David Copperfield (1999)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Menu Audio Scene Selection Anim & Audio Featurette-Making Of Audio-Only Track-The Music Of David Copperfield Trailer-Pride And Prejudice, Wives And Daughters, Middlemarch
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	180:02 (Case: 230)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Simon Curtis
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Emilia Fox Pauline Quirke Maggie Smith John Normington Daniel Radcliffe Trevor Eve Michael Elphick James Thornton Alun Armstrong Patsy Byrne Laura Harling Zoë Wanamaker Jacqueline Tong
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Robert Lane

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

      For those of you who want a clean, clear synopsis - the thing to do is click here, because I'm about to launch into some background on Mr Dickens first, so that I may offer the fullest viewing experience that I'm able to offer. For some of you, see you in the next paragraph... for others... catch you later.

      Charles Dickens has frequently been referred to as the author who "invented" childhood, and in many ways, it's a legitimate claim. Many of his best known and loved stories recount the adventures of junior protagonists, from the picaresque and resourceful Artful Dodger; the gentle innocent Oliver Twist; the bold and observant Pip; and, in Dickens' own words, his "favourite child," David Copperfield. He was unique in writing about real children, dealing with real life, from a child's perspective.

      The great Victorian author was an absolute smash hit in his time, not just because of his glorious, impish turn of phrase, or his fearless tackling of social themes of his day (poverty, inequity in the legal system, the brutish class system), but also because he and his publishers brilliantly released all of his works initially as serial instalments. Whereas the going price for a full book in the day was around 34 shillings (the average weekly worker's wage was about 18 shillings), a monthly instalment could be bought for about a shilling. Still, no doubt, a considerably weighty purchasing decision, but for a weary and disillusioned working class - perhaps a worthwhile investment in diversion from their exhausting and often dire lives. Imagine, for a moment, a pre-television age, with just the fire and a few candles to illuminate one's pleasures. And consider, in that context, the descriptive, honest, outrageous writings of one C D - thrilling!

      Once all instalments were published, the episodes would be gathered up and published in the more conventional novel form, more favoured by middle and higher classes. (Who said marketing is the province of the 20th century and beyond?)

     David Copperfield was a story Dickens penned later in his literary career, and there is little debate remaining that there is a strong autobiographical stream flowing through its text. It began its instalment life in May 1849 and continued through until November 1850. When finally published in full novel form, the original dedication from 1850 reads:

Affectionately Inscribed To
the Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Watson,
of Rockingham, Northamptonshire.

I do not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from this Book, in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with the composure which this formal heading would seem to require. My interest in it, is so recent and strong; and my mind is so divided between pleasure and regret - pleasure in the achievement of a long design, regret in the separation from many companions - that I am in danger of wearying the reader whom I love, with personal confidences, and private emotions.

Besides which, all that I could say of the Story, to any purpose, I have endeavoured to say in it.

It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know, how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-years' imaginative task; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him for ever. Yet, I have nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which might be of less moment still) that no one can ever believe this Narrative, in the reading, more than I have believed it in the writing.

Instead of looking back, therefore, I will look forward. I cannot close this Volume more agreeably to myself, than with a hopeful glance towards the time when I shall again put forth my two green leaves once a month, and with a faithful remembrance of the genial sun and showers that have fallen on these leaves of David Copperfield, and made me happy. London, October, 1850.

     There is little wonder at the pain and affection the author might have felt. Born on the 7th of February, 1812, Charles Dickens was the son of John and Elizabeth. His father was the son of a butler and a housekeeper, but what John lacked in breeding, he overcompensated for in aspirations and ambition. In spite of his rather comfortable position as a clerk in the Navy pay office, John could never live within his means, and by 1824, his second child Charles was removed from his school in Chatham, and, at the tender age of 12, put to work in a boot-blacking factory. His meagre earnings were not enough to stave-off family disaster, however, and the entire family, with the exception of Charles, were interred in the Marshalsea Debtors' Prison.

