Little Dorrit (2008)/ Oliver Twist (2007) Collector's Set

Little Dorrit

Acclaimed screenwriter Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House) crafts an all new Dickens adaptation starring Academy Award® nominee Tom Courtenay (The Golden Compass), Matthew Macfadyen (MI-5, Pride and Prejudice) and newcomer Claire Foy (Being Human).

This gripping new series brings to life Dickens's powerful story of struggle and hardship in 1820s London. When Arthur Clennam (Macfadyen) returns to England after many years abroad, his curiosity is piqued by the presence in his mother's house of a young seamstress, Amy Dorrit (Foy). His quest to discover the truth about "Little Dorrit" takes him to the Marshalsea Debtors Prison, where he discovers that the dark shadows of debt stretch far and wide in a web of desperation and deceit.

Filled with humorous yet tragic characters, Little Dorrit is a stirring rags to riches story, exposing the underbelly of nineteenth century British society as only Charles Dickens can.

Oliver Twist

A dramatic retelling of a Dickens classic
This gripping and emotionally powerful new adaptation penned by Sarah Phelps (EastEnders) breathes bold, modern life while still remaining faithful to the popular Dickens story. Having endured a miserable childhood of poverty and misfortune, Oliver (William Miller, the talented eleven-year-old who beat out 700 other actors for the part) escapes to the streets of London where he meets the Artful Dodger and Fagin. He is welcomed into the seductive world of pick-pocketing, and before long, Oliver is in deep trouble with both the law and the evil Bill Sykes.

Little Dorrit

Episode 1 - AMY DORRIT lives in the Marshalsea Prison for Debt with her father, WILLIAM DORRIT, who has been an inmate there for countless years. Although born and bred in the prison, she is far from being downtrodden and has grown up to be an enterprising young woman. At the start of the story she gains employment as a seamstress at the House of Clennam. Her employer is the stern and formidable MRS CLENNAM, who has been paralysed and confined to her room for a dozen years.
Events are set in motion in the CLENNAM household when MRS CLENNAM's son, ARTHUR, returns unexpectedly from China after an absence of twenty years. ARTHUR brings the news that his father, who's also been in China, has died. ARTHUR is convinced that his father died with something on his conscience, but MRS CLENNAM adamantly dismisses any such suspicion.
ARTHUR questions the presence of AMY DORRIT in the house. Mrs Clennam already has two faithful servants, FLINTWINCH and AFFERY, so why has she taken on this little seamstress? He becomes convinced that this girl must be the one whom his father somehow wronged, and he sets out to find out if he is right. He follows AMY to the Marshalsea and meets the whole Dorrit family: Amy's father and the head of the family, WILLIAM DORRIT, her eccentric uncle, FREDERICK, her idle brother, TIP, and her sister, the dancer, FANNY. But can any of them confirm his suspicion for him?

Episode 2 - ARTHUR strikes up a tentative friendship with AMY DORRIT, resolving to help her in any way he can. He remains suspicious that his family might have been involved in her father's downfall, and that this is what was on his father's conscience when he died. If he can prove it, he can help put an end to the Dorrit family's longstanding woes for good.
He also continues to settle back into life in England, becoming reacquainted with his childhood sweetheart, FLORA CASBY. However, his mind is still on the pretty PET MEAGLES, whom he met on his journey back to England. He's therefore pleased to become reacquainted with PET's father, MR MEAGLES, and to receive an invitation to the family home in Twickenham.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in France, the sinister and coldblooded murderer RIGAUD, who is seemingly unconnected with the story so far, becomes reacquainted with his old cellmate, CAVALLETTO. CAVALLETTO unwittingly plants in RIGAUD the idea of coming to England...

Episode 3 - AMY is extremely moved by ARTHUR's kindness in paying for TIP's release from the Marshalsea. So much so that she takes the enormous risk of going, accompanied by her friend, MAGGY, to his lodgings to thank him, regardless of the fact that she'll miss the curfew at the Marshalsea and will have to spend the rest of the night on the dangerous streets of London.
Seeing AMY's heart go out to Arthur almost breaks the heart of the turnkey's son, JOHN CHIVERY. He has held a torch for AMY since childhood and he is now forced to galvanise himself in order to seize his chance with her before it's too late.
The rent-collector and part-time sleuth, PANCKS, takes charge of Arthur's investigations into his family's past, leaving ARTHUR free to visit the MEAGLESES in Twickenham. PET is as sweet-natured as he remembered but her servant and companion, TATTYCORAM, is increasingly troubled. It transpires that she has been in contact with the strange, aloof MISS WADE, whom they all encountered in Marseilles. What does MISS WADE want with the vulnerable TATTYCORAM?

