Bleak House [Special Edition] [3 Discs] [Blu-ray]

Director: Justin Chadwick Justin Chadwick

Overview

A trio of orphans becomes embroiled in a mysterious and long-running lawsuit in this sprawling BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. A legend in the legal circles of Victorian London, the messy inheritance case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce has been trickling through the courts for years with no end in sight. Nobleman John Jarndyce (Denis Lawson) has seen the case destroy more than one life, so when he becomes guardian to three young people -- beautiful Ada Clare (Carey Mulligan), Ada's cousin Richard Carstone (Patrick Kennedy), and her devoted companion, Esther Summerson (Anna Maxwell Martin) -- he vows to shield them from its pernicious effects by bringing them to the safety of his estate, the eponymous Bleak House. Richard, however, becomes obsessed with the unattainable Jarndyce inheritance, to the detriment of his career and mental health. Esther, meanwhile, remains haunted by her origins; the product of a scandalous pregnancy, she was raised by her aunt and knows nothing about her dead mother's identity. Meanwhile, imperious noblewoman Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson) plots to hide the evidence of her own mysterious past -- a quest that leads her to the intrigue surrounding Jarndyce and Jarndyce. She is but one of dozens of characters who find themselves drawn into the lawsuit's web of corruption, blackmail, and murder. Bleak House debuted October 27, 2005, on BBC One. It received its U.S. premiere on January 22, 2006, on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, where the 15 British episodes were combined into six longer blocks. Britain's Royal Television Society named the series Best Drama Serial of 2005. A previous adaptation of Dickens' novel ran on Masterpiece Theatre in 1985.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/05/2009
UPC:	0883929042562
Original Release:	2005
Rating:	NR
Source:	Bbc Warner
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[stereo, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	7:45:00

Special Features

Interviews with Gillian Anderson, Denis Lawson and Charles Dance; Commentaries with writer Andrew Davies, producer Nigel Stafford-Clark and directors Justin Chadwick and Susanna White; Photo gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Anna Maxwell Martin	Esther Summerson
Denis Lawson	John Jarndyce
Carey Mulligan	Ada Clare
Gillian Anderson	Lady Dedlock
Tom Georgeson	Clamb
Charles Dance	Mr. Tulkinghorn
Patrick Kennedy	Richard Carstone
Timothy West	Sir Leicester Dedlock
Burn Gorman	Guppy
Hugo Speer	Sergeant George
John Lunn	Composer

Technical Credits

Nigel Stafford-Clark	Producer
Justin Chadwick	Director

Editorial Reviews

A seemingly interminable lawsuit has mid-19th-century English high society all a-twitter, and its labyrinthine complications envelop a good many people. Among them is a brittle beauty, Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson), who guards a dark secret that makes her vulnerable to Tulkinghorn (Charles Dance), an unscrupulous, scheming lawyer. In recent decades Charles Dickens's Bleak House has become recognized as the true progenitor of the classic detective novel (an honor previously bestowed upon Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone), and in every way this marvelous BBC drama does justice to the original story. To begin with, it's been structured like an old-fashioned movie serial: 15 episodes, all but one a half hour in length. The novel's enormous "cast" has been retained, and the screenwriters have done an admirable job of giving the various characters their proper prominence in the narrative -- something that could never have been done in a two-hour feature film. The acting is beyond reproach; even the smallest part is played with perfect pitch, with Anderson (almost unrecognizable to fans as The X-Files' Dana Scully) and Dance being particularly effective among the principal players. Period décor has been perfectly captured, and careful lighting enhances the vaguely gothic atmosphere that makes the story nice and creepy. Telecast in the U.S. in early 2006 on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, this elaborate production is a triumph from beginning to end.