29 October 2005

Bleaker House

The Times reports on Bleak House:
"AN UNNECESSARY clerk, a misnamed lawyer and a dwarf called Harriet are at the centre of a row between Dickens enthusiasts and the BBC’s dramatisation of Bleak House.
Andrew Davies, the Bafta award-winning screenwriter, has angered lovers of the novel and bemused Dickens’s descendants by introducing new characters and dispensing with the author’s comedic moments.
Cedric Dickens, the author’s great-grandson, said that he was relaxed about adaptations but did question the creation of Clam, a clerk to the main character of Mr Tulkinghorn. Tulkinghorn was originally written as a lawyer who preferred memorising his clients’ details to keeping records. "

It is decades since I read the book, so I don't mind them messing up the plot. It is the over-acting I can't be bothered with, particularly (but not exclusively) from Ms Collins and Ms Tarbuck.

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