Episode 4 - JOHN CHIVERY, sensing a rival in ARTHUR, decides to make his move and propose to AMY. It's too late, however, and AMY, who already has feelings for Arthur, turns JOHN down. JOHN is heartbroken. And MR DORRIT is extremely put out that AMY has upset the Chiverys, from whom he gets so much preferential treatment in the Marshalsea.
ARTHUR meanwhile, entirely ignorant of Amy's feelings for him, is also disappointed in love when he meets PET's rival suitor, HENRY GOWAN. However, he enjoys meeting the MEAGLESES' family friend, the inventor and engineer, DANIEL DOYCE. He has been looking for a new business venture since his return to England. Has he found the ideal partner in DOYCE?
CAVALLETTO arrives in London, only to discover that he's been followed by the very man he came to England to get away from: RIGAUD. RIGAUD encounters FLINTWINCH's twin brother, EPHRAIM, in a tavern. Seeing the box containing Mrs Clennam's secret papers, RIGAUD immediately senses an opportunity...

Episode 5 - FANNY invites AMY with her to see MRS MERDLE. MRS MERDLE is the mother of FANNY's admirer, EDMUND SPARKLER. She is also the wife of the richest man in the country. MRS MERDLE takes great pains to explain to FANNY why a match between a dancing girl such as herself and an extremely wealthy and eligible young man such as her son is not possible. But FANNY isn't easily intimidated, and refuses to take MRS MERDLE's insults lying down.
FLORA, who has sensed a rival for Arthur's affections in AMY, decides to keep her enemies close by inviting AMY to come and work for her. But is Flora justified in worrying about Arthur's feelings for Amy?
PANCKS, when he's not being bullied by his employer, MR CASBY, continues his investigations into the connection between the Dorrits and the Clennams. He hints to AMY about the possibility of an imminent discovery...

Episode 6 - PANCKS busies himself with more investigating, proceeding to recruit JOHN CHIVERY to help him with his enquiries, (assuring JOHN that it's all in the interest of his beloved AMY). He also recruits a lawyer, MR RUGG. AMY notices PANCKS flitting about the place and wonders what he's up to.
Determined to try his luck, ARTHUR returns to Twickenham to propose to PET. However, PET breaks the news to him that she has decided to marry GOWAN and ARTHUR returns to London, thoroughly disheartened.
TATTYCORAM finally decides that she has had enough of being ordered about, and she storms out of the house, declaring that she is leaving for good. MEAGLES, deeply concerned for her welfare, enlists ARTHUR to help him find her. They guess correctly that she's gone to MISS WADE's, but can they convince her to part with this woman who seems to have a hold on her?

Episode 7 - RIGAUD visits MRS CLENNAM's house, pretending that he's come on business. Although he's in no rush to let on that he's in possession of the box containing her secret papers, FLINTWINCH is quick to cotton on that this is the case. RIGAUD charms MRS CLENNAM and she, little knowing the power he has over her, invites him to come back when he's ready to do business.
PET and GOWAN get married, much to MR and MRS MEAGLES' disappointment. ARTHUR is forced to swallow his pride and be best man. He reveals his bitter sentiments about the marriage to Amy, who again hides her disappointment at hearing him talk of his love for another woman.
PANCKS, meanwhile, has finally finished his investigations and prepares to reveal his incredible discovery to the Dorrits.

Episode 8 - The Dorrits make their triumphant departure from the Marshalsea. ARTHUR looks on in the knowledge that he may never see them again. Mr Dorrit has instructed that the friendship with him be brought to an end. He wants to leave the past, and everyone in it, behind him.
MR DORRIT wastes no time in employing a lady, MRS GENERAL, to offer instruction in etiquette to his daughters. MRS GENERAL suggests that the family goes on a Grand Tour and, before they know it, the Dorrits have left the country. AMY, however, doesn't leave without ensuring that her friends - the poverty-stricken PLORNISHES and MAGGY - are well provided for and everyone, especially ARTHUR, but even the coldhearted MRS CLENNAM, reflects on how much they will miss her.
The first person that the Dorrits encounter on their Grand Tour is RIGAUD. He is travelling with the newly-wed GOWANS and much to AMY's discomfort, he seems to take a special interest in her...

