The original series of Upstairs Downstairs from the early 1970s is starting this week on Talking Pictures. It’s one of those shows everybody was aware of at the time — easier when there were only three channels! If you don’t know, Upstairs Downstairs was an award winning ITV series that can be seen as paving the ground for … >
It was recently revealed that the Doctor Who production team auditioned 70 actresses for the part of new companion Bill, which of course eventually went to Pearl Mackie. Assuming a similar number were looked at for previous companions, multiplied by how many of them there have been over the past fifty or so years, and that … >
The BBC has confirmed that Dickensian has been axed after just one season. The 20-part period drama series launched last December, initially attracting over 5 million viewers. However, had halved by the show’s tenth episode. Created by Tony Jordan (Hustle), Dickensian was set within the fictional realms of Charles Dickens’ critically acclaimed novels and cost an estimated £10m to make. > Buy Dickensian … >
Here we are at last. Dickensian Episode 20, finally. Sorry, I meant, finale. The finale. Ahem. There were times I thought we’d never get here. Even if you have enjoyed Every Single Episode of Tony Jordan’s cobble-stone uneven and overly long literary mash-up prequel, you have to admit it feels like it’s been on forever. … >
Stephen Rea, Pauline Collins, Caroline Quentin and Peter Firth lead the cast of BBC One’s Dickensian. Created by Tony Jordan (Hustle), the 20-part drama series is set within the fictional realms of Charles Dickens’ critically acclaimed novels. Dickensian brings together some of literature’s most iconic characters, including Scrooge, Fagin and Miss Havisham, as their lives … >
Finally. Finally! After weeks of meandering storylines and terrible double entendres, Dickensian lives up to the promise of its beginnings, with two episodes that are entertaining, and both for different reasons. This is what the show should’ve been like all along. So while I usually lump both together in a review, it’s worth separating them … >
It struck me, entering Hour Seven of Dickensian, and staring down the double-barrel of another of Mrs Bumble’s excruciating entendres (her Figgy Dowdy is ‘Extra moist’ this week), that this is a series which is a full four hours longer than BBC One’s War and Peace, and yet feels like it has half as much … >
They’re really putting the dick in Dickensian this week. In news that will surely redefine forever the way you read Oliver Twist, or watch Sir Harry Secombe belting out ‘Boy for sale!’ in Lionel Bart’s eponymous musical, we discover that corpulent literary fixture, Mr Bumble, has a nickname for his penis. It seems to be … >
Ever heard of Parkinson’s Law? No, no, it’s not the law of celebrity chat shows. It goes like this: ‘work expands to fill the time it takes to complete it’. You know, like when you have a week to write a review of Dickensian and somehow manage to take all week to write it, when … >
Dickensian is a nice enough drama for a half an hour at a time, but here’s where it’s gone wrong – it’s not a show about solving a dog murder. Because I don’t know about you, but right now I’m more interested in seeing Compeyson being brought to justice over the murder of Jip the … >