6.2 /10 1 Votes
4.8/10 TV Network ITV Number of episodes 13 | 7.7/10 IMDb First episode date 28 September 1976 Number of seasons 1 Writers Wolf Mankowitz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cast Roy Dotrice, Ben Kingsley, Patsy Kensit, John Nettles, Karen Dotrice Similar Flambards, The Sandbaggers, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dickens of London is a 1976 television miniseries from Yorkshire Television based on the life of English novelist Charles Dickens. Both Dickens and his father John were played by British actor Roy Dotrice. The series was written by Wolf Mankowitz and Marc Miller. In the United States, the series was shown in 1977.
Contents
The series of 13 episodes of 60 minutes was directed by Michael Ferguson (6 episodes) and Marc Miller (7 episodes), who was also the series' producer, with David Cunliffe as executive producer. Mankowitz's book, Dickens of London, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in 1976, was based on the detailed research he made while writing the screenplay.
Background
Each of the 13 episodes of Dickens of London is a separate flashback, with Charles Dickens (Roy Dotrice), by now an internationally famous novelist, in America during a reading tour of 1869, looking back over his life. Dickens the boy (Simon Bell) is shown unhappily pasting labels onto pots of shoe blacking, while Dickens as a young man (Gene Foad) is revealed as a young genius who is becoming aware of his powers and trying to find his own way in the world. Mary Hogarth (Lois Baxter) is the middle one of the three Hogarth daughters and is portrayed as the one person with whom Dickens seems to have been able to share his work. She dies suddenly aged seventeen and Dickens wears her ring on his little finger for the rest of his life. Georgina Hogarth (Christine McKenna), the youngest of the three Hogarth daughters, comes to live with the couple to help run the household, at the request of her oldest sister Catherine Dickens . The real-life relationship Dickens developed with the young actress Ellen Ternan is not mentioned in the series, nor is Dickens' separation from his wife, Catherine, in 1858.
The series instead is mainly concerned with the influence upon Dickens of his improvident father, John Dickens (Roy Dotrice), who was a Naval clerk and who always spent more than he earned. He is portrayed as an alcoholic and it is suggested that this was the source of the family's financial difficulties. The script includes passages from Dickens' own works, woven skilfully into the dialogue spoken by the series' characters, creating recognizable signposts for readers of Dickens' work.