Updating Dickens for Daytime

Oh, no! It's OVER!!!
Can I just say, this has had me RIVETTED to my chair every afternoon this week - and this from someone who would NEVER usually bother wit TV during daytime viewing hours!
Sensitively handled, professionally crafted, respecting the values of the original and adding an original aspect all at once couldn't have been easy, but this was brilliantly done! Side effect: I'm now determined to re-read the original, something I last did when it was a 'set work' for GCE "O" levels in the late '60s.
I sincerely hope and trust we can expect more programmes of a similar nature and highly professional finish in the not too distant future?
Thank you, Joy Wilkinson ... BBC, look after this writer!

I would like to add my praise for the 'updated' Nicholas Nickleby - well written and of course so appropriate for the times. Performances are superb - thank you so much. more more please:)

When I saw Nick (not Nicholas) Nickleby advertised I was completely prejudiced - someone newfangling a perfect Dickens novel. My more open minded daughter persuaded me to watch it on iplayer - IT 'WAS GREAT - I LOVED FRANNIE. How about Bleak House next? Wonder how you would update the 'spontaneous combustion' scene????? You are very clever - you would find a way.- thanks for the entertainment.

Well I finally got to watch them on the iplayer over the weekend...
I will admit at the beginning I was like how are they going to get this to work..
will I still enjoy this as much as the period version which I love...

Well as I watched them all in one night... l love it... and trying to stop myself watching them again before they disappear...
Great job.. Thanks

Hi Joy... Well done. We've just finished watching Nicholas on iPlayer. We've been completely hooked and loved every minute. We are really looking forward seeing your future work.
Jackie and Steve. (Brierfield)

I really enjoyed this programme which I recorded and watched straight through. The acting was excellent and I found the characterisation of Mrs. Smike particularly touching. I too wondered if this concept would work and was so pleased that I decided to try it out because it was a joy to watch. I think it would have worked as a prime time show!

andrew simpson is amazing

lt's aaaaaaaaamazing
i want more series like this, modern adaptions of classic tales

Thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable week of afternoon TV. A classic tale brilliantly adapted to modern life. It was well written and the actors made all the characters and the storyline thoroughly believable. Everything from the script, the cast, the settings and the music were fantastic. I don't watch a great deal of TV, but I'm quite sad this tale only had 5 episodes. What am I going to do next week!

Just watched the last episode if this brilliant adaptation if the Dickens classic.
Seeing it advertised I didn't think it would work, but was happily proved wrong. The characters were all easily identified and matched to the originals. Well done on a fantastic production.
I do hope it is re-broadcast in full at a more popular time.

Thanks again for watching and for all your feedback. Very encouraging! And a good point about Hard Times. As to whether there'll be any more - I hope so too, but who knows? [Cliffhanger]

What a fantastic job you have done with your modern take on this old story! I really enjoyed it! Linda Bassett is truly an under- rated actress! and good to see up and coming actors like Andrew Simpson, loved the 'bumbling' father /daughter duo of Mr Squeers and Franny-kins! but well done to all the cast! And well done to all the casting crew writer and production team a real winner! Loved the cheesy ending! just what I need! really cheered me up on a miserable autum afternoon! just a shame it was'nt aired in the evening too it was certainly worthy.

I cannot say how much I enjoyed this series. It was spellbinding and the acting superb. I had doubts as to how this was going to work but omg I can honestly say, without hesitation, that this has been the best series this year. Well done to the writer & actors. The case were all unbelievable - first class. Well done. Cannot wait to see if there are any more modern adaptations. This will go down as one of the best

As a fan of both the greatest author ever and the only worthwhile television company I was looking forward, albeit with an element of fear, to seeing this adaptation. Somewhat amazed it was not given a prime spot I missed the start and so had to find a time to hit the i-player. That time arrived this morning and could not have been better. I've just watched the first 4 episodes, just in time to watch the last on the dear old box.

Congratulations, well done!

By the way, go back and read "Hard Times" and not as a study project, personally I think it's the greatest book ever written. Ok, I've not read every book, so maybe I'm wrong - but who cares so long as I have a copy of Hard Times.

Joy, carry on the good work.

Thank you.

A wonderful modern adaption of a Dickens classic.....thankyou...looking forward to some more, hopefully.

It just goes on being brilliant. I gasp at the skill required in bringing so many separate plot lines along together, inter-relating them as must, and this done in such short, snappy scenes - I hardly dare leave the screen to reach for my glass - might miss something vital! And such vile evil, such utter goodness, no holds barred. Surprisingly to me, the OTT of particularly the evil characters works wonderfully. And all the actors deserve awards. Very well done to writer and director.

Absolutely one of the best TV series I have ever seen. Love the adaptation, humour and amazing acting. Well done Joy Wilkinson and the BBC. Having been employed in the care sector for twenty years this story is not exaggerated and truly depicts what many care homes are like and the profit involved in merely looking after the elderly. Please, please bring it out on DVD you have a confirmed buyer!!

Good question, Peter. It is a huge cast to choose from, but once you've got Nick and Mrs Smike at the heart of the story, you start from there and see who is needed to make their story work - Ralph as antagonist, Nick's family to give him something to fight for, Madhi to fall in love with etc.

The story comes first, and then time and money constraints mean you then make decisions about what is and isn't essential. So there was a Mrs Squeers to begin with, but her function - to make Nick's life hell at Dotheolds - was already in the capable hands of Squeers and Frannie. In other cases, characters no longer had a place in the modern story e.g. Miss La Creevy is a good friend to the family in the book, but wouldn't have added to the drama here. And lots of characters from Madhi's story were cut or conflated to focus on the fact that Nick loves Madhi but she has to marry someone else. Budget comes into it, but the guiding factor was always telling Nick's story and finding the drama.

Greatly enjoying this.

How did you choose which of Dickens' huge cast of characters to include and which to leave out? And; to what extent were budget limitations part of that choice?

Just to say have just watched Episode 1 on iplayer and how much I enjoyed it. Probably more so because was having a discussion with friends a few nights ago about how old people are treated in care homes and how we would rather be given the Brompton Cocktail instead when it comes to our turn!. Although I did find it rather disconcerting that all the oldies seemed to be singing along to songs of the 60s ... eeeek, we're not THAT old yet!! :) Really looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes. Good job, well done!