Episode 9 - The Dorrits, still on their Grand Tour, arrive in Venice. AMY, unlike the rest of the family, struggles to adapt to her new, wealthy lifestyle. MR DORRIT can't understand why this is and begins to lose his patience with her, particularly when she keeps referring to the old days - the very times that he longs to obliterate from his memory. Amy's uncle, FREDERICK, is the only one who seems able to relate to how she feels.
Back in London ARTHUR, missing Amy, throws himself into his work, resolving to take up DOYCE's case at the Circumlocution Office.
AMY and ARTHUR strike up a correspondence and these letters, along with AMY's growing friendship with PET, are what keep her going. However, the problem is that every time AMY wants to see PET, she has to see RIGAUD too. And, much to AMY's displeasure, RIGAUD seems to continue to want to get near to her, and to find out more about her...

Episode 10 - FANNY worries about the burgeoning affection between MR DORRIT and MRS GENERAL. The thought of having MRS GENERAL as a step-mother makes her want to pursue marriage to EDMUND SPARKLER, who has arrived in Venice with his mother, MRS MERDLE. MRS MERDLE, however, will do anything she can to prevent such a marriage. She enlists the help of her husband, MR MERDLE, in finding a way of getting SPARKLER away from FANNY.
Back in England, MR and MRS MEAGLES receive a visit from HENRY GOWAN's mother, the snobbish MRS GOWAN. MRS GOWAN repeats her self-invented myth that the MEAGLESES trapped her son into marriage. The MEAGLESES, furious with MRS GOWAN and worried for PET's reputation, decide to go out to Venice to be with her.
ARTHUR visits his mother only to find a stranger standing on her doorstep. The stranger in question is RIGAUD, just returned from Venice. ARTHUR realises immediately that RIGAUD is a criminal, but what business could he possibly have with MRS CLENNAM?

Episode 11 - MR MERDLE secures a position for SPARKLER at the Circumlocution Office. MRS MERDLE is gleeful to have got her son out of FANNY's clutches. But is she underestimating FANNY and rejoicing too soon?
ARTHUR receives a shock when PANCKS shows him an official handbill detailing the disappearance of RIGAUD, last seen at the House of Clennam. It suggests that MRS CLENNAM is suspected of Rigaud's murder. CAVALLETTO adds to the shock by informing ARTHUR that RIGAUD himself is a murderer. ARTHUR rushes round to MRS CLENNAM's, to find out what's been going on, but she remains stonily reticent in the face of his questions. Undiscouraged, ARTHUR remains determined to find RIGAUD and to clear his mother's name.

Epiosde 12 - MR DORRIT returns to England with the newlyweds, FANNY and SPARKLER. He is overawed by the splendour of the Merdle House and deeply flattered when MR MERDLE offers to help him invest his fortune.
ARTHUR also decides to invest the capital of DOYCE AND CLENNAM in Merdle's bank. He has big ambitions for the business, persuading DOYCE of the need for expansion. Despite all of this, he remains deeply worried by the suspicion surrounding his mother's house over the disappearance of RIGAUD. With the aim of laying the matter to rest once and for all, he commissions PANCKS to find MISS WADE, in the hope that she can lead him to RIGAUD.
MR DORRIT meanwhile quickly settles into the London highlife, greatly enjoying being the distinguished guest and friend of MR MERDLE. However, when old faces from the past start popping up here and there, reminding him of the times he would rather forget, matters begin to take an unexpected turn for the worse...

Episode 13 - MR DORRIT has returned to Venice a shadow of his former self, unravelled by the constant reminders in London of his unhappy, shameful past. AMY looks on, powerless, as he continues to fall apart. His one remaining wish is for a future together with MRS GENERAL, but is the contemplation of such a future enough to spur him on?
Meanwhile, PANCKS discovers the whereabouts of MISS WADE for ARTHUR, and ARTHUR wastes no time in heading to her new address in Whitstable to ask her where he might find RIGAUD. He's increasingly convinced that RIGAUD's hold over the House of Clennam has something to do with the family's secret past - and he's determined to put a stop to RIGAUD's machinations and to uncover the truth about that past for himself.
MR MERDLE, although having succeeded in convincing half of London to invest in his lucrative bank, remains strangely hang-dog and depressed. He visits FANNY and SPARKLER and asks to borrow a pen-knife, before disappearing again...

