A six-part BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic. Part 1 finds Nicholas (Nigel Havers) and his sister (Kate Nicholls) penniless following their father’s death. Uncle Ralph: Derek Godfrey. Part 2 of six. Nicholas (Nigel Havers) beats Squeers (Derek Francis) for his relentless cruelty to poor Smike; and Kate wards off the advances of Sir Mulberry Hawk. Part 3 of six. Nicholas, accompanied by Smike, leaves London and joins a theater company. Nicholas: Nigel Havers. Part 4 of six. Nicholas (Nigel Havers) returns to London to help his family and is hired by the kindly Cheeryble brothers to work in their accounting house. Meanwhile, Ralph plots to interrupt his nephew’s good fortune. Part 5 of six. Nicholas falls for a lovely young woman—but her ailing father plans to marry her off to a sly client of Ralph Nickleby (Derek Godfrey). Conclusion. Noggs feels certain that he can uncover information about Ralph Nickleby’s shady past; and Nick, with the help of Kate, hopes to prevent the marriage of Madeline and the sly Mr. Gride.
Nicholas Nickleby takes place in England in the counties of Devonshire, Yorkshire, Surrey, and Hampshire and in the cities of Portsmouth and London. Nicholas Nickleby is set in the mid-1820s, 15 years earlier than its publication. Dickens antedated many of his stories. But here the date is historically significant. Yorkshire at the period of the novel’s action was a kind of British Siberia. From the 18th century, abusive parents had been dumping their unwanted offspring at cheap boarding schools there. It was all about to change, just at the period Dickens was writing Nicholas Nickleby. Railways, from the late 1830s to the 1860s would network the country. The age of the stagecoach was over, the age of the railway coach began. Nicholas Nickleby is, historically, on the cusp of this revolution. Yorkshire, thanks to steam, would soon be a few hours, not days away. It was no longer remote.- John Sutherland
Sadly schools like Dotheboys Hall really did exist. In early 1838 Dickens and Hablot Browne, the illustrator of Nicholas Nickleby, visited Yorkshire to get a first hand look at the situation. It was a very short visit, just two days, but it was enough to gather all the material they needed. During their visit they called on William Shaw, the headmaster of Bowes Academy. In 1823 Shaw had been prosecuted for neglect after two pupils became blind because of beatings and poor nutrition. The situation improved somewhat after the investigation. However even after the investigation it was common for one pupil to die at Bowes Academy every year. Dickens got the idea for Smike as he wandered through a churchyard near Bowes Academy. He read the engravings on the tombstones of the boys who died while attending Bowes and the idea sprang into his mind. – Marsha Perry
Starring Nigel Havers, Peter Bourke, Derek Godfrey.
Note: Because Dickens usually set his works in the Victorian era, that is how Nicholas Nickleby is also perceived, despite the novel being set in the mid-1820s in the late Georgian era. Nicholas Nickleby was originally published as a serial in 1838 and 1839.