Little Dorrit times two

In the Little Dorrit sweepstakes, the 8-hour 2008 BBC production wins hands down over the 6-hour 1986 film by Christine Edzard. In fact, the former renders the latter dispensible, despite admirable performances from Derek Jacobi and Alec Guinness. So let’s focus on the latest from accomplished screen adapter Andrew Davies, who scored triumphs with Pride and Prejudice and Bleak House for the BBC. Besides their long tradition of superior acting, the BBC now provides impeccable production quality, whether the location is London or Venice, a debtors’ prison or an Italian villa. So they have the luxury of television series duration with no sacrifice of film’s visual splendor. And with Dickens they are virtually guaranteed topicality, a reliable contemporary relevance, as well as that Victorian period feel. There’s one character in Little Dorrit who might as well have been called Bernie Madoff. And so many other perennial species of human fauna and flora! And so well portrayed by this cast! In the most striking contrast with the Edzard film, here Amy Dorrit is perfectly embodied in newcomer Claire Foy, who is able to go from waiflike to radiantly beautiful, as the character must do. Highest honors must go to Tom Courtenay as Mr. Dorrit, outdoing Alec Guinness and absolutely convincing through all the character’s changes, from longtime prisoner for debt to haughty "aristo." Matthew Macfadyen is also excellent as Arthur Clennam, though younger and more eligible than the life-weary Jacobi, removing the pediphiliac impediment of the earlier film (and probably Dickens’ original). In every role the tv series effaces the film, but the most striking support comes from Eddie Marsan (the driving instructor in Happy-Go-Lucky -- “En Ra Ha!”) as Pancks, and Andy Serkis, acting more evil than Golem himself, as a French murderer who doesn’t even appear in the film, but here becomes the hinge of the story. Which is a problem, because when he reveals the secrets at the heart of the story, the reveal is impossible to follow, even when you rewind and watch it again. But that is the only flaw in a literary adaptation that I cannot recommend highly enough. (MC-82)