Nicholas Nickleby (1982/TV/A&E)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: B
After enjoying the amazing, recent TV adaptation of
Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby from Acorn Media, we just had to look
at the deluxe set from A&E that took four DVDs to show that entire stage
production. Roger Rees (James Cameron’s
Titanic) has the title role this time, looking more typical like the
kind of actor who would do these adaptations.
He heads this Royal Shakespeare Company production from 1982, restored
and upgraded from the original videotapes for this new DVD set.
As compared to the on-location Acorn release, this version
takes the long way to tell the story about the young man who will only tolerate
so much misery and outrage form the people and world around him before he
responds quickly to defend himself and those who cannot. What is nice about this version is that it
is not stuffy and does not drag like you might expect a nine-hour long-way
performance to, and that the actors are far from presenting the expected
stuffiness a prestigious group with their name would possibly be considered to
embody. Instead, they at to, not at,
the audience and the leisurely pace this version has brings out qualities of dickens
no other version could.
As for the ugliness of the exploited, this all-stage
version does even less to dig into that ugliness. What is expected here is that the audience knows or is assumed
they know the weight of what is wrong, leave that behind and move on with the
storytelling. That allows this version
to loose too much site of the mortality of Dickens intents, but its staging is
compelling and moves smoothly throughout.
Unlike the 2000 version, this version is punctuated often by various characters
explaining the story in brief breaks, which includes the audience, more than
distances them. This is a solid record
of why this was such a worldwide stage experience. David Edgar did an amazing job of translating the book to stage.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image is from remastered and restored
PAL video masters for this NTSC release.
It shows its age, but has been fixed up as well as can be expected. Besides the fine regular lighting, there are
additional touches that pay off, including occasional uses of color that make
this surreal at times, bringing out yet another dimension of the work. The Dolby Digital 2.0 offers dialogue that
is clear enough, as the original monophonic sound has been upgraded to simple
stereo. Extras include bio/bibliography
text on Dickens and the Dickens installment of A&E’s Biography that
will make you think of the parallels between this program and his life. That makes this a referential DVD release
where Dickens work is concerned, which we recommend along with the Acorn
version and a good copy of the book.
- Nicholas Sheffo