     By the age of 15, Dickens the younger was employed as a solicitor's clerk. And by the early 1830's, he'd become amorously acquainted with Maria Beadnell, a banker's daughter, with whose happy association he was divided when her father decided his social station was not sufficient to encourage the relationship. By 1835, he instead married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of a mentor publisher, George Hogarth. But it was her sister Mary who utterly beguiled him, and her death in 1837 caused one of the very few interruptions in his writing regimen. In spite of her bearing him 10 children, the relationship between Catherine and Charles was always problematic, and they did ultimately separate in 1858.

     So, Charles Dickens, like David Copperfield, knew the bliss of a cosseted childhood; the terror of losing it all; the tensions of alternate social stations; the blighting of "inappropriate" love; the agony of wrong romantic decisions; the betrayal of close confidantes; the shame of debtors' prison; the immoral absurdity of the class system; the gentle blessings of good friends and the fickle of finger of fate as it points arbitrarily across the fortunes of simple human players.

      In his own observance, Dickens recalls his childhood with the words, "how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age?" Verily, he may have been the "author of childhood", but it was still a very fleeting moment in the life of a human in those days. Charles Dickens, born in the year that the newly formed United States of America waged war on England, the year that Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated by a disgruntled bankrupt, and the throne was being "protected" by the Prince Regent, (soon to be) George IV, due to the "madness" and eventual death of King George III, saw many social and regent uprisings in his life until the berthing of Victoria upon the throne of England in 1837. By the time of his writing David Copperfield, he'd seen plenty of imperial decisions (and frequently, their dire social consequences), and, in his witty way, managed to voice his displeasure.

      Dickens had a canny way of appealing to all strata of society - his themes were richly steeped in clinical censure of the ruling classes - but he was that same class' literary darling. In some ways, this coalesces elegantly on his tombstone, in Westminster Abbey in (where else?) Poets Corner: His epitaph reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world". I recall my pilgrimage to that site. Amongst the "rubbers" and the tour guides and the wild "travel independents", there was the odd person who sought out his memorial....they were normally silent, thoughtful, and jubilant... amen to that!

      So to the synopsis! For those who've travelled with me through the preceding paragraphs...take a *well* earned break! (We'll wait for you:)

      With his father having died prior to his arrival, David Copperfield's beautiful, young and vulnerable mother, Clara (Emilia Fox) and her faithful and loving servant, Peggotty (Pauline Quirke) are visited in their home at Blundstone by the formidable Betsey Trotwood (Maggie Smith), Clara's dead husband's aunt. She announces with all the terrifying confidence of the Oracle that Clara's baby will be born a girl, and shall be endowed with the name Betsey Trotwood Copperfield, and the services of her great aunt as Godmother. Clara goes into labour, and much to Betsey's disgust, produces a boy - David Copperfield Jr.

      Young David (Daniel Radcliffe - yup - Harry Potter), Clara and Pegotty enjoy a peaceful existence until the arrival on the scene of Mr Murdstone (Trevor Eve). Whilst David and Pegotty enjoy a blissful holiday at Pegotty's Yarmouth boat-home with Mr Pegotty (Alun Armstrong), Mrs Gummidge (Patsy Byrne), the gentle Ham (James Thornton), and the sweet little Emily (Laura Harling), Clara and Murdstone get married. David's idyllic life is shattered as Murdstone and his bitter sister (Zoë Wanamaker) install themselves at Blundstone and proceed to make everyone's life a complete and utter misery. Instead of the sweet and gentle raising of his mother and Pegotty, David is brutalised and beaten by Murdstone. During one particularly vicious whipping, David bites Murdstone's finger, resulting in a prolonged solitary confinement, and the decision to send the poor lad away for some "corrective" tuition at the ironically named Salem House - an "Academy for Young Gentlemen." There David encounters the wretched and vile Mr Creakle (Ian McKellen in a scene stealing performance), who forces our poor young hero to wear a wooden sign that says "Take care of him...he bites." The only kindness he encounters at this cold and brutal school is from an older boy, Steerforth (played by an actual descendent of Charles Dickens, Harry Lloyd). They cement a friendship, although an older David Copperfield will live to rue this acquaintance. Slowly, David adjusts to the cruel rhythms of school life, but his world is completely shattered when he is informed (in agonising fashion) that his mother has died.

