User reviews

I entirely disagree with anyone who dislikes this updated version of Dickens classic novel (especially the one negative review so far lodged for this series!)

It was extremely well adapted and re-imagined to instead be about abuse in an old people's home rather than the children's orphanage of the book. That coupled with the inspired pairing of Andrew Simpson (Nickleby) and Linda Bassett (Mrs. Smike) made this a strong and stirring adaptation. In the original book Smike is just a boy, but to give that part to an elderly woman, and such a brilliant and underrated character actress like Bassett, was a genius casting stroke. There was a good rapport between both actors.

I thought as well as the bold plot changes, the rest of the ensemble acting on the whole was uniformly excellent with Adrian Dunbar (the evil Uncle Ralph), Jonathan Harden (the sad-eyed and defeated Mr. Noggs) and the larger than life villain of Mark McDonnell as Mr. Squeers also deserving of mentions.

Anna Wilson-Jones and rising star Hollie Taylor also offered able support in their roles as Miss Knag and Frannie respectively.

The series was also very well directed in the stunning Northern Irish countryside (for the most part) and the script was witty, funny and touching at times too.

This was a superb adaptation of Dickens and the writer Joy Wilkinson should be commended for not just doing another period drama adaptation of Dickens characters in Victorian times, but actually updating the story and putting a modern spin on an old classic. Definitely worth a watch for families across the UK and beyond!

I found this extremely well made, I didn't really know much about the original Dickens' novel, but once I cam across the first episode on iplayer, I was glued to it and just had to watch the rest.

The storyline is very intriguing, and the simplicity of the casting has such a charm to it. The scenery is very typically British and although it's set in modern times, it does have a slightly old feel to it at times, possibly in part due to the scenes in the countryside, but all this I again found had a very special charm to it.

More people definitely need to see this, a well made production with some brilliant characters (good and bad, and a bit of both!), I'd recommend this to anyone, so do keep an eye out in case it hopefully comes back on TV and iplayer some day, well done BBC once again!

I had high hopes for this version, ok a modern day up-to-date version, but it failed on so many levels. it was a typical 'we writers know best' we can write our own story and produce wonderful day-time faire - well you are so off the mark. The depth of the original was plastered over and we were left with a soap-opera style holby city meets the chuckle brothers. The casting was wrong, the storyline dreadful and acting way off. The humour and tragedy, the dread and misery of the original were missing. Give yourself a treat and watch the RSC Version - this is not going to be a way for new viewers to find out about Charles Dickens https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082660/

I don't know whether the actors read the script before they agreed to do this piece of trash but it is beyond awful. The script is incredibly naff and there is not a piece of it that works. I never really like Adrian Dunbar's work but I know he is a respected actor so am incredulous that he would agree to do this. i am not truly conversant with the Dickens original work so find it difficult to see similarities between the two pieces. All I can see is that this is awkward, unconvincing and trite . The writer of this modern work needs to take a long, hard look at his reason for doing this - on the strength of a piece like this he will be lucky if he ever gets a commission to write anything else ever again. It is painfully PC and has shoehorned an ethnic storyline into it to somehow appear modern - wrong, wrong,wrong!! The BBC should be ashamed of themselves for funding this and then having the temerity to broadcast it.