Little Dorrit - NEW SERIES

The BBC badly needed a saviour to its period drama. After invigorating the genre with Bleak House in 2005 and a few years later in 2007 with the BAFTA & Emmy award winner Cranford, a spate of titles including Oliver Twist, Larkrise to Candleford and Tess of the D’Urbervilles failed to impress. The “Little Dorrit” trailer was overflowing with winning names, the cinematography was original and interesting, the setting charmed but I was all to afraid that it, as others did, would fail to impress past the first few minutes. I am very glad to admit I was wrong.

With a compelling and eclectic cast including Matthew MacFadyen (Pride & Predjudice, Spooks), Freema Agyeman (Dr Who, Torchwood) & Mackenzie Crook (the Office, Three & Out) intrigue and mystery were rife from the outset. Mrs Clennam (Judy Parfitt) being confined to her room, her husband and son oversees, sought work in little Dorrit (Claire Foy) when she came knocking and thus their lives began a strange entanglement that is only seen within the best of novels. Arthur Clennam (MacFadyen) soon arrived back on his families’ doorstep, his father dead, to a rather hostile and cold reception, especially when, out of sight of her son, Mrs Clennam opened her husbands’ old watch to find a small piece of parchment with the words “Do Not Forget” written onto them. Meanwhile little Dorrit was finding is hard to keep her new employment to herself and away from her father, the resident of a debt jail, especially when Arthur Clennam, oblivious to her white lies, arrived to question her on her dealings with his family. He seemingly thought that his family had paid some part in the Dorrit’s initial downfall and was out to seek the truth.

The setting for this glorious story is a rather un-lavish London. The dark and ominous atmosphere created for the filming helps to establish the intrigue, much as in Bleak House where you never really knew just what was going on and it always left you wanting more. Not having read Dicken’s “Little Dorrit” I have no idea what is in store but I can assure you it’ll be dark, complex and highly alluring.

Judy Parfitt plays the formidable Mrs Clennam, paralysed and confined to her room for 12 years

BBC - Sundays at 20.00