Dr Jacques COULARDEAU It takes Dickens to invent and explore such a sordid family history and story. For Dickens the world is cut into three types of people.First the rich who are supposed to make money by all means, and of course first of all speculation. Madoff certified and a long time before that particular character appeared in finance. Dickens explores the greed of these people but also in some the sound sense of business and fairness, and yet always distorted by selfishness, since selfishness seems to be the main characteristic of man.Second those who exploit the rich and they are of different types. The beggars or immoral servants, those who drink too much and reside in the petty crime of overbilling their services and taking advantage of an open door. These are luckily counterbalanced by those who are faithful, honest, hard working and ready to help those who deserve that help. Some are easily taken in and exploited again by some social climbing individuals.Third the social climbers who consider all means are permitted to climb any step, or should I say rung, on the social ladder. They exploit the young, they steal their work and use it under their own names, they flatter the rich when they feel these are weak and gullible.The best side of Dickens is that everyone will get the payment their deserve. The social climbers will be ruined by their own greed and the bigger greed of some other predators, when it is not plainly killed by one of their victims. The greedy rich will be the prey of all types of predators and those unworthy to be rich because totally overcome by their greed and unable to repent or simply be humble about it will die in the hands of worse characters of lower extract, including their own children. The faithful servants will be rewarded and happy in their hearts. The profiteering servants will be gently discarded.Two themes are addressed besides these. The position of women in Victorian society. They are pure victims if they do not keep some distance and independence, the victims of men who take wives only to make a profit or to be presentable in society. But at the same time some can get free and keep free as soon as they are of age, provided they want to sever some ties that may hamper them or to refuse some attachments that may prove unwise. Strangely enough in this totally inhumane society women are a ray of sunshine when they believe in love and fight for it.The second is America. Dickens had a special feud with the USA about his works being pillaged and looted by the American press without paying the royalties his copyright should have produced. Here again the American caper of Martin Chuzzlewit is a visit to a hellish and totally negative hallucination.But if we look at the weddings in this story we find that ambiguous vision of Dickens: One marriage is a total failure, that of Mercy with Jonas Chuzzlewit; two will be happy, the marriage of Mary with Martin Chuzzlewit and the marriage of Martin's self appointed servant with the housekeeper of the wicked profiteer Mr. Pecksniff. Two will never be fulfilled, that of Tom Pinch who was in love with Mary who chose Martin, and that of Charity whose paramour is taken away to Tasmania. Tom Pinch's sister will probably marry happily with Tom's friend. We are far from the four weddings of the Midsummer Night Dream by Shakespeare. Dickens' world sounds more like a Janus-like picture of a dream that covers up a nightmare.This particular production by the BBC captures the slow and delicate rhythm of the original with quite a lot of details and side situations that give some depth to the main line of the story. This production also seems to emphasize the depiction of the monstrous and bleakest characters and even Old Martin Chuzzlewit, Martin's own grandfather, is not shown most of the time, and even at the end as a very palatable person. A beautiful piece of 19th century literature that will inspire some of the political minds of that century and the next. When you see such deep social rot the idea of a revolution becomes acceptable or even worth being desired.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

spratton What an ensemble cast, every one committed and enthusiastic, every one knowing their Dickens, too! Tom Wilkinson is superb --- an actor of many roles, but in this he is fantastic as Pecksniff. Young Martin is perfect (I once saw Ben Walden in Julius Caesar at the Globe)--- a rather spoiled and righteous young man whose tantrums reminded me of Daniel Day Lewis's tantrums in THE NAME OF THE FATHER! Hardest to accept right off are the two Pecksniff sisters, but that's because they are so Dickensian and we are simply no longer accustomed to women being portrayed this way. In the 'small roles', Joan Sims as Betsy Prigg, Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs Gamp, and Graham Stark as Nadgett -- all hugely-experienced veterans of British broadcasting --- are pure gold. This production did the best it could with such a long book, in dealing with the American episodes -- mostly via letters being read. Nothing more could be done to resolve this difficulty. The late Pete Postlethwaite is a juicy Montague Tigg, as villainous as Keith Allen is terrifying in his Jonas role. There is not a bad casting in it, so let's finish by praising Philip Frank as Tom Pinch -- a role he does so well, so honestly, so unembarrassed, that his many other later appearances on TV are a shock (eg police inspector in "Heartbeat".

