Winter time is the season for Dickens.
Look for these newly released DVD's
at Bealeton and Warrenton Libraries.
All are BBC versions of Dickens Novels
Bleak House (with Diana Rigg, not the latest PBS version)
This was originally aired in 1985. It has 8 episodes, with 4 on one side of the disc, and 4 on the other side of the disc-7 hours of viewing.
At the court of Chancery, the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case grinds on for years with no end in sight. Entangled in the lawsuit are a growing number of innocent victims: Ada Clare and Richard Carstone, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a child with mysterious parentage; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper. As the case staggers onward, yet more people become embroiled in the furious legal battle, including the proud Lady Dedlock, who finds herself persecuted by the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn, then hunted by the determined Inspector Bucket, one of the first detectives to appear in English literature. A savage, but often comic, indictment of a society that is rotten to the core.
Great Expectations -almost 6 hrs long, starring Joan Hickson
In the gloom of a country graveyard, a young boy encounters an escaped convict, a chance meeting that later leads the boy to tragedy, mystery and wealth.
Hard Times -with Alan Bates, Bill Paterson, Richard Grant
Local MP and schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind raises his children, Louisa and Tom, in the utilitarian fashion, stressing reason and fact and dismissing imagination and emotion. Under his influence, Louisa grows cold while Tom turns to a secret life of drinking and gambling. To be nearer her brother, Louisa accepts an offer of marriage from his boss, the self-mad, self-important banker Josiah Bounderby, though she does not love him. But soon finds herself succumbing to the attentions of the lothario James Harthouse. All the while, Mrs. Sparsit, a former aristocrat who now works for Bounderby, obsessively watches as the drama unfolds, longing for Louisa's downfall.
Martin Chuzzlewit -with Paul Scofield, Tom Wilkinson, John Mills
Who will inherit the riches of wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit? The only person he trusts is his companion and nurse, the young orphan Mary Graham, but she is employed on the understanding that she will not inherit a penny. He has disinherited his grandson, Young Martin, suspicious of the motives of the young man's love for Mary. With such a fortune at stake, the rest of the family closes in like sharks. The obsequious Pecksniff, whit his daughters, Mercy and Charity, attempts to grovel into the old man's good graces, while the wicked Jonas will stop at nothing...even murder.
Our Mutual Friend -a tale of two turbulent love affairs amidst a tangled web of wealth, corruption, passion and betrayal in 1860's London. Almost 6 hours long.
