The BBC continue their celebration of all things Dickens with an adaptation of his final unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood – here writer Gwyneth Hughes is able to put her own distinctive voice on what just turns out to be a top class psychologival thriller. As always the BBC have assembled a magnificent cast.
plot
John Jasper is a troubled man, his psyche split between darkness and light. He has spent his life in the stifling and claustrophobic cathedral town of Cloisterham in a state of frustrated ambition and has become addicted to opium in an attempt to still his ennui and expand his horizons. But the opium is fracturing Jasper’s mind so that even as his soul reaches for the sublime in his music, his darker self has conceived a murderous hatred of his nephew Edwin Drood who, he believes, stands between him and the lovely Rosa. The stage is set for a story of mental and moral decline as we discover exactly how far Jasper will go to attain the object of his desire.
production details
UK / BBC Two / 2×60 minute episodes / Broadcast Tuesday 10 January and Wednesday 11 January 2012 @ 9.00pm
cast
Matthew Rhys as John Jasper
Rory Kinnear as Reverend Septimus Crisparkle
Freddie Fox as Edwin Drood
Tamzin Merchant as Rosa Bud
Alun Armstrong as Hiram Grewgious, Rosa’s guardian
Julia McKenzie as the Reverend’s mother, Mrs Crisparkle
David Dawson as Bazzard
Ron Cook as Durdles
Sacha Dhawan as Neville Landless
Amber Rose Revah as Helena Landless, Neville’s twin sister
Ian McNeice as Mayor Sapsea
Janet Dale as Miss Twinkleton
Ellie Haddington is Princess Puffer
Alfie Davis as Deputy