Episode 14 - MR MERDLE's death sends shockwaves through London, as it transpires that all along he had been fiddling his books and in reality, he had nothing. The thousands of people who invested in him now face financial ruin. One of those unfortunate people is ARTHUR, who finds himself in the Marshalsea Prison for Debt.
When AMY discovers that ARTHUR is now an inmate of the Marshalsea, she abandons her own family crisis brought about by MERDLE's suicide, and rushes to be by his side. However, although it's now transparent that ARTHUR loves her, he also makes it clear that he won't allow her to bind herself to him now that he's in prison. With little chance of ever obtaining his own release, he sends AMY away and tells her not to come back again.
RIGAUD re-emerges and it is clear that he is finally ready to reveal his full set of cards to MRS CLENNAM. But what exactly is it that he knows about the House of Clennam. And, when she finds out what he knows, will MRS CLENNAM finally give into his threats?

Oliver Twist

Episode 1 - Having endured a miserable and brutal childhood, Oliver is sold to a local undertaker where his mistreatment forces him to escape to London. Once in the capital, he is welcomed into the seductive world of pick-pocketing by the criminal underworld and, before long, is in deep trouble with the Law.

Episode 2 - Fagin meets Monks and is promised handsome payment if he brings about Oliver's death. Fagin reasons, however, that someone may pay to have him returned safely.

Episode 3 - Sikes escapes back to London with a badly wounded Oliver. Nancy nurses him, determined to save his life. Mr Bumble declares his love for Mrs Corney. Rose continues to search for Oliver, but is discovered by Monks, who tells Brownlow of her secret mission. Nancy overhears Monks telling Fagin he wants Oliver dead.

Episode 4 - Despite Corney and Bumble's attempts to extort money from him, Monks quickly gets the upper hand and leaves with the necklace, letter and a page of the register recording Oliver's birth. Nancy cares for Oliver, promising that she will get him back to the safety of the Brownlows. Dodger, however, is aware of Nancy's betrayal, putting her in grave danger.

Episode 5 - Snatching Oliver as a hostage, Sikes goes on the run - but he finds that Nancy's ghost continues to haunt him. Brownlow and the police raid Fagin's den. There is no sign of Oliver and Fagin is arrested. Monks returns to London, but when he arrives home he finds Brownlow, Rose and the police waiting for him.

Little Dorrit

Written by Charles Dickens, Andrew Davies
Directed by Adam Smith, Dearbhla Walsh, Diarmuid Lawrence
Produced by Lisa Asborne
Executive Produced by Rebecca Eaton, Anne Pivcevic
Original Music by John Lunn
Cinematography by Owen McPolin, Lukas Strebel, Alan Almond
Film Editing by Philip Kloss, Nick Arthurs, David Head
Costume design by Barbara Kidd

Oliver Twist

Written by Charles Dickens
Screenplay by Sarah Phelps
Directed by Coky Giedroyc
Produced by Sarah Brown
Executive Produced by Rebecca Eaton, Kate Harwood
Original Music by Martin Phipps
Cinematography by Matt Gray
Film Editing by Mark Thornton
Costume Design by Amy Roberts

Little Dorrit

"Little Dorrit ... is turning into one of the most compelling TV productions of the year." Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail

"Little Dorrit was brilliant, obviously. Dickens, Andrew Davies, lots of money, top names... how could it be anything other than brilliant? And because it's Dickens, those top names can get away with a little bit more showing off and look-at-me acting than they would be able to in, say, Jane Austen. Alun Armstrong certainly seems to think so - snorting, and growling and gurning away as the foul Jeremiah Flintwinch. Splendid. Oh, and by happy circumstance, because of the current economic climate it's also suddenly very relevant." Sam Wollaston, Guardian

"...what a smashing Dickens it is, this Little Twist, this Bleak Expectations, this Tale of Two Hard Times, credit-crunched down from a sprawling million or so pages of all-but-unreadable Victorian satire into a manageable 21st-century, 14-parter by (who else?) Andrew Davies and a back-slappingly, high-fivingly ‘wooooo!' cast of quite stupendous brilliance ... Oh, and Tom Courtenay, as Mr Dorrit, is superb." Kathryn Flett, Observer

"It is a worthy successor to 2005's soap-style Bleak House: grimly atmospheric and intriguingly pacy ... With recession drawing in, there could be no better time to screen this Dickens novel ... and Andrew Davies's adaptation is full of gloomy resonances: poverty, financial mismanagement, dark secrets and guilt." Victoria Segal, Sunday Times

