Our Mutual Friend

Starring: Keeley Hawes, Paul Mcgann Director: Julian Farino Original UK Premiere: 1998 Dvd Release: 20th August, 2001 Number Of Discs: 2 Format: Box set, PAL, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding

Article Index: [Background Info] [DVD Review] [Biographies] [Articles/Resources] [Link To This Article] Looking To Buy? Buy This DVD Here

Our Mutual Friend is a novel by Charles Dickens, which tells the story of the Harmon dust fortune & those who inherit it. Although somewhat a mystery, an important point concerning the identity of certain characters is revealed halfway through, without hinting as to the ending. Like all of Dickens works, Our Mutual Friend contains many memorable characters. Our Mutual Friend, like most Dickens novels, was published in 19 monthly installments, each costing one shilling. Each issue featured 32 pages of text & two illustrations by Marcus Stone. A TURNING   - HTML indexed, searchable version of the text. Free eBook of Our Mutual Friend   at Project Gutenberg.

Dickens was the master of Victorian social satire, ruthlessly exposing the cruelty & absurdity that supported the strictly hierarchical class-structure of the day. This superb production of Our Mutual Friend does full justice to his darkest, most complex novel, fleshing out the satirical bones of the plot with performances that eschew caricature in favour of psychological depth. Anna Friels Bella is wonderfully complex, her innate goodness struggling with her love of money & desire for advancement. Paul McGann, as the lawyer Wrayburn, is also superb, wrestling with the implications of his feelings for Lizzie. And of course, this being Dickens & the BBC, theres a terrific supporting cast, including Timothy Spall as the melancholy articulator of skeletons, Mr Venus. As the fortunes of the characters rise & fall, the river Thames flows eternally on, the symbolic backbone of this remarkable story. At six hours, this version of Our Mutual Friend is a long production, but not a moment too long. A mystery, a love story, a critique of the pursuit of wealth & status, this is perhaps the best adaptation of Dickens ever to be committed to film.

Keeley Hawes is a British actress best known for her role as Zoe Reynolds in the BBC One drama series Spooks. She has also appeared in a number of other television dramas, including Dennis Potter s Karaoke, Othello & Tipping the Velvet. Hawes has also appeared in films such as The Avengers & Complicity. She married cartoonist Spencer McCallum in December 2001, but they have since separated. They have a son, Myles. She has since been seeing her Spooks co-star Matthew MacFadyen & they are expecting their first child later in 2004. Page on the official Spooks site at BBC .co .uk, including an interview  .

Editors Choice: Tipping The Velvet, Spooks, Our Mutual Friend, View DVDology

Paul McGann is an actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role. Following on from that part, he was cast as the eponymous I in Bruce Robinson s cult film comedy, Withnail & I. Since then his career has concentrated on television work including the Hornblower series & playing the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie. He has had small roles in a number of high-profile American films including Alien 3 & Queen of the Damned. Coincidentally, his co-star in Withnail, actor Richard E Grant, also played the Doctor in the 2003 animated webcast Scream of the Shalka. McGann himself has reprised the role of the Eighth Doctor in a series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions. When Christopher Eccleston makes his debut as the Ninth Doctor in early 2005, McGann will become the second-longest serving current Doctor after Sylvester McCoy. His brothers Mark, Joe & Stephen are also actors; the four of them starred together in the 1995 television miniseries The Hanging Gale. Posters Of Downtime

Editors Choice: Doctor Who, Downtime, Our Mutual Friend, The Rainbow, Dealers, Withnail And I, View DVDology

©2004-2008 DVDArk.co.uk