Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.
Dame June Rosemary Whitfield was an English radio, television, and film actress.
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. The story follows the titular orphan, who, after being raised in a workhouse, escapes to London, where he meets a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin, discovers the secrets of his parentage, and reconnects with his remaining family.
Anne Gwendolyn "Wendy" Craig is an English actress who is best known for her appearances in the sitcoms Not in Front of the Children, ...And Mother Makes Three, ...And Mother Makes Five and Butterflies. She played the role of Matron in the TV series The Royal (2003–2011).
Bruce Robinson is an English actor, director, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote and directed Withnail and I (1987), a film with comic and tragic elements set in London in the late 1960s, which drew on his experiences as a struggling actor, living in poverty in Camden Town.
Our Mutual Friend, written in 1864–1865, is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining savage satire with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, quoting the book's character Bella Wilfer, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life".
Pride and Prejudice is a 1980 television serial, adapted by British novelist Fay Weldon from Jane Austen's 1813 novel of the same name. It is a co-production of the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The five-episode dramatisation stars Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth Bennet and David Rintoul as Mr. Darcy. In the US, it was broadcast by PBS television as part of Masterpiece Theatre.
David Rintoul is a Scottish stage and television actor. Rintoul was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, and won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Sandra Elizabeth "Sandy" Welch is a British television writer and screenwriter.
Brideshead Revisited is a 1981 British television serial starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. It was produced by Granada Television for broadcast by the ITV network. Most of the serial was directed by Charles Sturridge, with certain sequences directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who handled the initial phases of the production.
Little Dorrit is a 2008 British miniseries based on Charles Dickens's serial novel of the same title, originally published between 1855 and 1857. The screenplay is by Andrew Davies and the episodes were directed by Adam Smith, Dearbhla Walsh, and Diarmuid Lawrence.
Suzanne Bertish is an English actress.
The Doctor novels are a series of 18 comic novels by British physician Richard Gordon, covering the antics of a group of young doctors. They were published between 1952 and 1986.
Our Mutual Friend is a 1958 British television mini-series adapted from Charles Dickens' 1865 novel Our Mutual Friend. The series was made by the BBC and ran through 1959 for a total of twelve episodes, broadcast live and telerecorded for potential repeats. Unlike most BBC series of the 1950s, the series exists in its entirety, and in 2017 was released to DVD by Simply Media.
Hard Times was a 1977 TV series based on Charles Dickens' 1854 novel of the same name, directed by John Irvin.
Dominic Mafham is an English stage, film and television actor. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Julia Marian Jones was a British television scriptwriter and former actress.
David Copperfield is a BBC television serial starring Ian McKellen in the title role of the adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1850 novel that began airing in January 1966. It also featured Tina Packer as Dora Flora Robson as Betsey Trotwood, Gordon Gostelow as Barkis, and Christopher Guard as young David. The screenplay adaptation was written by Vincent Tilsley, who had previously helmed the 1956 adaptation almost a decade prior.
The Death of Poor Joe is a 1901 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, which features the director's wife Laura Bayley as Joe, a child street-sweeper who dies of disease on the street in the arms of a policeman. The film, which went on release in March 1901, takes its name from a famous photograph posed by Oscar Rejlander after an episode in Charles Dickens' 1853 novel Bleak House, and is the oldest known surviving film featuring a Dickens character. The film was discovered in 2012 by British Film Institute curator Bryony Dixon, after it was believed to have been lost since 1954. Until the discovery, the previous oldest known Dickens film was Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost, released in November 1901.
Oliver Twist is a 1962 BBC TV adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1838 novel Oliver Twist, serialised in 13 episodes. Due in part to its transmission at Sunday teatimes, the production proved to be controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over the brutal murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes in its eleventh episode. The serial has survived intact, and was released to DVD in 2017 by Simply Media.
