Bleak House
Although a single season of fifteen (15) episodes was aired, some video streaming services list only eight (8) episodes. Aside from the first episode which was an hour in length, the following episodes are only a half-hour each. In most instances, two half-hour episodes are streamed as a single episode, accounting for the discrepancy between some streaming services, databases, and review sites and the number of episodes listed. S01E01 (aired as E01 with one hour length) S01E02 (aired as E02 and E03) S01E03 (aired as E04 and E05) S01E04 (aired as E06 and E07) S01E05 (aired as E08 and E09) S01E06 (aired as E10 and E11) S01E07 (aired as E12 and E13) S01E08 (aired as E14 and E15) This was created to perhaps clear up some confusion regarding the "missing episodes" of E09 through E15.,[repeated line, to his grand-daughter]
Smallweed: Shake me up, Judy!,Featured in Screenwipe: Episode #1.1 (2006),Bleak House is not a book I have read. I was however aware that the central story concerned the never-ending courtroom litigation of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce. As a child, this book, I decided was way too boring to read. How wrong I was. I never dreamt that a Dickens novel could become such an obsession in later life.

This dazzling adaptation is serialised in the same way that Dickens serialised his masterpiece in the popular press. Each half-hour episode ends on a cliff-hanger. We, the viewers, are forced to count the days until the next episode is screened. ( and there is only 6 more to go!!!) It is impossible to find fault with the production. The characterisations and directing are the best I have seen from the Drama Department of the BBC. They have managed to capture the gloom, grime and squalor of the late 19th century convincingly.

Each actor is ideally cast. Charles Dance as the lawyer Tulkinghorn is evil personified. Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock, totally unrecognisable from her X-File days, is fragile and enigmatic. Particularly noteworthy in the host of Dickensian eccentrics are Pauline Collins as Miss Flite, Johnny Vegas as Krook and Philip Davis as "Shake me up Judy" Smallweed and Burn Gorman as Guppy. However it is invidious to single anyone out of such a stellar casting.

I cannot give this drama a higher recommendation,