A Look at Dickensian

Dickensian is a 2015 BBC drama series centred on the characters of Charles Dickens novels living in the same London neighbourhood. It imagines a universe of crossovers such as Ebenezer Scrooge of A Christmas Carol living on the same street as the Old Curiosity Shop, and Mr Jaggers of Great Expectations handling the dealings of everyone from the criminal Fagin in Oliver Twist to the respected Barbarys of Bleak House.

BBC

But how does the show tie so many characters and storylines together? (Besides the obligatory Victorian messenger boy running notes between everyone of course). And how is this done without falling into the trap of prioritising crossover over its own story? Well – beyond the ever-present Dickensian themes of class, money, wills, and secrets – characters and storylines are brought together with a murder mystery!

A Dickenisian Who Dunnit’

The concept of a ‘detective’ and the practice of detecting and investigating evidence to track down a perpetrator of a crime became an official process in the 19th century. As Dickensian’s Inspector Bucket (Bleak House) explains to coroner, Mr Venus (Our Mutual Friend), the London Metropolitan Police established the first detective branch in 1842. Dickensian is as much an exploration of early Detecting as it is a Dickens-fan-fest. Thus, most of the stories are tied together through Inspector Bucket as a character and his amateur investigation. 

Which character is murdered? Jacob Marley is a great choice of victim because he is canonically dead before the events of A Christmas Carol and even those unfamiliar with Dickens will likely recognise the character. Also, because Marley is a money lender, as Ebeneezer Scrooge puts so perfectly to Inspector Bucket: ‘your problem won’t be finding someone who hates Marley enough to kill him inspector, but rather finding someone who didn’t’, the show really pushes the reliance on detective work to solve the case. 

Ebeneezer Scrooge in Dickensian, BBC

Prequel Settings

Something else this show takes full advantage of, is setting nearly all of the stories and characters before the events of their respective novels. Dickensian feels like, and basically is, one communal prequel. Oliver Twist is placed in the Bumble’s care and workhouse (where we first meet him in the book) by Inspector Bucket. Marley only just dies so the ghosts that visit Scrooge on Christmas Eve aren’t due for another year when the series begins (keeping the infamous character his miserably-selfish-self for the duration of the series).

Dodger in Dickensian, BBC

But perhaps the most poignant and gripping result of this timeline choice is how it allows the show to delve deeply into the origin of the characters that we as an audience know will change immeasurably in their future and their novel to come. I think this is especially true for at least three of the main female characters in particular and I’d like to focus on them here.

Tragic Dramatic Irony in Dickensian 

We meet a young character called Amelia, and those who fancy themselves relatively familiar with the works of Dickens may find themselves racking their brains for a character with that name. Amelia is likeable, caring, intelligent, and independently thriving. Cue my gasp and saddening surprise when Amelia is first referred to as Miss Havisham (Miss Havisham in Great Expectations is never given a first name). So, we realise that this woman is a pre-wedding-dress Miss Havisham in all her exquisite glory. She is a far-cry away from her characterisation in Great Expectations. 

Amelia Havisham in Dickensian, BBC

Before Miss Havisham becomes the scary ghostly-bride figure we know from the novel, a heart-broken and bitter antagonist – in Dickensian she successfully takes over and runs the Havisham Brewery despite all against her as a woman. She is forgiving, understanding, and loving to her brother, Arthur, despite his jealous cruelty towards her. All while putting on a brave face to the world when grieving her father.

Amelia & Arthur Havisham in Dickensian, BBC

When Arthur Havisham colludes with Mr Compeyson to take her inherited fortune, Miss Havisham does not easily fall for Compeyson’s trickery. It takes him a lot longer than he expects to gain her trust and he experiences many setbacks. Amelia Havisham is not presented as naïve and I’m grateful for that. Compeyson has to slowly and patiently prey on Amelia’s loneliness and the more he gets to know her and her vulnerabilities, the easier she becomes to deceive.

Miss Havisham & Mr Compeyson in Dickensian, BBC

Compeyson pivots and re-strategises every time he fails. There is no length he doesn’t go to: he manipulates Amelia’s best friend Honoria Barbary out of her life, secretly kills her dog so he can gift her a new one, and sends away a ‘suitor’ behind her back to keep her more and more alone (he is honestly the original Joe Goldberg from You). Amelia’s long-standing protection of her independence makes it all the more tragic when, after a long time and many episodes, she eventually falls in love with Compeyson, the only man she believes she can trust. 

On her wedding day she finds out who Compeyson truly is and her beloved brother’s part in the plan. The betrayal, heartbreak, and insult to her pride destroys something within her. She never takes the wedding dress off or leaves her house again. This is just as we find her in Great Expectations many years later. Honestly, the portrayal of the kind and strong Miss Havisham and the momentous collapse of her life and love for it really makes you understand why she becomes a villain (and my toxic take is I think Dickensian’s version of events makes her transformation feel quite valid, sh!).

