There was a BBC series twenty years earlier with Diana Rigg, rather than Gillian Anderson, in the role of Lady Dedlock but this series from 2005 is superior.
Not because of any noticeable differences in the acting skills of the leads. They're both good. In fact, all the performances in both series are of professional caliber. But this series is better written.
The 1985 version was a genuine struggle to get through because of the lack of continuity. Each episode seemed to have been written by an author who was not on speaking terms with any of the other adapters. Events took place between episodes that were left unexplained. Characters came out of the shadows, did what they did, with or without motivation, and skulked away.
And this long, involved plot has many many characters. Strangely, they all seem to KNOW one another or to have some sub rosa relationship. It reminded me of "Crime and Punishment", in which Petersberg has the qualities of a small, hick town rather than urban anomi. Even in this more recent version, I was lost trying to keep track of who knew whom and how. Sergeant George and the boy Joe, for instance. And the business about the Dedlocks' maid, Rosa, being sent away or not sent away. What was that about? I think it may help if you're a big fan of Dickens or have some familiarity with London, circa 1840 or 1830 or whenever the period is. Otherwise, institutions like the chancery are liable to slip past you and so may the importance of some of the social distinctions. They finessed their way past me because I may be old, but not that old.
The production values are lavish for television. I'm convinced that London looked this crummy at the unbridled height of the industrial age and that people wore such elaborate but ugly clothes. Well -- except for the Dedlocks' servant, Mercury, a tall young man who wears breeches and white stockings of the sort common fifty years earlier. And he has the effete mannerisms to go with the garb.
I gather that this is about as close as Dickens got to a woman's story. Usually he used kids or old men as the central figures. And in the leading role of Esther Sommersun, Anna Maxwell Martin is plain and perceptive. The smallpox of course doesn't enhance the more subtle beauty of her rather flat face but, at that, she was pretty lucky. In severe cases the pustules coalesced and whole patches of the outer skin were sloughed off. The rest of the performers are fine, but Charles Dance as the villainous Mr. Tulkinghorn is outstanding. He must have the frostiest blue eyes in the business and he wields them very effectively. What viewer cannot sigh with relief when he's murdered. (In "China Moon" he was a wife abuser who was murdered.) Carey Mulligan as Ada reaches her twenty-first birthday half way through but she has the pretty, chubby, cherubic face of a rather mature twelve year old.
There are the tribulations we've come to expect from Dickens: the wealthy in their isolated mansions, the poor and sickly, the dying, the little boy who sweeps the street (lots of horses). There's a doctor too, one of the good guys, but he can't offer much help to anyone with the pox or pneumonia or anything. The germ theory of disease didn't exist yet. Quacks handed out black draughts. More respectable doctors ladled out opiates. Surgeons were limited to piercing carbuncles and sawing off limbs without regard for infections. No wonder Dickens has so many of his characters die off. At least, opium being freely available, they went out stoned.
Anyway, this 2005 edition is a vast improvement over the 1985 version, if for no other reason than that more attention was paid to continuity.
Not because of any noticeable differences in the acting skills of the leads. They're both good. In fact, all the performances in both series are of professional caliber. But this series is better written.
The 1985 version was a genuine struggle to get through because of the lack of continuity. Each episode seemed to have been written by an author who was not on speaking terms with any of the other adapters. Events took place between episodes that were left unexplained. Characters came out of the shadows, did what they did, with or without motivation, and skulked away.
And this long, involved plot has many many characters. Strangely, they all seem to KNOW one another or to have some sub rosa relationship. It reminded me of "Crime and Punishment", in which Petersberg has the qualities of a small, hick town rather than urban anomi. Even in this more recent version, I was lost trying to keep track of who knew whom and how. Sergeant George and the boy Joe, for instance. And the business about the Dedlocks' maid, Rosa, being sent away or not sent away. What was that about? I think it may help if you're a big fan of Dickens or have some familiarity with London, circa 1840 or 1830 or whenever the period is. Otherwise, institutions like the chancery are liable to slip past you and so may the importance of some of the social distinctions. They finessed their way past me because I may be old, but not that old.
The production values are lavish for television. I'm convinced that London looked this crummy at the unbridled height of the industrial age and that people wore such elaborate but ugly clothes. Well -- except for the Dedlocks' servant, Mercury, a tall young man who wears breeches and white stockings of the sort common fifty years earlier. And he has the effete mannerisms to go with the garb.
I gather that this is about as close as Dickens got to a woman's story. Usually he used kids or old men as the central figures. And in the leading role of Esther Sommersun, Anna Maxwell Martin is plain and perceptive. The smallpox of course doesn't enhance the more subtle beauty of her rather flat face but, at that, she was pretty lucky. In severe cases the pustules coalesced and whole patches of the outer skin were sloughed off. The rest of the performers are fine, but Charles Dance as the villainous Mr. Tulkinghorn is outstanding. He must have the frostiest blue eyes in the business and he wields them very effectively. What viewer cannot sigh with relief when he's murdered. (In "China Moon" he was a wife abuser who was murdered.) Carey Mulligan as Ada reaches her twenty-first birthday half way through but she has the pretty, chubby, cherubic face of a rather mature twelve year old.
There are the tribulations we've come to expect from Dickens: the wealthy in their isolated mansions, the poor and sickly, the dying, the little boy who sweeps the street (lots of horses). There's a doctor too, one of the good guys, but he can't offer much help to anyone with the pox or pneumonia or anything. The germ theory of disease didn't exist yet. Quacks handed out black draughts. More respectable doctors ladled out opiates. Surgeons were limited to piercing carbuncles and sawing off limbs without regard for infections. No wonder Dickens has so many of his characters die off. At least, opium being freely available, they went out stoned.
Anyway, this 2005 edition is a vast improvement over the 1985 version, if for no other reason than that more attention was paid to continuity.