Micawber

Starring: Annabelle Apsion, David Jason Director: Adrian Shergold Original UK Premiere: 2001 Dvd Release: 12th May, 2003 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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Micawber was ITVs big weapon in the Christmas 2001 television ratings war. With its gritty recreation of Dickensian London & David Jason, a name guaranteed to attract viewers regardless of the programme, in the title role it certainly had all the hallmarks of blockbusting television drama. Jason is certainly a fine Micawber, wringing every ounce of pathos & relentless optimism from one of Dickens most well loved characters. And he is ably abetted by Annabelle Apsion as his put-upon wife who stands by him through thick & thin & who never will desert him. The trouble is that if youre going to lift a familiar fictional character out of his original context & give him a whole new life & set of adventures, they really have to match or improve on the original. And Micawber has already been through so much during the course of David Copperfield that stretching him across four episodes & a plot which can only really offer a series of variations on the original theme doesnt give much room for development or dramatic impact.

In the writers corner, Jasons long-term collaborator John Sullivan makes a valiant attempt to generate some authentic Dickensian atmosphere. Touches of authentic Victoriana abound in the backstage theatre scenes, a dancing bear, the pawn shop & the highly imaginative flashbacks to the source of Micawbers straightened state. The script tends to combine gritty costume drama with modern comedy in an occasionally uneasy mixture; sometimes we see the ghosts of Del Boy or Pa Larkin rather than Dickens hapless, pathetic but great-hearted victim of circumstance. But fans of Jason wont complain & theres enough soul in the story to make it compelling.

David White, better known as David Jason, is a highly regarded British actor, admired equally for his dramatic work as for his comedy roles. He trained as an electrician after leaving school while negotiating his way into reperatory theatre. He started his career at the same time as Michael Palin in At Last the 1948 Show & appeared in variety shows in support of stars such as Dick Emery. He appeared, most notably, as a spoof super-hero Captain Fantastic, in Do Not Adjust Your Set & co-starred with Denise Coffey in End of Part One. He was somewhat ahead of the Austin Powers & Johnny English film genre in an inventive TV series about an inept spy called The Secret Life of Edgar Briggs. Humphrey Barclay, who recruited David to Do Not Adjust Your Set partly to offset the rather intellectual style of Idle, Jones & Palin, admired Davids masterful sense of timing. This was of course in an era when British performers such as Peter Cook, Marty Feldman, Tony Hancock, Benny Hill & Kenneth Horne were all regularly demonstrating superb timing skills to humorous effect. Posters Of All The Kings Men

Editors Choice: Only Fools And Horses, A Touch Of Frost, The Darling Buds Of May, Micawber, Father Christmas And The Missing Reindeer, The Bfg, Count Duckula, Porterhouse Blue, View DVDology

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