1. Bleak House (TV, 2005)
It's very easy to see in the influence of Dickens in the format and content of modern-day soap operas. Eastenders, Coronation Street and the like deal with real-world problems in small, easy-to-manage chunks, with no-nonsense dialogue and characters which mix the realistic and the cartoonish. So in choosing the best Dickens adaptation, one is looking for a series which both accurately reflects Dickens' work and is mindful of his influence and with that, I give you Bleak House. Bleak House is one of Dickens' most complex and multi-stranded novels, dealing centrally with the long-running legal case of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce. The majority of its subplots are affected by its eventual resolution, including the alleged infidelity of Lady Dedlock, the fate of Richard Jarndyce who pursues the case, the livelihood of Dedlock's lawyer Tulkinghorn, and the numerous criminal investigations under the watchful eye of Inspector Bucket. Dickens may have invented the word 'boredom' (in this very novel, in fact), but there is not a single boring moment in all 8 hours of this 15-part adaptation. Even with the numerous small changes (including creating a character to remove the need for a narrator), it still stands as a towering adaptation with a truly stellar cast. Comic turns by Matthew Kelly and Johnny Vegas (both very good) are offset by a brilliantly cold Charles Dance as Tulkinghorn and the wonderfully still Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock. It is quite simply brilliant, as addictive as any modern soap opera and essential viewing for all Dickens fans. ---
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