Carol’ – not just for kids, look Michael Caine is in it and everything.
If you think I should be watching a particular Dickens adaptation this year, please share in the comments.
How does everyone feel about posts on tv that isn’t available to everyone anymore? And how do those of you who can’t use the iPlayer service, because of country restrictions, feel about posts on BBC programs? Do you want me to continue to talk about tv, even if it isn’t easy for everyone to access, or would you rather I kept that chat off my blog after this post, because it makes you frustrated?
On to the Dickens Day content:
‘Great Expectations’: Oh I luuuurrrrved this. I luuurved it. So Dickens sexy, if you know what I mean – lush, gothically weird and with a few dark, homo-erotic moments sprinkled over the storyline from the book. Gillian Anderson was excellent as the younger than normal Miss Havisham. She fully got across the fact that Miss Havisham is only so evil because she’s been horrendously damaged by a con-man, but that her relationship with Estella is still creepy and dangerous for the young girl. I also <3 Ray Winston’s performance as the seedy, but honourable Magwitch.
This is the kind of gothic styled production that I enjoy watching so much. There was a great perverse artistry in the costuming and in some of the horrible acts shown, like Magwitch’s leg chains being soldered while still on his ankles. There’s a slicing wonder for the viewer to extract from the twisted nature of the human emotions being shown. There can be something horrendously attractive about watching people being cruel in a particularly clever or artful manner, especially when they’re costumed to the eyes in creepy/pretty clothes.
Still the viewer is never encouraged to enter this piece as a close up voyeur of ‘deliciously’ styled pain, cut off from all the mundane reality of being hurt. Instead, they’re shown the full range of ways in which pain affects people and the way that it can be presented with polished, visual impact. Is there the potential for an intersection between horror and beauty when the viewer watches Estella hold herself haughty and hateful, in watching Miss Havisham go up in flames, or even in watching Magwitch’s final death in this production? Sure. Is the viewer encouraged to focus solely on the beauty at the expense of the reality of painful emotions? Nuuh. Pip and every other character’s emotions are always clearly on display, so that the viewer can’t help but see them as real people who don’t deserve the hurt they’re experiencing, even as the costuming seduces the senses.
Three back to back parts was just the right pacing for this adaptation. I am (harshly) going to compare the new Great Expectations film to this adaptation, when it comes out this year.
Highlight: Umm EVERYTHING, but especially the friendship between Pip and Herbert Pocket, as well as the scene where Herbert teaches Pip to dance.
‘Mrs Dickens Christmas’: If, like me, you knew nothing much about Catherine Dickens, then this was a very informative program about her life and why the Dickens’ marriage fell apart. I know the BBC is supposed to be known for its balance, but I was still amazed that this program was shown in the middle of the celebrations for Dickens centenary, because it is so (rightly) critical of Dickens behaviour towards Catherine. Sue Perkins was a fabulous presenter for this project, as she captured the irritation any feminist viewer must have felt as they learned that a man so revered for being a literary genius, potentially used his novels to openly mock his wife. His wife, who, just by the way, had ten children before he dumped her for a younger woman.
Lots of fascinating stuff about the role of the Victorian woman was included to provide context for Catherine and Charles’ relationship. The whole thing was topped off by Perkins’ extended dramatic readings from parts of Dickens’ novels, which illustrated the points being made. And of course that made me want to read more Dickens (but not Oliver Twist, no matter how much exciting Nancy and Bill stuff is read out I’m not going to be tricked into reading that again).
Highlight: Learning all the odd pet names Dickens called his kids by and finding out that Lucifer Box was one of them. Mark Gatiss you require me to be so knowledgeable to get all your jokes!
‘Armando Iannucci on Dickens’: Iannuci’s program was much more of a Dickens tribute (he quickly mentioned marriage difficulties, without dwelling too much on the fact that Dickens was the driving force behind the split). Iannucci spent much of his time talking about passages from ‘David Copperfield’, I suppose because it’s always called the most biographical of his novels, which made it easier for me to understand what he was getting at as that’s one of the novels I’ve actually read (and I enjoyed it).
Iannucci also goes off to find out what various people like about Dickens, which I enjoyed and people had very smart things to say. I’m still not convinced that Dickens is that funny, despite the attempts of three comedians, to make him sound hilarious. He can raise a laugh with word play, created some outright laughable characters and used funny names, but his wit isn’t very penetrating. I still find myself having to remember that the techniques he uses are funny, rather than smirking spontaneously. Still, this program was passionate and made me want to pick up a new Dickens novel soon.
Highlight: Seeing all of Dickens work arranged in one pile and feeling excited that there’s so much for me to look forward to.
‘Edwin Drood’ : ( I know he was a terrible person who killed his father, but I still felt really sorry for John Jasper at the end of this program. Edwin Drood was a total pill and I almost wished he had been murdered, despite his fabulous hair.
I’ve never read the book, which is Dickens’ last and unfinished novel, so I read the wikipedia article to see how the television adaptation matched up to the original plot. I’m pretty sure that I liked this adaptation better than I’d have liked any ending by Dickens, even though John Jasper did still have to die. There was a lot of room for the viewer to see him as a tragic hero and feel empathy for him, which he deserved, having been rejected by his father for the blond, blue eyed Edwin.
Random note: Can anyone who has read the novel tell me, are the Landless characters mixed race in Dickens original, or was that a decision taken by the creative team working on this adaptation? If it was their decision it was a fantastic one (no death and some romance for Helena at the end).
Highlight: Bazzard the helpful clerk is super funny, with his distaste for the hellish indoors and his desire to be an amateur sleuth.
If anyone fancies a night of Dickens this year, to commemorate his great work (if not his approach to his personal life - really, he was a terrible man) I recommend getting your hands on the the recent BBC min-series of ‘Little Dorrit’, or their version of ‘Oliver Twist’ (that story is so messed up, but I will watch every adaptation of it ever and look Tom Hardy and Sophie Okenedo are Bill and Nancy in this version). ITV also made had a great go at producing ‘Oliver’ (look, it’s the lovely Marc Warren doing weird, *gazes*). Or you could fall back on a solid favourite, ‘The Muppet’s Christmas Carol’ – not just for kids, look Michael Caine is in it and everything.
If you think I should be watching a particular Dickens adaptation this year, please share in the comments.
