Season 1 • Episode 8
LatestRichard, now married to Ada, continues the legal cause of Jarndyce.
Bleak House is BBC television drama first broadcast in 1985. The serial was adapted by Arthur Hopcraft from Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House and it was the second adaptation by the BBC.
Acting
Denholm Elliott's Jarndyce—warmth and melancholy in every sigh.
Production
BBC at peak period grime—every soot stain feels historically researched.
Writing
Hopcraft's adaptation trusts Dickens' rage without the padding.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Denholm Elliott had already played Mr. Merdle in Little Dorrit (1987)—this BBC Dickens era was his playground.
The term 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce' became shorthand for endless litigation; Dickens based it on real Chancery cases that dragged for decades.
GB
