British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

Adapting Dickens: A Television History

Adapting Dickens: A Television History
Saturday 28 January 2012
BFI Southbank, London
www.bfi.org.uk

This is a special event as part of the BFI’s Dickens on Screen season. Focusing on the many ways that Dickens’ work has been adapted over the decades for British television, the day of lectures, screenings and panel discussions forms part of the largest retrospective of Dickens work on film and television ever staged. The three month season takes place at BFI Southbank from January to March 2012 and is part of Dickens 2012, the worldwide celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Beginning with an illustrated lecture led by Dickens on Screen co-curator Michael Easton on the chronology of Dickens adaptations on television, the day’s next session takes the form of a screening of The Late Show: Who Framed Charles Dickens? followed by a panel discussion with contemporary writers, adaptors and producers including Kate Harwood (Controller, BBC Drama Series & Serials), Sara Phelps (adaptor of the BBC’s latest production of Great Expectations) and director Susanna White (BBC’s Bleak House, 2005) to explore the best ways in which to adapt Dickens for television.

The day will conclude with a panel discussion illustrated with examples of the 30-minute ‘tea-time’ adaptations that were so popular in the 60s, 70s and 80s and which echo the originally serialised nature of Dickens’ work. The panel discussion will involve contributions from writer-producer Terrance Dicks (BBC’s David Copperfield, 1986), script editor-producer Betty Willingale (BBC’s Bleak House, 1985) and actor Martin Jarvis (David Copperfield, 1974).

 

Session 1: A History of Dickens on Television
Presented by co-curator of the Dickens on Screen season, Michael Eaton, this lecture on the chronology of Dickens on television will include some unusual and rare examples and will be lavishly illustrated with clips from the archives. This session will also include a special focus on the five major television adaptations being screened during the three-month BFI Southbank season: Barnaby Rudge (BBC 1960), Our Mutual Friend (BBC 1976; Hard Times (Granada 1979), Bleak House (BBC 1985) and Martin Chuzzlewit (BBC 1994).
Sat 28 Jan 11:15 NFT3

Session 2: Adapting Dickens for Television
The Late Show: Who Framed Charles Dickens? (BBC 1994. Dir Andrea Gauld. 40min) + panel discussion and Q&A
This fascinating documentary looks at how television has served Dickens over the decades, and is followed by a panel discussion examining how writers and producers approach adapting the classic Dickens novel for the small screen. Has television created a false idea of the ‘Dickensian’, and how much does each adaptation reflect the concerns and fashions of its own times? Panellists include Kate Harwood (Controller, BBC Drama Series & Serials), Sara Phelps (adaptor of the BBC’s latest production of Great Expectations) and director Susanna White.
Sat 28 Jan 13:45 NFT3

Session 3: Tea-Time Dickens
The original novels reached the public in monthly instalments and the work of Dickens became available to the working class via magazines. Using some of the greatest serialised short-form (30min) adaptations – and some that do not survive in their entirety – we take a nostalgic and often funny trip through these family-orientated Sunday ‘tea-time’ productions of the 60s, 70s and early 80s. The panel discussion will involve contributions from writer-producer Terrance Dicks, script editor-producer Betty Wellingale and actor Martin Jarvis.
Sat 28 Jan 16:00 NFT3

Tickets (per session): £10, concs £6.75; joint ticket available (three sessions) £20.75, concs £13.75 (Members pay £1.50 less)
www.bfi.org.uk

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