I have just started watching the new serialisation of Little Dorrit which is dramatised by the ever present Andrew Davies, the adapter par excellance. As with Bleak House in 2006, we have the first episode one hour long, and then half hour episodes twice a week, nicely timed to leave us all on the edge of our seats and just getting into the story and oh damn and blast it's finished and leaves you wanting more. Cannily done.
So far well up to expectations. You have to take your time with Dickens as he introduces us all to a 
motley collection of characters and grotesques which can be a tad overwhelming to start with as you try to sort out who is who and we watch them, even the tiniest parts, played by familiar faces from the BBC Crinoline Rep book. Oh look there is Matthew MacFadyan, formerly of Spooks, Young Hal at the National and the latest Mr Darcy; there is Bill Paterson, who played the doctor in Mrs Gaskell's Wives and Daughters who became the stepfather of a flighty young lady when he married his foolish second wife and the stepdaughter is Keely Hawes who is now Mrs Macfadyan in real life; Judy Parfit as the formidable mother of Arthur (Mathew M); a French murderer (with an accent straight out of 'Ello 'Ello) played by Andy Serkis
(Gollum in Lord of the RIngs) who so far has spent most of his screen time chewing up the scenery and is totally over the top and wonderful; John Alderton (who was in He Knew he was Right a couple of years ago) playing a seemingly nice kindly landlord, but one who employs a rapacious rent collector; Tom Courteney simply sublime as Mr Dorrit, known as the 'father of Marshalsea' a title in which he takes great pride even though all it means is that he has been there longer than anybody else; and tonight a tiny cameo part of an official in the Office of Circumlocution ("all public matters end in the office of Circumlocution") played by the redoubtable Robert Hardy (Sir John Middleton in Sense and Sensibility, Siegfried Farnon All Creatures Great and Small and hundreds of other roles) and many other familiar faces too many to mention here. It is a dream of a cast and all the tiny roles are filled with familiar faces, those jobbing actors who will never get an Oscar but are always in work and always turning in sterling performances. Wonderful stuff.
I have never read Little Dorrit but will now do so. I have not wanted to as I like to know that there is a Dickens I have yet to discover, which sounds a daft reason for not reading, but the joy of knowing it was there waiting for me -- I know all Random visitors will understand perfectly. Having never read it I cannot comment on the right or wrong of an interview with Andrew Davies earlier in the year when he said that 'he was going to bring out the hidden lesbianism in the book'. However, my heart sank into my boots at this remark. While I am for ever indebted to Andrew for his Colin'Wet Shirt' Firth moment, there are times when his seeming obsession with sex can get well, boring, really. He is always banging on about bringing out the sex in the classics to the point where I do wonder if he ought to nip over to the US and join David Duchovny in his clinic where he is being treated for 'sex addiction' and undergo a bit of therapy. Bromide in the tea perhaps...?
The lesbianism is already being painted with a broad brush and it is between Miss Wade and the maid/companion Tattycoran, who is the one actress so far who has left me rather unimpressed with her thespian skills and I wonder if it is in any way justified and if any readers who know the book will have any comments to make. I would be very interested to hear. I understand that the actress playing Miss Wade had to play the role wearing no make up which she found rather daunting. No explanation given but one can only assume it was to make her look unattractive and plain and therefore less likely to attract a man. Surely not I tell myself, that would just be too obvious....
But, despite any small caveats that I may have, I am loving this already and it is going to get better and better I can see.
I do like Macfadyan. I thought he made a good Darcy and when I saw him as Hal in Henry IV at the National Theatre last year, I was most impressed. He has a lovely speaking voice which I find very beguiling and he has a sudden disarming smile which makes me go all wobbly. As you can see from this picture he also sports a most fetching hat....
OK and on that note of intellectual analysis I am off to read a chapter or two before sleep.
