Dickensblog

Dame Diana Rigg, R.I.P.

The beloved British actress's Dickens connection was playing Lady Dedlock in the 1985 Bleak House miniseries. She passed away Thursday at the age of 82.

TCM alert

Oliver Twist (1948) airs on the channel at 7:45 a.m., as part of their Summer under the Stars tribute to Diana Dors, who plays Charlotte. (Sorry for the late notice -- I meant to post last night but forgot!)

Steven Knight's next Dickens adaptation announced

The next Dickensian miniseries from the team behind the BBC/FX Christmas Carol will be . . . wait for it . . . Great Expectations. (It never seems to occur to anyone to give us a new Barnaby Rudge or Martin Chuzzlewit or Dombey and Son). Personally, I just hope it's a bit less grim than their previous outing. 

News roundup

Just wanted to share a few news items before beginning the book reviewing:

• The Dickens Museum is, unsurprisingly, closed indefinitely, but remains active on social media. Actor Dominic Gerrard, who has performed a one-man Christmas Carol there, has done a reading of the first chapter of A Tale of Two Cities to raise money for the Museum.
• The joint Dickens Fellowship/Dickens Society Symposium in London in July is still scheduled to go ahead, but organizers are monitoring things and will make a final decision in May.
• In the New Yorker, Amy Davidson Sorkin argues, "Esther Summerson is one of the great heroines of literature, in part because she understands the vital importance of social distancing and isolation, even when it is hard."
• Phyllis Rose is re-releasing her 1983 book Parallel Lives, which focuses on five Victorian couples, including Charles and Catherine Dickens. In an interview with the Guardian, Rose argues that "is disappointing, and incredibly small-minded" to "cancel" great writers like Dickens over their bad behavior. The new edition of her book can be ordered here.   
• The TV series "Great British Menu" has a children's literature theme this year, in honor of the 150th anniversary of Dickens's death. (Seemed like a bit of a stretch to me too, but apparently it has something to do with Oliver Twist being the first child protagonist. Anyway, I'd never carp about a show honoring Dickens for any reason!)
• Dr. Pete Orford is beginning a Hard Times readalong on April 1.

TCM alert

David Copperfield (1935) airs at 7:30 this morning. (Sorry I wasn't aware of this earlier!)

Big 'Tale of Two Cities' news!

If you were in the Dickensblog Facebook group or on Twitter today, you might have seen me celebrating the news that A Tale of Two Cities is finally, finally getting a TV adaptation, written by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, His Dark Materials). As others pointed out to me, we've been burned before, but this time I choose to believe it's the real thing. It has to be the real thing sometime, right?

And I'm glad that it's not the team behind the BBC/FX Christmas Carol doing it. Although oddly enough, it struck me at the time that that team might actually do a better job with ATOTC, as there are already plenty of dark, ugly secrets in that story for them to dive into. Still, as you know, I found their work pretty bleak and depressing, and I'm hoping for better things from Thorne.

Feel free to use the comments section below for dreamcasting! :-) 

 

(P.S. Thorne also wrote the adaptation of Christmas Carol that just ran on Broadway. Somehow I missed that!!)

Next up in 'Oliver' adaptations

The BBC has ordered "Dodger," a comedy series about you know who!

TCM alert

As part of the channel's 31 Days of Oscar celebration, David Copperfield (1935) will air at 7:45 Eastern this morning, and A Tale of Two Cities (1935) immediately after at 10:15.

TCM alert

Great Expectations (1946) airs this morning at 8:30 a.m., as part of the channel's birthday celebration for Jean Simmons (young Estella).

'Oliver Twist' update comes to BBC Radio

Add one more to the list of Oliver updates and remakes! Oliver: Lagos to London, an adaptation by Ayeesha Menon, tells the story of an Oliver-like Nigerian orphan. It starts airing on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday, and will be available globally on BBC Radio iPlayer and the BBC Sounds app.