Robert J. Maxwell I'm not familiar with the novel, so I can't say how closely the characters as they are portrayed match any cognitive template, and I've only seen about half the episodes but that's enough to instigate a comment. Paul Scofield is old Anthony Chuzzlewit, supposedly rich beyond measure, but hoarding his wealth, living in a dreary inn in London with his grandchildren and some others in attendance. Most of his friends and relatives can't wait for him to kick it so they can get their hands on his money.Of his friends, Mr. Pecksmith is the most appalling phony. Tom Pinch, weird looking and a little dumb, may be the nicest person in the story. He provides the church with music, gratis, or, as he puts it, "I touch the organ for my own amusement." John Mills is Mr. Chuffey, the addled and devoted servant who is dotty but genuine. Keith Allen is Jason Chuzzlewit, Martin's direct descendant who hovers over the wrinkled old fellow waiting for the last breath to be drawn. Allen is a fine actor. He was a outstanding supercilious serial murderer in the BBC's "The Life and Crimes of William Palmer." Here he's openly vicious and his manners are repugnant. He always seems be sneering and eating with his mouth open, both at the same time.Anthony Chuzzlewit himself is no prize. "Aggravation flows through his veins, not blood." He loathes the fawners and the greedy and does no more than put up with the few decent people he meets. Mercifully he passes on. Shortly after, his brother Martin shows up for a visit, also Paul Scofield but a more mellow sort of Chuzzlewit, concerned not just about himself and his body sheath but about the happiness of others. That's about as far as I've gotten so far.Here, as in so many other BBC series, no one can help being impressed by the direction, the acting, and the production values on display. It's a magnificent effort. London never looked quite so crummy and oily, nor its citizens so ragged. The older attempts to put Dickens on celluloid, the ones from Hollywood, were all filmed in sunny California and the cheery settings shed a different light on the proceedings. Lean's two shots at Dickens were more realistic but not as muddy and dark as this series. (Insert favorite vulgar imprecation here), it's depressing!No wonder one of the younger characters takes off to make his fortune in America -- all that Hollywood sunshine. Actually Dickens himself made a trip to the States and had a chat with Edgar Allan Poe. One can only imagine what they had to talk about. One's demons were psychological, the other's social.I'm happy when a classic English novel is given a proper miniseries treatment instead of being pruned down to two hours or so. But it generates problems too. There are half a dozen narrative threads that need to be followed. I had a hell of a time with Jason Chuzzlewit's courtship of one or another of the two sinister sisters, for instance. (He switches his pursuit at the last minute.) And at six or so hours of screen time, divided into many episodes, it's sometimes a little hard to keep the threads and the characters straight, to separate the warp from the woof. It must have been even more difficult when the episodes were originally presented on different nights. These multi-charactered plots represent one of the few instances in which recognizable faces, faces of popular actors, help us follow the goings on.

theowinthrop In 1842 Charles Dickens was at a critical point in his career. His attempt at a series of stories told by different characters to each other, "Master Humphrey's Clock", was not a success, although it produced a popular novel ("The Old Curiosity Shop"), and a first attempt at a historical novel ("Barnaby Rudge"). He decided to take a trip to the United States. The results was bad. He found Americans thievish for not giving him copy-write protection. He found them hypocrites for screaming for freedom, but winking at slavery. He found their cities far less acceptable than the English ones. There was less gentility. There was more rough edged belligerence (especially to the old enemy: England). He hated it. He returned to England and wrote "American Notes". The book roundly attacked the Americans. He was not forgiven for years.He compounded the act in his next novel, "Martin Chuzzlewit", from 1843 - 1844. In this period, ironically, he was to start writing his small Christmas novels, the first of which ("A Christmas Carol") would become immortal - far more than "Chuzzlewit" actually did. But "Chuzzlewit" is regarded by critics as the best of Dickens comic novels. Yet if one person out of five reads the novel today I'd be surprised.The novel deals with young Martin Chuzzlewit (Ben Walden), who is apprenticed to his cousin the architect Seth Pecksniff (Tom Wilkinson). Pecksniff is the British equivalent of Moliere's Tartuffe - the arch-hypocrite. As "tartuffel" is the term based on Moliere's character, so is the word "peck-sniff" due to Dickens (in "You Can't Cheat An Honest Man", an angry Mr. Belgoody - Thurston Hall - tells off Larson E. Whipsnade - W.C.Fields - calling him both a tartuffel and a peck-sniff). Pecksniff, pretending to be religious and good, back-stabs his way through the novel, stealing ideas from other architects (including Martin), and pushing his plans to gain control over Old Martin (the grandfather of the hero), a wealthy, retired merchant. Old Martin is played by Paul Schofield. Schofield also plays Old Martin's younger brother Anthony, who has a son Jonas (Keith Allen). Jonas wants to inherit too.Dickens had demonstrated a grasp at the criminal mind in his handling of Bill Sykes and Fagin in "Oliver Twist". But the burglar and the thief trainer were relatively simple types (although Sykes fury at Nancy and his subsequent self-destruction was unique for British literature at that time). Jonas was a higher class criminal - a murderer who did it for money, not anger. He first destroys Anthony, and then goes after his cousin Montague Tigg, a cousin who is a swindler and a blackmailer. The killing of Tigg (whom Jonas ambushes while he is riding in a gig) is based (somewhat) on the murder of William Weare by John Thurtell in 1823. But there is more than that in Jonas. He is rejected by Pecksniff's daughter Charity (nicknamed Cherry / played by Emma Chambers), who subsequently gives in to his courting - only to discover he pursued her to punish her for initially rejecting him. He is blackmailed by Tigg into investing in a financial swindle, and purposely pulls his father-in-law Pecksniff into the swindle because he hates the man. Dickens made Jonas an in depth study of evil, and he becomes a center of fascination in the plot.Meanwhile Young Martin goes to America when he breaks with the thieving Pecksniff. He goes with his friend Mark Tapley (Steve Nicholson). They find nothing likable about Americans who are nasty brutes for the most part. They have bought land from the Eden Land Company, only to find it is swamp land. The only good point is that young Martin's personality does change - he becomes less selfish because Mark and he have to depend on each other for survival.The other comic person in the novel is Sairey Gamp (Elizabeth Spriggs), a drunken midwife who assists Jonas at times. She keeps her acquaintance Betsy Prigg (Joan Sims) informed all the time of her best friend, Mrs "Arris". George Orwell puts it into proper perspective: More details are given about Mrs. Harris than found in any biography about a real person - for only the drunken Mrs. Gamp sees Ms Harris. Betsy finally calls her up short on this claiming, "I don't think there is such a person." Horrified, Mrs. Gamp insists there is. Later, a desperate Jonas requires a woman to watch someone - Mrs. Gamp, almost heroically, pushes for Mrs. Harris.The series was quite good in what it showed from the novel, but it cut out the entire American section - really the heart of the novel as it deals with the hero. It was found to be too negative an image. Whether it was or not it weakened the production. What is left is quite good, but one wishes the American chapters had been left in as well.