Dickens' book contains two juicy plums: The moral education of a selfish person, and a satirical put-down of the United States.A competent adaptation would have made the most of these themes; this one manages to ignore them both.Am I the only one who thinks BBC adaptations were better in the 70's and 80's? Yes, they were very stagy and the production value was zilch - but the scripts and acting were second to none. It seems that after Lord Grade's departure there was a conscious decision to dumb things down. The new adaptations are very cinematic and gorgeous to look at, but that's about it. (See for example the old and new versions of "Great Expectations").

It takes Dickens to invent and explore such a sordid family history and story. For Dickens the world is cut into three types of people.First the rich who are supposed to make money by all means, and of course first of all speculation. Madoff certified and a long time before that particular character appeared in finance. Dickens explores the greed of these people but also in some the sound sense of business and fairness, and yet always distorted by selfishness, since selfishness seems to be the main characteristic of man.Second those who exploit the rich and they are of different types. The beggars or immoral servants, those who drink too much and reside in the petty crime of overbilling their services and taking advantage of an open door. These are luckily counterbalanced by those who are faithful, honest, hard working and ready to help those who deserve that help. Some are easily taken in and exploited again by some social climbing individuals.Third the social climbers who consider all means are permitted to climb any step, or should I say rung, on the social ladder. They exploit the young, they steal their work and use it under their own names, they flatter the rich when they feel these are weak and gullible.The best side of Dickens is that everyone will get the payment their deserve. The social climbers will be ruined by their own greed and the bigger greed of some other predators, when it is not plainly killed by one of their victims. The greedy rich will be the prey of all types of predators and those unworthy to be rich because totally overcome by their greed and unable to repent or simply be humble about it will die in the hands of worse characters of lower extract, including their own children. The faithful servants will be rewarded and happy in their hearts. The profiteering servants will be gently discarded.Two themes are addressed besides these. The position of women in Victorian society. They are pure victims if they do not keep some distance and independence, the victims of men who take wives only to make a profit or to be presentable in society. But at the same time some can get free and keep free as soon as they are of age, provided they want to sever some ties that may hamper them or to refuse some attachments that may prove unwise. Strangely enough in this totally inhumane society women are a ray of sunshine when they believe in love and fight for it.The second is America. Dickens had a special feud with the USA about his works being pillaged and looted by the American press without paying the royalties his copyright should have produced. Here again the American caper of Martin Chuzzlewit is a visit to a hellish and totally negative hallucination.But if we look at the weddings in this story we find that ambiguous vision of Dickens: One marriage is a total failure, that of Mercy with Jonas Chuzzlewit; two will be happy, the marriage of Mary with Martin Chuzzlewit and the marriage of Martin's self appointed servant with the housekeeper of the wicked profiteer Mr. Pecksniff. Two will never be fulfilled, that of Tom Pinch who was in love with Mary who chose Martin, and that of Charity whose paramour is taken away to Tasmania. Tom Pinch's sister will probably marry happily with Tom's friend. We are far from the four weddings of the Midsummer Night Dream by Shakespeare. Dickens' world sounds more like a Janus-like picture of a dream that covers up a nightmare.This particular production by the BBC captures the slow and delicate rhythm of the original with quite a lot of details and side situations that give some depth to the main line of the story. This production also seems to emphasize the depiction of the monstrous and bleakest characters and even Old Martin Chuzzlewit, Martin's own grandfather, is not shown most of the time, and even at the end as a very palatable person. A beautiful piece of 19th century literature that will inspire some of the political minds of that century and the next. When you see such deep social rot the idea of a revolution becomes acceptable or even worth being desired.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

