Victorian verve

Over Christmas, audiences everywhere were treated to BBC One’s Great Expectations, which spread the tale of a young man’s entry into polite society across three glorious episodes. Playing the teenage Pip was Douglas Booth, a 19-year-old Burberry model whose only fault was that he was distractingly prettier than Estella, essayed by 24-year-old Vanessa Kirby, his rumored real-life girlfriend. (Ditching the Kent accent, he is set to star in the latest film version of Romeo and Juliet, opposite True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld.)

Bolstered by sterling performances by Ray Winstone as the mucky Magwitch and Gillian Anderson as the creepy Miss Havisham — the spinster’s mouth was in dire need of some Carmex — the production demonstrated that small-screen updates of novels, even really old ones, can easily translate into hours of engrossed viewing. The special was the British broadcaster’s way of marking Dickens 2012, an international celebration marking the bicentenary of the English novelist’s birth on Feb. 7, 2012.

Tying Loose Ends

Corset crew: In the BBC’s Great Expectations, Pip (Douglas Booth) starts his new life as a gentleman in London, quickly acquiring expensive tastes and mounting debts

BBC Two’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood continued the festivities earlier this month. The unfinished Gothic novel, one of the Victorian author’s lesser-read works, revolves around the moral and mental breakdown of choirmaster John Jasper (Matthew Rhys, Brothers and Sisters), whose fixation with 17-year-old Rosa (Tamzin Merchant, The Tudors) makes him dream of murdering her fiancé, his nephew Edwin (newcomer Freddie Fox).

“Charles Dickens died [in 1870] without finishing The Mystery Of Edwin Drood — in fact, he was only halfway through, leaving all the balls in the air and numerous hints, blind alleys, unrevealed connections, and intriguing possibilities on display,” wrote director Diarmuid Lawrence in a BBC TV Blog entry. “So [scriptwriter] Gwyneth Hughes…and I [entered] weeks of intense discussions about how to bring this exciting and challenging work to the screen, not necessarily as Dickens would have done…but in a way that remains true to most of what he did write.” As far as tying loose ends was concerned, the absorbing two-part series definitely rose to the challenge.

Refreshing Restraint

Shelf life: This leatherbound volume contains Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities and comes with a silk ribbon bookmark. P1,199 at National Bookstore

“Historically, the popularity of all things British comes and goes in waves. Just now Britishness is having a moment,” Mulberry brand director Georgia Fendle said in How To Spend It. Though she was summing up the world’s growing appetite for UK-made fashion, the same can be said for its other cultural exports, especially those that are built upon the nation’s rich literary past. As Britain’s The Independent notes, “The Dickens brand is as big and as powerful a cultural export as ever, beloved abroad and on the verge of making yet more skyscraper-shaped piles of cash for his bicentenary…which coincides with the Olympics and the Queen’s jubilee, and which is being globally marketed alongside these two mammoth events.”

In an age of Kardashian-style crassness, it’s quite refreshing to watch shows that evoke a more civilized era. No one does restraint quite like the Brits and combined with proper provenance, roots and a story to tell, this quality can emit something deeply enduring. Charles Dickens may have lived two centuries ago, but small-screen adaptations of his novels prove that he is still as relevant and appealing as ever.   

* * *

Dickensian delights

He’s known as the most adapted author of all time for a reason. From a singing orphan to an artsy Philip Pirrip, here are three film versions of Charles Dickens’s novels. 

 Oliver (1968)

You may find the beginning of the movie somewhat slow, but numbers such as Consider Yourself and Where Is Love? make this splendid recreation of 1800s London worthwhile. Pay close attention to the accents, as they are set to match the social status of each character.

Great Expectations (1998)

Alfonso Cuarón’s pre-millennial modernization finds the hapless Finn (Ethan Hawke) as a painter in New York pursuing his haughty childhood love (Gwyneth Paltrow). Estella’s wardrobe, courtesy of Calvin Klein and Donna Karan, summed up the sartorial mood of late ‘90s Manhattan. Italian-American artist Francesco Clemente was commissioned to create Finnegan Bell’s artwork.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

This holiday classic can work well at any other time of the year, thanks to Michael Caine’s fine performance as Ebenezer Scrooge.

* * *

ginobambino.tumblr.com