"Little Dorrit had everything you could wish for in a BBC costume drama. Script by Andrew Davies? Obviously. Scruffy urchins in flat caps riding on the back of carts full of cabbages? Check. The immaculate-but-grubby production values that guarantee the period detail is tatty enough to look ‘authentic' but not so squalid it can't be sold to American television? Definitely. A string of the nation's finest actors queuing up to dress up in bonnets and woolly sideburns (not to mention the women)? Oh yes ... It was a grim, dark mystery, a classic mix of menace and whimsy." Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror

"I am hooked already ... it's got a cast that reads like the guest list of a Bafta tea party and, shot in high definition, you can see every pore and yellowing tooth." Richard Arnold, People

"This being Davies, it's distractingly gorgeous - all distressed paintwork, shadows, a vast cast of glittering brilliance and, if I remember the book rightly, some rather unexpected racial and lesbian overtones. Courtenay is terrific as the pompous, deluded William Dorrit..." Christina Patterson, Independent

"...it is studded with stars ... it looks gorgeous and the resonances with modern life have been turned up to 11." Cole Moreton, Independent On Sunday

"...sumptuous ... top-notch costume drama ... a sublime and brilliantly acted one..." Virginia Blackburn, Daily Express

"This was a handsome, excellent dramatisation with a streamlined script and a fine cast ... The whole thing looked wonderful and the credit-crunch chic of Mrs Clennam's accommodation with its wooden floors and distressed green-painted walls has given me ideas for the sitting-room." Stephen Pile, Daily Telegraph

"...this was an orgy of character acting, with Alun Armstrong, Bill Paterson, Maxine Peake, Judy Parfitt and Andy Serkis all performing vigorously. It was the central relationship between Dorrit and daughter that spellbound, however. Tom Courtenay played Mr Dorrit as a symphony of guile and self-delusion - a tune that Amy looked as if she had heard a few hundred times too often. The newcomer Claire Foy was terrific, a combo of realism, anger and accidental charm. Andrew Davies's typically savvy script presented the novel as a metaphor for the prison that is life. Those who weren't either in the Marshalsea or Marseilles Gaol were incarcerated by their class, marriage, dysfunctional family or oppressive secrets." Andrew Billen, The Times

"So far, the only unqualified beneficiary of the credit crunch has been Little Dorrit ... When this serial was given the go-ahead, the head of BBC Drama Productions couldn't possibly have known just how relevant a story about a young woman raised in a debtors' jail would be." Toby Young, Independent On Sunday

"It's Charles Dickens, it's adapted by Andrew Davies, it's the BBC, 14 cold winter evenings lie ahead: you know already if you are going to be watching, don't you? There are character actors with faces seemingly designed by nature to inhabit a Dickensian scene ... this adaptation is as good quality as usual and promises to be as enjoyable as Bleak House." Andrea Mullaney, Scotsman

"Every week, Little Dorrit guarantees the viewer a couple of half-hour interludes of total content." David Chater, The Times

"It is the book that George Bernard Shaw said made him a socialist. It is about blame ... and the emotional dimension of debt. It is about occluded, impenetrable financial systems, bureaucracy, spin, embezzlement and the self-perpetuating mechanism of social injustice. Its concerns are our concerns, and its problems are still with us, except that the Marshalsea prison is now the site of luxury flats, mortgaged up to the hilt. It's a witheringly appropriate choice for today and this adaptation gets it just right, turning the bad Dickensian bipolarities (satirical gurning one moment, saccharine sentiment the next) to the good: the caricatures here are actually funny and the emotional stuff genuinely touching. Ruth Jones as Flora Finching is both. Dickens said he laughed aloud as he wrote her dialogue, but here there was pathos too ... Andrew Davies cuts a clear cross section through Dickens's ants' nest. He has done a great job cooking up all the fabulous ingredients Dickens dumped in the basket of the book ... I rather like the liberties Davies has taken ... this Little Dorrit is a bit of a triumph." Hermione Eyre, Independent On Sunday

"I loved Little Dorrit." Jane Kelly, London Evening Standard

"Loved it .... Bring back the Marshalsea for all the new debtors." Michele Hanson, Guardian

