This Charles Dickens classic tome was brought to the television in 2005 in a joint venture by the BBC and WGBH in Boston (PBS). It was no small undertaking! In it's completed form it runs a whopping 510 minutes in segmented episodes. But then again the book is huge, so any real attempt to dramatize it would have to be quite long.
It stars Anna Maxwell Martin, Charles Dance, Nathaniel Parker, Dennis Lawson, Carey Mulligan, Timothy West, Hugo Speer, and "The X-Files" own Gillian Anderson, who turns in a truly inspired and brilliant performance as the haunted Lady Dedlock! Also the late British character actor Sir Ian Richardson makes brief, but memorable, appearances as the Chancellor.
I seen it twice before, and never remembered it being so long (it is spread over three discs). It is so well acted and paced that it is eminently watchable in one long setting. In talking with someone earlier in the day, the equipment used to film it came up. When Dickens named his novel "Bleak House"--he meant to refer to a very bleak situation, the house itself isn't really all that bleak. In order to do the story any kind of service, it really needs to be dark. When the BBC undertook the project in 1985 (which starred the great Diana Rigg), the acting was just fine, but it was all together over-lit. With the new High Def digital cameras that have been perfected in the last decade or so, this new production is about as dark as it gets. Even when the sun is shining, it seems to be through a black crystal lens--it's extremely menacing! And well worth a look.
