David Copperfield

TV Mini Series
1999–2000
Unrated
1h 33m

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

5.3K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer2:29

2 Videos

30 Photos

Period Drama Drama

A gentle orphan discovers life and love in an indifferent adult world.A gentle orphan discovers life and love in an indifferent adult world.A gentle orphan discovers life and love in an indifferent adult world.

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

5.3K

YOUR RATING

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
- 1 win & 4 nominations total

Episodes2

Browse episodes

TopTop-rated 1 season 1999

• 1999

Trevor Eve

Murdstone

• 1999

Pauline Quirke

Peggotty

• 1999

Laura Harling

Little Emily

• 1999

Zoë Wanamaker

Miss Murdstone

• 1999

Michael Elphick

Barkis

• 1999

Maggie Smith

Betsey Trotwood

• 1999

James Thornton

Ham Peggotty

• 1999

Jacqueline Tong

Lady in coach

• 1999

Alun Armstrong

Dan Peggotty

• 1999

Karl Johnson

Tungay

• 1999

Ian McKellen

Creakle

• 1999

Patsy Byrne

Mrs. Gummidge

• 1999

Harry Lloyd

Young Steerforth

• 1999

Ciarán McMenamin

David Copperfield

• 1999

Nicholas Lyndhurst

Uriah Heep

• 1999

Steve Swinscoe

Quinion

• 1999

Dawn French

Mrs. Crupp

• 1999

User reviews41

7.75.3K

Featured reviews

9pawebster

Very good version

David Copperfield is not an easy one to film because the story -- while unfailingly interesting -- does have some of Dickens' most cloying sentimentality and sugary sweetness. David himself is saintly, and this makes him hard to play as an interesting character. In fact, playing the young hero in period dramas can easily be something of a poisoned chalice. (Other adaptations of recent years have come unstuck on this point.) However, this works out fine here. A very small Daniel Radcliffe is excellent as Harry P-- sorry, as young David, and I think that Ciarán McMenamin is also good as the adult David. I don't agree with those reviewers who call him smug. It's a shame that he looks nothing, but nothing, like Daniel Radcliffe, and the hairstyles he is given are really bad, especially the wig towards the end. Of course, he is inevitably somewhat overshadowed by the galaxy of top-notch actors who fill the other roles. Maggie Smith is particularly winsome as Betsy Trotwood.

I watched this with my eleven-year-old son and we both really enjoyed it. Recommended.

10watwlaura

I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation of Dickens' David Copperfield.

I can't say enough about this adaptation. I love Bob Hoskins as Mr. Micawber, Imelda Staunton as his wife, excellent. Maggie Smith and Ian McNiece are lovely. Those were the good guys. Trevor Eve was so repulsive as Mr. Murdstone and when he beat David at the beginning I wanted to take that stick and shove it down his throat. I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation and hope PBS and the BBC will continue to collaborate on other programs that are as intelligent and well made as this one is.

10jandesimpson

Characters they were born to play

I am not a great fan of the BBC classic novel serialisation, preferring to experience a drama in its entirety rather than chopped up into weekly doses. Generally a detrimental factor is that, with a greater running time than the average movie at his disposal, the TV adaptor tends to spin things out inordinately so that physical movements are often shown in their entirety, someone walking along a street or climbing a flight of stairs for instance. When it comes to Dickens adaptations the cinema generally wins hands down, those incomparable David Lean versions of "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist" for example and more recently Christine Edzard's masterly "Little Dorrit" which, although running for six hours, subtly utilised every minute by telling the tale from different perspectives. I never thought I would experience a TV adaptation to compare with these until three Christmases ago the BBC came up with a "David Copperfield" so enchanting that it remains for me the most lovable visual translation of a Dickens novel. Admittedly there is little of the wonderful montage and atmosphere of the Lean films or the profoundly observed social resonances of "Little Dorrit", but what makes the 1999 Copperfield such an overwhelming experience is the perfect casting. By some magic alchemy that I cannot begin to understand a cast of familiars was assembled that were somehow born to play their parts. The list extends far beyond the three I have chosen to mention but it is as if Pauline Quirke (Peggotty), Nicholas Lyndhurst (Uriah Heep) and Maggie Smith (Betsey Trotwood) became these characters in a way that noone else ever could. Fine actors that they are, it is difficult to imagine them achieving such perfection in other contexts.

10TheVintageArchive

The best Adaptation

This adaptation by far beats all the David Copperfield movies.

Daniel Radcliffe as David Copperfield is wonderful! He is so angelic as David.

The Acting by all the adults in this film was wonderful! Agnes, Peggoty, Aunt Betsy were all portrayed well! At least, they were all better than the 2000 Tv version of David Copperfield.