"Little Dorrit goes from strength to strength." David Chater, The Times

"...handsome, soap-sized chunks of Dickens..." Gerard Gilbert, Independent

"The production values are indeed high and it's obvious where the budget, rumoured to be £10million, has been spent, with immaculate sets and some great exteriors at the house in the country where the batty Meagles (Bill Paterson, Sea Of Souls) and his wife (Janine Duvitski, The Worst Week Of My Life) live ... Writer Andrew Davies and director Dearbhla Walsh have deftly sketched some classic Dickens characters, not least Alun Armstrong's quirky Jeremiah Flintwinch and Mrs Flintwinch, played by the studied Sue Johnston. The Flintwinches wait on the redoubtable Mrs Clenman, who is splendidly realised by Judy Parfitt ... Arthur is played by Matthew Macfayden and it may well be his best work since Spooks. He gives the character a sophisticated, modern resonance as he sets out to discover the dark secret that haunts the family." David Stephenson, Express on Sunday

"...what an absolute treat it is to be told one of Dickens' lesser known stories. Especially as you've no idea what's going to happen but are confident that it's going to be a real corker. There was an awful lot of plot to get through in Sunday night's mouth-watering opening course and tonight the world of the Dorrits opens out to us a little more in one superbly realised set after another. For the cast - headed by newcomer Claire Foy as the kind and clear-eyed Amy Dorrit - it's a chance to really put their stamp on a character. Gwen from Torchwood (Eve Myles) is quite unrecognisable tonight as Amy's friend Maggy. But this week's standout moment sees Ruth Jones from Gavin and Stacey as a be-ribboned Flora Finching making an entrance that leaves Matthew Macfayden's Arthur Clennam well and truly lost for words." Jane Simon, Daily Mirror

"It's pretty soon clear that this is not a novel for the novice adaptor, tangling malicious motive and buried secrets into a mare's-nest of enigmas ... Tom Courtenay is terrific as William Dorrit, a humbugging beggar, ludicrously vain of his only honorific, ‘The Father of the Marshalsea', even though it is evidence of his hopeless fecklessness. Matthew Macfadyen makes a persuasively gloomy Arthur Clennam, numbly enduring his mother's coldness (Judy Parfitt in glacial form). And Maxine Peake does a scary turn as Miss Wade, a malevolent stalker with a hint of sapphic appetite to her. It doesn't exactly hurt the drama's chances either, that its themes of betrayed trust, ruinous indebtedness and financial skulduggery are so precisely fitted to the moment." Tom Sutcliffe, Independent

"Dickens' Little Dorrit ... has a theme for the times and a plot as complex as any default credit swap. Let us simply say that thanks largely to bent financiers, the characters enjoy many reversals of fortune and the Treasury (aka the ‘Circumlocution Office') gets a bum rap. The bankers may all be dodgy but in the enfolding autumn gloom, this series looks certain to be a banker for the Beeb."
Andrew Gilligan, London Evening Standard

"That Dickens was a pre-eminent storyteller who cared deeply about the injustices of his age is made abundantly clear in this production. But the triumph of the way in which every actor takes his or her role - however small - and plays it to the hilt. According to its adaptor Andrew Davies: ‘We all recall our junior school teachers as amazing and grotesque, but as we grow older, we tend not to notice how incredible and peculiar people are. We lose that, but Dickens retained that ability to see just how extraordinary people are.' This Little Dorrit is bursting at the seams with the extraordinariness of people." David Chater, The Times

"Tune in to see Tom Courtenay's performance alone - he is extraordinary as the father of the Marshalsea, a helpless, charming, malicious old baby ... All the staff are Rada trained, of course, serving up a wide range of tea, cakes and physical deformities - wheezy snarl from Mr Alun Armstrong a house speciality... " Hermione Eyre, Independent On Sunday

"It must be hard to play anyone so thoroughly good as Amy without coming a cross as unbearably pious or just plain dull, but newcomer Claire Foy really gives her life ... Mrs Clennam (a fantastically icy Judy Parfitt)..." Clare Heal, Express on Sunday

"Tonight [Episode 4] there is a big development in the race to win Amy's hand in marriage. When Mr Dorrit senses what has happened, he gives a masterclass in self-pity - it would be worth watching the entire series just to see those few minutes. Similarly, it is always great fun seeing the two Dorrit brothers together (Tom Courtenay and James Fleet): they make a sublimely funny, pathetic - and convincing - pair of siblings." David Chater, The Times

"Andrew Davies's sure-footed Dickens adaptation continues with a heartbreaking scene between Amy and the loved-up, jug-eared John Chivery (Russell Tovey). Great stuff." Gerard Gilbert, Independent

"...John's devoted love for little Amy is rather joyous to watch." Anna Lowman, Guardian

"...a brilliant cloak-and-dagger menace materialises in the form of Rigaud. He's played with a rakish earring, false nose and French accent by Andy Serkis ... Watch out also for a strikingly frail performance by Tom Courtenay as Little Dorrit's father ... and Maxine Peake as the mysterious Miss Wade..."
Bella Todd, Time Out