Miss Havisham in Dickensian, BBC

The foreshadowing shots of Amelia by the fire at night are chilling, because (spoilers) in Great Expectations Miss Havisham dies when her wedding dress goes up in flames by the fireplace.

I enjoy that Amelia Havisham’s best friend is Honoria Barbary in Dickensian (or Lady Dedlock as she is known in Bleak House). They are both ladies of a high societal standing. Honoria has a similar youthful innocence, hope, and lust for life as Amelia albeit a more carefree one; she does not share Miss Havisham’s business responsibilities. Their most significant parallel though, is that both experience extreme traumas that harden them forever.

However, it is Honoria’s sister, Frances Barbary, that uniquely fascinates in Dickensian and the pre-Bleak House plot. In the novel, despite being quite the realist, Frances is also piously obsessed with morality and is believed to be a good person. Dickensian at first expands on the notion that Frances’ heart is misunderstood by looking at why Frances resents her sister so much. Honoria is their father’s favourite. The burden of keeping the family together in the face of financial ruin falls to Frances while her sister is free to lose herself in love and fun. Frances’ fiancé breaks off their engagement because he wishes she could be more like Honoria. All of these things help us understand Frances’ plight. 

Honoria & Frances Barbary in Dickensian, BBC

We somewhat forgive Frances’ meddling in Honoria’s relationship with Captain Hawdon because of her suffering. Frances pushes Honoria to marry Sir Leicester Dedlock instead of the man she loves to fix their family’s money problems and release their father from debtor’s prison. These plans are almost ruined by Honoria finding she is pregnant with Hawdon’s child and her subsequent resolve to run away with him. It is clear that if the sisters didn’t have to rely on marriage and men for their survival, things would be easier between them. 

Captain Hawdon & Honoria Barbary in Dickensian, BBC

We start to give into our forgiveness of Frances even more when she is the only person there to help Honoria through a scary premature birth. Honoria tells Frances that she has always loved her more than anyone else, something Frances didn’t realise and really needed to hear. The sisters rekindle their bond here and Frances fights for her sister in the birth. 

The baby is born silent and Honoria is devastated. Frances cries for her sister, breaking down in private, before finding the baby is alive. She begins taking baby Esther to Honoria with huge relief and joy, until she stops, and you want to throw your remote at the TV screen. Frances takes the baby and gives her away, never telling Honoria or anyone else that the baby survived so that Honoria goes through with marrying Leicester Dedlock. (Bleak House follows Esther Summerson when she grows up).

Frances Barbary in Dickensian, BBC

Dickensian does not portray Frances as cold and void of humanity, she seems to feel correctly. This is what makes her evil actions, her pathological practicality, so disturbing. The show really gets into how her character is constantly struggling between valuing religious morality and practical realism, things she at first believes to be the same thing. So, when the opportunity comes along to right the ‘sin’ of her bastard niece’s existence and fix her family’s money problems in the process, Frances’s ‘values’ of religion and practicality align. Ironically, this makes her commit perhaps the most immoral thing you can think of – pretending to a mother, your own sister who loves you, that her baby is dead.

Lastly, I want to highlight the brilliance of the wedding dress scene in Dickensian. It takes place after Honoria Barbary finally accepts that to save her father and her family’s money she must abandon the man she loves to marry Sir Leicester Dedlock. In the scene, she is helping Amelia Havisham choose and fit her wedding dress. Amelia is in love and happy to be engaged to Mr Compeyson.

In a single scene, we watch Honoria look upon her best friend in her wedding dress, grieving the matrimony she almost had with Captain Hawdon and dreading her marriage with Dedlock. Whilst, eerily, we see the happy Miss Havisham in her dress for the first time – the dress we know she will soon be in forever, alone and broken. 

Amelia Havisham, Honoria Barbery, & Martha Cratchit in Dickensian, BBC

In the beginning of the show, it is Honoria giddy with hopeful love and Amelia who looks on supportively, knowing she will likely never find the same kind of companionship because of the responsibility she has. Running Havisham Brewery as a woman, means that marrying could threaten the business and her financial autonomy. The wedding dress scene marks a swap in priorities for both characters. It is Honoria who now must sacrifice love for responsibility and Amelia who is in love and happy regardless of the risk. Yet it is hard to watch when in the end, neither’s pursuit of love or control is enough to save them. Both Amelia Havisham and Honoria Barbary are resigned to devastating futures. 

It’s almost like there was little a woman could do in these times to stop the world hurting her and taking from her! Damned if they follow their head and damned if they follow their heart. Not surprised but its so sad to watch all the same.

Mrs Cratchit, Tiny Tim, & Inspector Bucket in Dickensian, BBC

Bit of a bleak note to end on! Yet the point stands, Dickensian ties Dickens’ stories, characters, and themes together artfully.