Bleak House

A trio of orphans becomes embroiled in a mysterious and long-running lawsuit in this sprawling BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. A legend in the legal circles of Victorian London, the messy inheritance case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce has been trickling through the courts for years with no ...more

Enlivened by top-flight British character acting and an admirably nuanced performance from Gillian Anderson, this labyrinthine Charles Dickens adaptation seems neither rushed nor overstuffed -- a major achievement considering the epic source material. Although it functions as a deconstruction of the Victorian class and legal systems, Bleak House is, above all, a compelling story. Combining elements of mystery, drama, comedy, and romance, producer Nigel Stafford-Clark weaves dozens of characters ...more