"... there's murder afoot as the mysterious French villain Rigaud (Andy Serkis) stalks London's streets, leaving you perched on the edge of your seat as another half-hour episode ends all too soon."
Jane Simon, Daily Mirror

"...Jeremiah Flintwinch (a hunched, lop-sided Alun Armstrong as a cross between Max Wall and a sinister Humpty Dumpty) ... In her enormous ruffle and ancient wheelchair, Judy Parfitt plays the Eileen Atkins role of the grand dame going for a Bafta as Mrs Clennam ... Maxine Peake doing a good impression of Miranda Richardson as the mysterious Miss Wade." Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror

"Tattycoram [Freema Agyeman] is not a central but she's wonderfully bonkers and rather daring ... Little Dorrit herself, beautifully played by Claire Foy, is the total opposite of Tattycoram ... I also like the strong performances by Matthew Macfadyen, the marvellous Judy Parfitt, Andy Serkis and Eddie Marsan."
Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail

"Though Dickens intended his story as a savage satire on the injustices of the age, it's also a wonderfully rich story peppered with colourful characters from all strata of 19th-century London life, as well as a deliciously wicked French villain." Irish Independent

"More stars than you can spot and enough bonnets and top hats to keep your ears warm until Christmas ... It all adds up to a fabulous, entertaining period piece, perfect for the darkening nights as winter draws in." Scottish Daily Record

"The best time with your feet up television." Rachel Ward, Sunday Telegraph

"The BBC does these costume dramas so well ITV doesn't even attempt them (Heartbeat doesn't count). They're what the BBC does best." Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror

Oliver Twist

"Given the strength of the cast, this adaptation of Oliver Twist couldn't possibly go wrong - and it doesn't. A who's who of acting talent captures perfectly Dickens's army of exaggerated grotesques, with an unusual and wholly believable Fagin from Timothy Spall at its heart. Tom Hardy is Bill Sikes and Sophie Okonedo is Nancy, with show-stopping turns from the likes of Rob Brydon, Sarah Lancashire, Anna Massey, Michelle Gomez and Edward Fox among a sensational supporting cast. There are bound to be comparisons with Bleak House, but this is a more straightforward adaptation with the strength of the performances dominating a painterly setting. Having got off to a rip-roaring start, it promises to be essential viewing for the rest of the week." David Chater, The Times

"Sarah Phelps' brilliantly ugly adaptation ... Oozing evil all the way, it was a million miles from the cuddly, Sunday-teatime spirit of former Dickens-based TV series." Matt Baylis, Daily Express

"Oliver Twist was very watchable ... this adaptation looked the business, with lashings of gin and filth and rags, bad complexions, battered hats and poor oral health. The central performances crackled nicely. As Oliver, William Miller squeezed as much as he could into a character doomed to do little more than be dragged by his ear from pillar to post. The irresistible Timothy Spall put in an agreeable Fagin, his yellow-fanged grin hovering between compassion and self-preservation, his Mitteleuropean vowels (‘Good moroning‘) just about staying this side of panto. Sarah Lancashire purred and cackled as the scheming, slatternly Mrs Corney, a sexual magnet for Mr Bumble (a sweating Rab C Nesbitt in a tricorn hat)..." Phil Hogan, Observer

"...tight, lucid plotting (writer Sarah Phelps's EastEnders skill showing through) and some wonderful performances, played against type, Timothy Spall's Fagin being leeringly cuddly, and Tom Hardy's Bill Sikes sexy as well as clearly psychotic. Sophie Okonedo was the most touching Nancy I have ever seen." Hermione Eyre, Independent On Sunday

"...excellent ... It manages to feel modern, yet also faithful - somewhere between melodrama and gritty realism, but funny, too, in a dark and sarky way ... And it all looks wonderful - bad skin, bad teeth, muck, food symbolism all over the place. On my new flat-screen TV (at last!), it's like having my own Hogarth come to life in the living room. You can almost smell the pisspots, the sweat, the farts, the hypocrisy, the social injustice ... The new Oliver Twist is dark, funny and real - please can we have more telly like this?" Sam Wollaston, Guardian

"...with this Dickensian evergreen it is the differences that we look out for. Here there was an entire bucketful. Penned by a former EastEnders scriptwriter in nightly instalments, this was a bold, modern, sleek, dramatic exaggeration of Dickens's story: Nancy became black, Oliver feisty and Fagin exotic like an overweight, Yiddish, Eastern European Boy George. Tom Hardy was magnificent as Bill Sikes and conveyed raw, psychopathic violence." Stephen Pile, Daily Telegraph

