A peek into 'Dickensian'

At last, Tony Jordan gives us a few details about what his upcoming series Dickensian is going to be like! His teaser, from an article in the Independent, is under the cut . . .

"I am about to make a new drama series for BBC1 called Dickensian. It will be a world inhabited by all of Charles Dickens' wonderful characters; a world where Fagin from Oliver Twist can talk to Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol; where Little Nell from The Old Curiosity Shop shares a bun with Clara Peggotty from David Copperfield; and Honoria Barbary from Bleak House is best friends with the young Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. A world in which Scrooge & Marley's counting house is in the same street as The Old Curiosity Shop, Venus the taxidermist, The Three Cripples Pub, Fagin's lair and the offices of Tulkinghorn & Jaggers. A world in which we will discover how Jacob Marley died and what happened to Miss Havisham on her wedding day... and yes, we'll have a few cliffhangers."

Read the whole article here. (Turns out The Secret Life of Books actually led to Dickensian, and not the other way around!)

Comments

[Sean Phillips]

This kinda begs the question--is there a "shared universe" where Dickens characters can interact. This concept is a relatively new one, and I don't think characters in any one of Dickens' originals ever crossed paths with someone form another novel. But it's possible--I think of all of his stories taking place in the same reality. And in that reality Dickens himself, I'd wager wouldn't exist, even though in some pastiches I know of, the characters meet up with the author. One recent example that "hinted" at the whole shared universe concept was a recent BBC version of Bleak House, in which a "Mr. Brownlow" was addressed in a courtroom. I don't thing this occurred in the book. Was it the same same Brownlow in Oliver Twist(or a relation)? We'll probably never know.

[Cody]

Did (Whatever his name was) really hate the original ending to Great Expectations that much? I thought he just told Dickens that his readership would probably prefer a different one.