      On returning to Blundstone, David is coldly informed by Murdstone that he is no longer prepared to pay for his schooling, and instead consigns him to work in his London blacking factory. The work is arduous, long and degrading, and Victorian London is a hostile place for a young boy. The only light in his desperate plight is his introduction to Mr Micawber (Bob Hoskins) - a verbose and flamboyant gent with whom David is to lodge. Micawber is a delight. He is eternally optimistic, a great lover of life, and a magnanimous husband and father to his ever growing brood of children. Unfortunately, he is also eternally in debt, and barely keeping one step ahead of his creditors.

      When the Micawbers finally have to leave London to evade debtors' prison, David decides to run away from his desperate existence and seek the help of his only living relative, Aunt Betsey Trotwood. After a long journey on foot, he arrives, bedraggled, exhausted and near-starving. It seems Aunt Betsey has still not quite forgiven him for being born a boy, but, with the counsel of her rather unhinged companion, Mr Dick (Ian McNeice), she is persuaded to consider assisting him. Her decision is galvanised when Murdstone and his sister come to call, and the result of their most unpleasant encounter is that Betsey adopts David and takes full financial responsibility for the boy.

      With the new name of Trotwood Copperfield, David is returned to his education, this time at a far more edifying seat of learning, and is billeted with Aunt Betsey's legal agent, Mr Wickfield (Oliver Ford Davies) and his charming daughter, Agnes (played as a child by Antonia Corrigan, and then as an adult by Amanda Ryan). David is much disquieted by the disturbing presence of Mr Wickfield's obsequious and ever-so-'umble clerk, Uriah Heep (Nicholas Lyndhurst), who always seems to be lurking around in a sinister manner. But, as the narrator attests, "time goes by unobserved" and David (now played by Ciarán McMenamin) grows into youth.

      Having graduated from school, David decides to visit Pegotty, who has married the "willin'" Mr Barkis (Michael Elphick), and goes on, with Steerforth (now played by Oliver Milburn) to visit the Pegotty clan in Yarmouth. Ham, beaming with delight, shyly announces his engagement to Emily (now played by Aislín McGuckin), but there appears to be some powerful chemistry between the wildly beautiful and windswept Emily and Steerforth.

      Returning to London, Aunt Betsey finances his apprenticeship as a proctor for the lawyer, Mr Spenlow (James Grout) and helps him find accommodations at a house run by the rather lush Mrs Crupp (Dawn French). As he settles into his new life, he encounters the glorious Dora (Joanna Page), Mr Spenlow's daughter, and falls instantly and hopelessly in love.

      Word arrives to David that Mr Barkis is dying, so he dashes to Pegotty's side to comfort her. All is not well in Yarmouth, and Emily confides in an awkward fashion to David her reservations about marrying Ham. She wants to be made "a lady" - a feat not possible if she accepts his betrothal. She decides to run away with Steerforth - an act that crushes Ham and devastates Mr Pegotty. He vows to search to the ends of the earth to find her and rescue her and her honour.

      All is not well in London either. Uriah Heep is persistently increasing his hold over a demoralised Mr Wickfield, and has turned David's happy childhood home into a place under siege. Agnes and Mr Wickfield appear powerless against him, and the fortunes of their family and their clients seem perilously under threat. Dora has, however, consented to marry him, which makes him deliriously happy. After their marriage, they set up home together, although they are both hopelessly inept. Their first dinner party with their reunited friends, the Micawbers is an abject disaster, and Mr Micawber seems to have lost his joie de vivre. It transpires that he has been placed in the employ of Mr Wickfield and Uriah Heep - and Heep's underhand dealings are deeply disturbing the normally jolly fellow.

      The extent of Heep's handiwork unravels when Aunt Betsey comes to London and announces that she has been made broke. She and Mr Dick come to stay with David, who is becoming increasingly impatient with his pretty little wife, Dora. Poor Mr Pegotty is still relentlessly searching for Emily, who he finally finds in a London whorehouse. He decides that to preserve her honour and provide her with a fresh start, he will take her to Australia. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) A terrible storm hits Yarmouth, and Ham bravely plunges into the perilous seas to rescue sailors from a foundered vessel. Tragically, he dies, as do the sailors, one of whom turns out to be Steerforth.