"...it is wonderful to see this red-blooded adaptation embracing the ugliness and squalor of 19th-century London and rescuing Dickens's novel from sentimentality ... Instead of loveable old Fagin, here is Timothy Spall as a horribly plausible grotesque meeting his maker at the end of a rope, with Tom Hardy's Sikes snarling like a Soprano with a baseball bat. If the best classic adaptations engineer a controlled collision between the past and the present, this one generates a considerable bang." David Chater, The Times

"...from uniformly strong performances to a script that delights in the book's slang ... there's still been much to admire..." Jonathan Wright, Guardian

"The actor playing Oliver was terribly good..." David Stephenson, Express on Sunday

"...it had an hour-long opener that was fun, gripping and dramatic ... It had some excellent sets and scenery and it was easy to be drawn in to the action." Jon Wise, People

"It's grand to see the BBC doing what it does best for Christmas - classic costume drama with a part for all our national treasures. Sarah Phelps's new adaptation of Dickens's favourite is a world away from the schmaltz of the musical and brings to the fore all the grotesqueries and darkness of the novel. From the brutality of the workhouse under the iron rod of Mr Bumble (Gregor Fisher), aided by the slyly cruel Mrs Corney (Sarah Lancashire), to the uneasy fraternity of Fagin's den, this Oliver Twist is set firmly in a world where poverty is a sin to be punished in the hope of God's forgiveness, where unpredictable violence is taken for granted, children are randomly sentenced to hang and kindness is a rarer commodity than food or money ... Oliver, played here by William Miller with a steely resilience not often brought out in dramatic adaptations ... Timothy Spall is splendid in the role, all manky teeth and squinty-eyed leering, but with an edge of pathos ... Bill Sykes, played by the brilliant Tom Hardy with the unnatural calm and sudden eruptions of violence of the psychopath. Edward Fox was born to be Mr Brownlow ... and Green Wing's Julian Rhind-Tutt is truly chilling as Mr Monks ... Please BBC, we want some more." Stephanie Merritt, Observer

"...excellent..." Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror

"...three hours of terrific TV ... what Phelps lacks in prior knowledge of Oliver Twist, she more than makes up for in enthusiasm. Her adaptation is wonderfully lucid, with a compelling narrative drive. A major rethink has occurred ... the real casting coup is 11-year-old William Miller as an Oliver far removed from the wan child actor who usually inhabits the role. Miller is also probably a far cry from the somewhat soupy Oliver that Dickens created, but the story is better for it, while Fagin (and, to a degree, Bill Sikes) is less out-and-out villain and misunderstood victim." Gerard Gilbert, Independent

"TV joy: Timothy Spall in BBC1's Oliver Twist." Ian Hyland, News of the World

"Ours is a time of contention and care over race and culture: thus Nancy, rendered close to saintliness, was played by the black actress Sophie Okonedo, there were black boys' faces in the workhouse and in Fagin's den - and Fagin himself, a Gothic performance by Timothy Spall, is played as a very Jewish, but not an evil, Jew ... This series gives him a conscience and an explanation: it is tougher on the causes for the criminals than it is on their crimes - except those of the ‘gentleman', Mr Monks, and the parochial officials, Mrs Corney the workhouse boss and Mr Bumble the beadle, both milked to the last drop by Sarah Lancashire and Gregor Fisher." John Lloyd, Financial Times

"The script skips along, as you'd expect from an EastEnders' scribe, the minor characters are lovingly rendered, and the world created is grimy and captivating." Gareth McLean, Guardian

"You may already know the classic tale, but the startling acting means that this exciting adaptation still has plenty of reasons to be watched." Lucy Tobin, Daily Express

"The last episode of this Charles Dickens' classic will leave you wanting more!" Sun

"Here, at last, is a TV version he [Dickens] might have been pleased to watch." Matt Baylis, Daily Express

Little Dorrit

2009 Emmy® Awards
Outstanding Miniseries
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or A Dramatic Special - Dearbhla Walsh
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special - Andrew Davies
Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or Special
Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or Special
Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie
Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie

Oliver Twist, Dickens' second novel, was originally published in installments from 1837 through to 1839 and later published as a book.

Sarah Phelps was working for the Royal Shakespeare Company before she took part in a BBC initiative to find new writers.