{"id":882,"date":"2007-12-26T15:58:07","date_gmt":"2007-12-26T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/26\/dickens-curiosity-is-a-bleak-old-shop\/"},"modified":"2015-03-19T13:13:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T13:13:59","slug":"dickens-curiosity-is-a-bleak-old-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=882","title":{"rendered":"TV REVIEW: Dickens’s ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Old<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON — Far from chestnuts roasting and choristers singing, Charles Dickens’ “The Old Curiosity Shop” is a curiously bleak tale for Christmas. Famous for the death scene of a most sympathetic character, it’s a sorrowful story of greed, poverty and grief, and ITV’s version makes the most of it.<\/p>\n

Co-produced by WGBH Boston, the film has a starry cast topped by Derek Jacobi (pictured with Sophie Vavasseur) as the grandfather whose compulsive gambling leads to the loss of the quaint little shop mentioned in the title.<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/a>Toby Jones (“Infamous”) plays the unscrupulous moneylender Mr. Quilp (right) who drives the old man into the streets with his devoted granddaughter, Nell (Sophie Vavasseur).<\/p>\n

They flee to the countryside, encountering assorted colorful characters like Mrs. Jarley (Zoe Wanamaker), who runs a wax works, and a couple of Punch & Judy showmen (Martin Freeman and Steve Pemberton).<\/p>\n

Quilp sets off after them aided by a pair of married lawyers named Brass (Gina McKee and Adam Godley), while an impoverished young lad named Kit (George McKay) helps a mysterious stranger (Adrian Rawlins) who also is seeking the old man and Little Nell.<\/p>\n

Writer Martyn Hesford keeps the story tidy, while director Brian Percival moves things along while helping his cast to resist the temptation to be overly Dickensian.<\/p>\n

The film was made in Ireland with the help of the Irish Film Board, but it has the look of a low-budget production with many scenes shot in the dark and lots of close-ups. The exceptions are when grandfather and Nell have moments of freedom out in the country when the screen is suddenly filled with greenery.<\/p>\n

Jacobi finds some vinegar in what could easily be a sweet old man, and Jones gives some shading to Quilp’s villainy. Stephen McKeon’s versatile score helps considerably.<\/p>\n

It’s a dour, depressing tale, however, and attempts at a jolly ending serve only as a reminder that Dickens wrote it as a serial. It looks very much as if he were making it up as he went along.<\/p>\n

Screens: ITV1 9-11pm Dec. 26; Cast: Derek Jacobi; Toby Jones; Sophie Vavasseur; Gina McKee; Adam Godley; Anna Madeley; Adrian Rawlins; Geoff Breton; Bryan Dick; Zoe Wanamaker; Martin Freeman; Steve Pemberton; George McKay; Teleplay: Martyn Hesford; Director: Brian Percival; Director of photography: Peter Greenhaigh; Production designer: Michael Pickwoad; Music: Stephen McKeon; Costume designer: Lorna Marie Mugan; Editor: Tony Cranstoun; Executive producer: Gareth Neame; Producer: Andrew Benson A Carnival, WGBH Boston, Ingeneous Broadcasting co-production with the participation of the Irish Film Board.<\/p>\n

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON — Far from chestnuts roasting and choristers singing, Charles Dickens’ “The Old Curiosity Shop” is a curiously bleak tale for Christmas. Famous for the death scene of a most sympathetic character, it’s a sorrowful story of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[2914,2920,2923,2899,2915,2919,2921,661,2918,2916,2922,2917,1803,2449],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-television","tag-the-old-curiosity-shop","tag-adrian-rawlins","tag-brian-percival","tag-charles-dickens","tag-derek-jacobi","tag-george-mckay","tag-gina-mckee","tag-itv1","tag-martin-freeman","tag-sophie-vavasseur","tag-stephen-mckeon","tag-steve-pemberton","tag-toby-jones","tag-zoe-wanamaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5365,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions\/5365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}