      Mr Micawber finally plucks up the courage to expose Uriah Heep, and the spell that has fallen upon Mr Wickfield's house appears to be broken. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) As it transpires, Aunt Betsey's money is not lost - merely redirected to Heep's own purse, and the restoration of her fortunes comes at an opportune moment for Mr Micawber, whose plans to relocate his family to Australia are imperilled when he's nabbed dockside for unpaid debts. Aunt Betsey is able to account for the deficit, and the family fulfils its plans for a brighter future in the Antipodes.

      But for David, there is more tragedy yet. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) His pretty little wife, Dora, succumbs to illness and dies, leaving a guilt-ridden David to wander the continent for a time rather aimlessly. On his return, he is reunited with Agnes, and they both realise that their affections for each other are far more than merely fraternal.

      Finally, we leave David and Agnes, blissfully happy parents of an increasing brood. David has realised his lifetime ambition to write stories, and has become a successful author. The couple are imminently expecting an addition to their family of two sons, and deliver, much to Aunt Betsey's delight, a Goddaughter, namely, Betsey Trotwood Copperfield.

      This BBC production is absolutely marvellous. Although it has undergone some necessary editing from the original text, it remains utterly faithful to the story and Dickens' intent. Special mention should also be made of the narrator of the piece, Tom Wilkinson, whose beautifully moderated voice gives the voice-over genuine personable charm. The scriptwriters did a fabulous job of blending the live action with the narration in a manner that was seamless and engaging.

      The depth of performing talent in this production is extraordinary, and each cast member contributes generously to create a dream ensemble. This is utterly enjoyable viewing and I highly recommend it.

Video

     This transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 16x9 enhanced.

     The presentation is crisp, sharp and perfectly transferred. The detail is extensive in both highlights and shadows and there is no low level noise. Grain levels are generally excellent, although there is one exception, in Episode 2, at 06:04 which sorts itself out again by 09:18.

     The colour range is lush, lavish and deeply saturated, making the most of some tenderly shot cinematography. Skin tones are consistently excellent throughout, and the colours hold in both interior and exterior shots.

     This presentation is largely artefact free with the exception of some very minor aliasing and the tiniest tad of motion blur occasionally.

     This is a dual layered disc, with the layer change placed between the two episodes, causing no interruption whatsoever.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The soundtrack is delivered in English Dolby Digital 2.0 and is crisp, clean and distortion free.

     The dialogue is excellent throughout and the audio sync presents no problems. The subtitles are clean, clear and easy to read, although occasionally, a little truncated.

     The original music by Robert Lane is truly glorious, and fully deserves the 5.1 feature it receives in the extras.

     There is some sense of direction in the soundscape, although there is no subwoofer activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

     The menu is static and backed by Robert Lane's magnificent music. The scene selection menu has little cells with live action from each scene in them - very nice indeed.

Featurette - The Making of David Copperfield - Dickens' Favourite Child. (20:06)

     An exceptionally good featurette, focusing not just on the background scenes, but also the historical and social context of Dickens' writing.

The Music of Rob Lane

     A 5.1 offering of the theme music from David Copperfield. This is 30 minutes of bliss - enjoy!

Trailers

     Promotions for Pride and Prejudice; Wives and Daughters and Middlemarch.

      The R4 version misses out on:

• Cast list
• Poster gallery
• Access to the "David Copperfield" website

    The R1 version misses out on:

• The Making of Featurette
• The Music of Rob Lane
• The BBC promos

  In this ever-so-'umble reviewer's opinion, R4 is the out and out winner.

     Fantastic cast, superlative production values, enchanting story, intelligent adaptation - for what more could a discerning viewer ask? If it's been a while since you last acquainted yourself with young Master Copperfield, please allow me to encourage you to do so now. An absolute delight!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall