First viewed : 15 January 1983
I normally stuck with the charts on Radio One rather than the Sunday tea time classic serial on BBC One but I made an exception for this 10 part adaptation of the Dickens novel.
The reason was that six months earlier, during the school holidays, I had borrowed the book from Littleborough Library for a summer read, probably because I was conscious that my sister was becoming somewhat better read than me. I suspect I picked it for its relative obscurity , having no outstanding character like Uriah Heep or Mr Bumble to guarantee its immortality. As I was often wont to do at this time, I made a note of who I'd like to cast in each part in an adaptation..
I was pretty surprised when I realised that the BBC were broadcasting an adaptation so soon afterwards and gobsmacked when I saw that I'd called a major casting decision exactly right. I thought the part of Mr Carker, Dombey's right hand man who is slyly embezzling the company's funds while stroking his chief's considerable ego, would be perfect for Blake's Seven's Paul Darrow and someone obviously agreed with me.
In the other main parts , the dour. awesomely self-satisfied Dombey was placed in the capable hands of Julian Glover while his cruelly neglected daughter Florence was played by future sexpot ( but very demure here ) Lysette Anthony. I can't remember who I'd earmarked in either case.
The adaptation was OK, perhaps a little stiff, and, as always with Dickens, somewhat hollowed out with colourful but inessential characters excised altogether. I remember my sister being quite affected by the final reconciliation scene between Florence and her father which rather surprised me.
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