Bleak House

If anyone missed the BBC series of Dickens' Bleak House back in 2005, this is definitely one to buy on DVD. It's one of those feel good dramas that I indulge in annually at this time of year when the cold winter evenings are drawing in.

Bleak House was Dickens' ninth novel published between March 1852 and September 1853 and thought to have been one of his finest. A story of dark secrets and forbidden love involving many sub-plots. The story revolves around a lengthy court case at the Court of Chancery in London - Jarndyce and Jarndyce where John Jarndyce's two wards Ada and Richard are pinning their hopes on a princely inheritance.

John Jarndyce takes Esther Summerson  (Anna Maxwell Martin)  a girl without a past, under his wing as a companion for Ada, but then falls in love with her. Meanwhile, Esther's mysterious connection with Lady Dedlock may bring ruin to them both  As ever Dickens bases his characters on people and situations well known to him. A cast of many well known actors include Gillian Anderson, Dennis Lawson, Alun Armstrong, Warren Clark, Matthew Kelly, Charles Dance and Pauline Collins, to name but a few.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/bleakhouse/welcome.shtml