In 1842 Charles Dickens was at a critical point in his career. His attempt at a series of stories told by different characters to each other, "Master Humphrey's Clock", was not a success, although it produced a popular novel ("The Old Curiosity Shop"), and a first attempt at a historical novel ("Barnaby Rudge"). He decided to take a trip to the United States. The results was bad. He found Americans thievish for not giving him copy-write protection. He found them hypocrites for screaming for freedom, but winking at slavery. He found their cities far less acceptable than the English ones. There was less gentility. There was more rough edged belligerence (especially to the old enemy: England). He hated it. He returned to England and wrote "American Notes". The book roundly attacked the Americans. He was not forgiven for years.He compounded the act in his next novel, "Martin Chuzzlewit", from 1843 - 1844. In this period, ironically, he was to start writing his small Christmas novels, the first of which ("A Christmas Carol") would become immortal - far more than "Chuzzlewit" actually did. But "Chuzzlewit" is regarded by critics as the best of Dickens comic novels. Yet if one person out of five reads the novel today I'd be surprised.The novel deals with young Martin Chuzzlewit (Ben Walden), who is apprenticed to his cousin the architect Seth Pecksniff (Tom Wilkinson). Pecksniff is the British equivalent of Moliere's Tartuffe - the arch-hypocrite. As "tartuffel" is the term based on Moliere's character, so is the word "peck-sniff" due to Dickens (in "You Can't Cheat An Honest Man", an angry Mr. Belgoody - Thurston Hall - tells off Larson E. Whipsnade - W.C.Fields - calling him both a tartuffel and a peck-sniff). Pecksniff, pretending to be religious and good, back-stabs his way through the novel, stealing ideas from other architects (including Martin), and pushing his plans to gain control over Old Martin (the grandfather of the hero), a wealthy, retired merchant. Old Martin is played by Paul Schofield. Schofield also plays Old Martin's younger brother Anthony, who has a son Jonas (Keith Allen). Jonas wants to inherit too.Dickens had demonstrated a grasp at the criminal mind in his handling of Bill Sykes and Fagin in "Oliver Twist". But the burglar and the thief trainer were relatively simple types (although Sykes fury at Nancy and his subsequent self-destruction was unique for British literature at that time). Jonas was a higher class criminal - a murderer who did it for money, not anger. He first destroys Anthony, and then goes after his cousin Montague Tigg, a cousin who is a swindler and a blackmailer. The killing of Tigg (whom Jonas ambushes while he is riding in a gig) is based (somewhat) on the murder of William Weare by John Thurtell in 1823. But there is more than that in Jonas. He is rejected by Pecksniff's daughter Charity (nicknamed Cherry / played by Emma Chambers), who subsequently gives in to his courting - only to discover he pursued her to punish her for initially rejecting him. He is blackmailed by Tigg into investing in a financial swindle, and purposely pulls his father-in-law Pecksniff into the swindle because he hates the man. Dickens made Jonas an in depth study of evil, and he becomes a center of fascination in the plot.Meanwhile Young Martin goes to America when he breaks with the thieving Pecksniff. He goes with his friend Mark Tapley (Steve Nicholson). They find nothing likable about Americans who are nasty brutes for the most part. They have bought land from the Eden Land Company, only to find it is swamp land. The only good point is that young Martin's personality does change - he becomes less selfish because Mark and he have to depend on each other for survival.The other comic person in the novel is Sairey Gamp (Elizabeth Spriggs), a drunken midwife who assists Jonas at times. She keeps her acquaintance Betsy Prigg (Joan Sims) informed all the time of her best friend, Mrs "Arris". George Orwell puts it into proper perspective: More details are given about Mrs. Harris than found in any biography about a real person - for only the drunken Mrs. Gamp sees Ms Harris. Betsy finally calls her up short on this claiming, "I don't think there is such a person." Horrified, Mrs. Gamp insists there is. Later, a desperate Jonas requires a woman to watch someone - Mrs. Gamp, almost heroically, pushes for Mrs. Harris.The series was quite good in what it showed from the novel, but it cut out the entire American section - really the heart of the novel as it deals with the hero. It was found to be too negative an image. Whether it was or not it weakened the production. What is left is quite good, but one wishes the American chapters had been left in as well.

I read that someone called it a dark and gloomy adaptation. I have to disagree with that ! I thought ita very funny TV-series.Of course there's a lot of scheming and some people get treated very badly. But all the characters areplayed in such a manner that you can't help but see them as ridiculous. Tom Wilkinson is marvelous as the pompous Seth Pecksniff and i would like to mention Elizabeth Spriggs who makes her part as Mrs. Gamp unforgettable. If you like a period drama with a good deal of humor this one is for you ! The series lasts 337 minutes. It's a shame that it's still not released on DVD.Let's hope we don't have to wait too long ! If you like the wit of Jane Austen you will like this seriestoo ( yes there is a love story in it as well).