Uriah Heep is wonderful!!!!!Very creepy! Dora is perfect too!

watch this! I recommend it!

10/10

Tommy-92

Wonderful, unforgettable adaptation of Dickens.

I have yet to read the book, so I don't know how faithful this film was to the original novel, but I really don't care. When you have such a fine cast and such a great production overall, who cares about being faithful? Bob Hoskins as the eccentric, debt-ridden Mr. Micawber, the inimitable Maggie Smith as Aunt Betsey Trotwood, and Ian McKellen as the sinister headmaster Creekle head the wonderful cast, which includes other great performances from Trevor Eve as evil stepfather Mr. Murdstone, Claire Holman as tortured Rosa Dartle, Pauline Quirke as the beloved nurse Peggoty, and Nicholas Lyndhurst, truly terrifying as the "'umble" clerk Uriah Heep. Not to be left out, Daniel Radcliffe and Ciaran McMenamin are fine as young and old David Copperfield himself, respectively, though as Russell Baker noted in his "Masterpiece Theater" introduction, David is the least interesting character; the others are whom we remember. The production also looks great, from the seaside to the drawing rooms to the offices. Fine direction, script, everything. The BBC and Masterpiece Theater have done it again!

More like this

8.1

Martin Chuzzlewit

8.2

La petite Dorritt

7.5

De grandes espérances

8.0

7.1

8.3

7.3

7.3

7.7

7.5

7.0

7.2

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Daniel Radcliffe's first filmed project. In his first role, he co-starred with six of his future co-stars of the Harry Potter film franchise: Dame Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Zoë Wanamaker (Madame Hooch), Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge), Dawn French (The Fat Lady in Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban (2004)) and Paul Whitehouse (Sir Cadogan in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (scenes deleted)).

Goofs
The younger Davy is right-handed; the elder Davy is left-handed.

Quotes
Murdstone: This boy, you should know, Miss Trotwood, has a sullen, rebellious spirit, a violent temper and an intractable disposition.
Miss Murdstone: Of all the boys in the world, this is the worst boy.
Betsey Trotwood: Strong, Miss Murdstone.
Miss Murdstone: But not at all too strong for the situation.
Betsey Trotwood: Indeed? Well, sir?
Murdstone: I placed this boy in a respectable business. He ran away from it. The facts, I propose, speak for themselves.
Betsey Trotwood: About this respectable business, a blacking factory, I believe. If he had been your own boy, you would have put him to it just the same, I suppose.
Murdstone: I had my own opinion. This is the best way of bringing up this particular boy. I act on them and I say no more about them.
Betsey Trotwood: I see. What else do you have to say?
Murdstone: Merely this: I have come to take my stepson back. I will deal with him as I think right and dispose of him as I think proper. If you seek to impede me in any way, if you step between us now, you do so forever.
Betsey Trotwood: What does the boy say? Are you ready to go, David?
Young David Copperfield: Please don't make me leave you, Aunt. They made my Mama very unhappy and they never cared for me. I want to stay here with you and Mr. Dick.
Betsey Trotwood: Mr. Dick, what shall I do with this child?
Mr. Dick: I'd have him measured for a suit of clothes directly.
Betsey Trotwood: Mr. Dick, give me your hand.
[She shakes his hand]
Betsey Trotwood: For your common sense is invaluable.
[Takes David in her arms]
Betsey Trotwood: I'll take my chance with the boy. If he is all you say he is, I can at least do as much for him as you have done. But I don't believe a word of it!
Murdstone: [Standing up angrily] Miss Trotwood, if you were a gentleman...
Betsey Trotwood: BAH! Stuff and nonsense! Don't talk to me!
Miss Murdstone: How exquisitely polite. Overpowering, really.
Betsey Trotwood: [to Murdstone, ignoring Jane] You think I don't know what kind of life you've led this child's mother? It was a woeful day when you first appeared, smirking, making great eyes at her, so you wouldn't say "Boo!" to a ghost!
Miss Murdstone: I've never heard anything to elegant.
Betsey Trotwood: [Still ignoring Jane] And when you'd made quite sure of the poor little thing, you began to train her and break her. Like a caged bird, wearing her life away and teaching her to sing your notes.
Miss Murdstone: 'Tis either insanity or intoxication.
Betsey Trotwood: [Still ignoring Jane] You broke her heart, then punished the boy, because of your own guilt! There's the truth for your comfort, and you and your instrument may make the most of it!
Miss Murdstone: May I inquire whom you are referring to as an instrument?
Betsey Trotwood: Good day, sir! And Goodbye!
[Murdstone leaves without a word]