Dickens of London

Dickens of London tells Dickens life story, up to a point. Each episode begins with an elderly Dickens doing a speaking tour of America before flashing back to his younger days.

The series starts with his childhood, and it is portrayed as wonderfully Dickensian and full of odd characters, most notably his father, who is excellently played by Roy Dotrice, who also plays elderly Dickens and, later in the show, no-longer-young Dickens (he's less charming in that role).

At the start, the series is very entertaining and engaging. But somewhere along the way, as Dickens turned into a rather vain and obnoxious adult, the charm drained out a bit. The Dickensian quality of England also faded - increasingly, Dickens seemed to just hand out with rather ordinary people.

In the latter half, episodes vary in quality. Some episodes, like Magic, are a real slog, but a few, like the fanciful Nightmare, are quite entertaining. The series final is an oddity that seems a peculiar way to end the series.

I watched this series when it first came out but never saw the end, and used to joke that because of that I had no idea if Dickens ever died. But it turned out the series doesn't follow his life all the way through, almost as though they were hoping there'd be enough interest for a sequel.

I hunted this series down because I always regretted not seeing the last of it, but in retrospect, I'd probably seen most of what was worth seeing.