''David Copperfield'' is a BBC television serial starring

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...

in the

title role The title character in a Narrative, narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The ...

of the adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1850 novel that began airing in January 1966. It also featured

Tina Packer Shakespeare & Company is an American theatre company located in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire region of western Massachusetts. It was founded in 1978 by artistic director Tina Packer, who stepped down in 2009. Allyn Burrows is the current ...

as Dora

Flora Robson Dame Flora McKenzie Robson (28 March 19027 July 1984) was an English actress and star of the theatrical stage and cinema, particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity. Her range extended from q ...

Betsey Trotwood Betsey Trotwood is a fictional character from Charles Dickens' 1850 novel ''David Copperfield''. Role in novel Betsey Trotwood is David Copperfield's great-aunt on his father's side, and has an unfavourable view of men and boys, having been ill-us ...

Gordon Gostelow Gordon Massey Gostelow (14 May 1925 – 3 June 2007) was an Australian actor. He was educated in Australia at North Sydney Boys High School and Sydney University where he graduated in Economics. Gostelow went to England in 1950 and worked ...

as Barkis, and

Christopher Guard Christopher Guard (born 5 December 1953) is an English actor, musician and artist. He is known for roles such as Jim Hawkins in '' Return to Treasure Island'' (1986), Bellboy in ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Greatest Show in the Galaxy'' (1988), ...

as young David. The screenplay adaptation was written by Vincent Tilsley, who had previously helmed the 1956 adaptation almost a decade prior. It had a viewership of over 12 million for its initial airings. Only four of the serial's thirteen episodes (3, 8, 9 and 11) are known to exist. It is said to be remarkably similar to the 1956 adaptation that preceded it, although that version is now completely lost.

Plot

For a detailed plot, see ''

David Copperfield (novel) ''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from inf ...

''.

Cast

Archive status

After being rebroadcast in the late 1960s, the original master

videotapes Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassette ...

for all thirteen episodes were wiped by the BBC. The 16mm

telerecordings Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940 ...

made for preservation were junked sometime afterwards, most likely in the 1970s. Only four episodes (3 "A Long Journey", 8 "The Proposal", 9 "Domestic Tangles" and 11 "Umble Aspirations") are known to exist with the

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

, with episode 3 existing in the highest quality. Episodes 8, 9 and 11 suffer from notably lower sound and picture quality. Additionally, unedited studio footage of episode 3, featuring outtakes, mid-take conversations between actors and even director Joan Craft telling the crew to "shut up", is also held by the BFI and available for private viewing at their building on Stephen Street, London. All four episodes are available to view for free at their Southbank building via the Mediatheque service.

Critical reception

The BFI's Screenonline wrote "while this adaptation is occasionally light in the playing (comic music punctuates some of Micawber's gesticulations), it doesn't avoid the novel's tough incidents, and its length allows an unusual faithfulness to incident and character (finding room for Traddles and others omitted from shorter adaptations)." Sir Ian Kellen himself later said, "I was new to television and got absorbed in the technicalities of it all: characterization was forced, I expect, and I'm very glad the original videotape has been destroyed."

References

External links

* * * BBC television dramas Television series set in the 1850s 1966 British television series debuts 1966 British television series endings 1960s British drama television series Television shows based on David Copperfield Lost BBC episodes {{BBC-tv-prog-stub