Rent Bleak House (1959)
3.6 of 5 from 5 ratings
5h 30min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Dickens' elegant satire about a disputed inheritance and the self-serving workings of the legal system gripped the public imagination in this classic 1959 TV series adapted by the prolific Constance Cox, best known for surprising viewers with her explosive 'Oliver Twist'. Andrew Cruickshank stars as John Jarndyce and Diana Fairfax as his ward Esther Summerson in this delightfully complex comic drama. A mystery story in which Esther uncovers the truth about her birth and her lost mother Lady Dedlock (Iris Russell); a murder story featuring one of the first detectives in English fiction, Inspector Bucket (Richard Pearson); and at its heart is a redemption tale about a desolate home transformed by compassionate love. Colin Jeavons and Elizabeth Shepherd are Esther's fellow wards and bequest rivals Richard Carstone and Ada Clare, and some of Dickens' most colourful minor characters also sweep into view, including devious family lawyer Tulkinghorn (John Phillips), hen-pecked legal stationer Snagsby (Leslie French), bird-loving old maid Miss Flite (Nora Nicholson), smitten clerk William Guppy (Timothy Bateson), moneygrubbing litigator Vholes (Gerald Cross), ill-tempered moneylender Smallweed (Terence Soall) and sozzled rag-and-bottle man Krook (Wilfrid Brambell). - Actors:
- Diana Fairfax, Colin Jeavons, Andrew Cruickshank, Iris Russell, Elizabeth Shepherd, Timothy Bateson, John Phillips, Eileen Draycott, Leslie French, Jerome Willis, Michael Aldridge, David Horne, Malcolm Knight, Richard Pearson, Annette Carell, Angela Crow, Nora Nicholson, Gerald Cross, Jean Theobald, Aubrey Woods
- Directors:
- Eric Tayler
- Producers:
- Eric Tayler
- Writers:
- Constance Cox, Charles Dickens
- Aka:
- Bleak House - Charles Dickens Classics
- Studio:
- Simply Media
- Genres:
- British TV, TV Classics, TV Crimes, TV Dramas, TV Mysteries
- Collections:
- Dickens on Screen: Part Two, Films & TV by topic
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Reviews (1) of Bleak House
Dated Production but Entertaining - Bleak House review by CV
Dickens comes across as sentimental and stagy in this 1959 production of his epic novel Bleak House. I have read the novel several months ago and I got the impression that this production had simplified the original complex and mysterious plot by making things a bit more plain and simple for the television audience. Some characterization is rather flat: that of Tulkinghorne lacks sinister tones, Ada is a one-dimensional doting lover, the rescued pauper girl is rather artificial and some characters are rather too fleeting like the intriguing Smallweed. Some are overdone like the silly Guppy and the rather plodding and dull police inspector Bucket. We had the subtitles on and the volume up as the dialogue was rather quiet, muffled and quickly rendered for the most part.
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