David Yelland stars as David Copperfield in this superb six-part television serial BBC adaptation of one of Charles Dickens’ best-loved and most autobiographical of novels. Adapted by Hugh Whitemore. Julian Aymes directs this acclaimed five-and-a-half hour miniseries, from a script by William Trevor.
Torn from his loving mother and devoted maid by his wicked step-father, David is abandoned into a cruel boarding school where beatings are the order of the day. When his mother is taken from him, he is sent to work in a bottle-cleaning factory and forced to live with the Micawbers. Fleeing to the protection of his eccentric Aunt Betsy, David at last starts to escape his past and fulfill his potential as a man.
Capturing many of the hardships Dickens himself endured – from abject poverty to cruelty and injustice at school – David Copperfield is a bittersweet but ultimately triumphant and uplifting masterpiece.
Starring David Yelland as David Copperfield, Martin Jarvis as Uriah Heep, and Arthur Lowe as Wilkins Micawber. Also appearing were David Troughton, Ian Hogg, Timothy Bateson, Patience Collier, Anthony Andrews and Patricia Routledge.
Note: This version was generally well received. In Clive James review for The Observer he wrote: “David Copperfield is as good as everybody says. Steerforth’s flaw is well conveyed by Anthony Andrews, and Uriah Heep, played by Martin Jarvis, is a miracle of unction: to hear him talk is like stepping on a toad long dead. But Arthur Lowe’s Micawber is better than anything. He follows W. C. Fields in certain respects, but is graciously spoken; and his gestures are as delicate as Oliver Hardy’s. Not that his performance is eclectic – it is a subtle unity like everything he attempts.”