Perhaps, when the words Little Dorrit kept coming up during last night’s Emmy Awards broadcast, you were all, “Little who?” Or maybe you filtered out the unfamiliar phrase altogether and have no idea what I’m talking about. But wait! There’s a reason why the BBC-WGBH Charles Dickens adaptation picked up so many trophies, including Outstanding Miniseries plus the writing and directing awards in that field.

I’m not even a Dickens fan like that, but my 19th-century-British-literature-obsessive girlfriend sure is, so I watched the miniseries when it aired this spring. The cast was one of those sprawling BBC ensembles, featuring memorable performances from actors I’d never seen before (Claire Foy, as debtor’s daughter Amy Dorrit) as well as some familiar faces (Matthew “Mr. Darcy” Macfadyen as earnest hero Arthur Clennam, Andy “Gollum” Serkis as creepy villain Rigaud). And the plot — all about wealth and class and massive finance-industry malfeasance — was shockingly relevant in 2009. If you’d like to see a melodramatic TV movie about the Bernie Madoff scandal, you’d probably be better off seeking out Little Dorrit on DVD. It’ll be just as much fun, you’ll get a long-suffering love story at the same time, and you know the production values will be higher with the BBC in charge.

Did any of you catch Little Dorrit when it first aired? How psyched are you to see it having a well-deserved Emmy moment? Or are you looking forward to discovering Little Dorrit now that the Emmys have brought it to your attention?

by Simon Vozick-Levinson

Source: EW.com

from Variety / by Brian Lowry

Writer Andrew Davies applied his quill pen to adapting a number of Jane Austen novels before tackling Charles Dickens’ “Bleak House,” and he’s back with another sprawling, impeccably cast PBS miniseries, “Little Dorrit.” This Dickens tale includes mystery, romance and dramatically shifting financial fortunes–and at eight hours spread across five nights, there are ample portions of everything. Slow going at first and rushed near the end, it’s nevertheless an absorbing piece of work, reminding us that there are certain things the Brits simply do better.

Although PBS is scheduling “Little Dorrit” across five successive Sundays, as with “Bleak House,” the story is actually told in half-hour chapters. This results in a roller-coaster approach that builds toward those episodic breaks, which requires a bit of getting used to.

Characteristic of Dickens, the story exposes harsh class distinctions in the early 19th century, as well as shadowy financial doings, blackmail and even a big, heartless bureaucracy, the Circumlocution Office, which all makes the author seem a little bit like Nostradamus.

Driving the action is Arthur Clennam (“Frost/Nixon’s” Matthew Macfadyen), who returns from several years abroad with a vague deathbed admonition from his father to “Put it right.” Arthur’s imperious mother (the wonderful Judy Parfitt, in a character much like the one she played in “Dolores Claiborne”), begins to employ a poor seamstress, Amy Dorrit (Claire Foy), who has grown up in debtor’s prison, where her addled father, William (Tom Courtenay), has been held for more than 20 years.

Clearly, Mrs. Clennam is hiding secrets of her family’s past, and Arthur is determined to uncover them–fearing that his family is somehow responsible for the Dorrits’ misfortune.

Unfortunately, the saintly, doe-eyed Amy is a true pearl among swine, a different breed than her dad or her money-grubbing sister (Emma Pierson). Along the way, after winning Amy’s heart with his kindness toward the Dorrits, Arthur falls in love with another–one of several impediments that keep the two apart. The teeming cast also includes Andy Serkis under a Cyrano nose as Rigaud, a murderous French blackmailer with a Pepe Le Pew accent; and Alun Armstrong as Mrs. Clennam’s beady-eyed attendant.

Perhaps the biggest wrinkle from Davies–who has a reputation for tatting up Victorian material–involves the mysterious Miss Wade (Maxine Peake), whose plotting with Rigaud also includes several scenes that strongly imply she’s a lesbian.

Davies could have easily shed (or at least pared down) a few of these subplots without seriously diminishing the story’s grandeur, and after the lengthy windup, the last hour races through tying up the assorted loose ends. Even so, there’s so much gaudy talent on display here that those with an appetite for it won’t be able to get enough, and “Little Dorrit” gives them everything they could want in a big, gloriously messy package.

from Daily Mail / by Richard Kay

AS THE star of the BBC’s sumptuous adaptation of Little Dorrit, fragile actress Claire Foy should be well-warned about the dangers of owing money. But it seems the 24-year-old newcomer (right) believes that out of sight is out of mind when it comes to the [pounds sterling]10,000 student debt she ran up before landing the plum role in the primetime show.

‘The loan I received at the Oxford School Of Drama remains unpaid,’ says Claire, whose father in the Dickensian drama played by Sir Tom Courtenay is locked up in a debtors’ prison. ‘It’s hideously large and I should do something about it now I’ve earned some decent money. But if I get sent a letter which says: “The interest on your student loan has gone up by [pounds sterling]500″, I just stick it in the back of the drawer. Perhaps not the ideal thing to be doing during a credit crunch.’

from Daily Mail / by David Wigg

Sir Tom Courtenay calls her ‘a wonderful discovery’. Matthew Macfadyen says she’s ‘no less than brilliant.’ The trade magazine Screen International lists her as one to watch and Vogue tips her as this autumn’s brightest star.

No wonder 24-year-old Claire Foy is smiling. She has landed the title role in BBC1’s new primetime Dickensian costume drama Little Dorrit – yet a year ago she was a struggling drama student, a complete unknown.

‘How jammy can one girl be?’ she asks, her huge blue eyes widening in astonishment at her own good luck. One of the jobs she undertook to help support herself was working for a film catering company. She would serve up bacon sandwiches to hungry actors and ravenous technicians, and she says it was the most demanding week of her life.

But it was the closest she’d been to fulfilling her dream. ‘I’ve always been an attention seeker,’ she says. ‘I used to put on shows at home, dressing up and roping my cousins in to help, but I always gave myself the best parts.’

Little Dorrit – which attracted an audience of more than six million, following close on the success of Bleak House and Cranford, when it launched last weekend – is packed with two dozen established acting names, but it is young Claire Foy – the ‘angel’ of this gritty love story – who has had to be on call each day for every scene.
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from The Sunday Telegraph / by Daphne Lockyer

She’s on the verge of period drama stardom. But Claire Foy isn’t acting famous, says Daphne Lockyer

When the producers of Little Dorrit first clapped eyes on 24- year-old Claire Foy, they were delighted. At just 7st 12lbs, the hitherto unknown actress who leads the starry cast of BBC1′s new costume drama is so petite, she looks as though she might weigh less than a copy of the Dickens novel. But who better to play a girl whose very name refers to her smallness?

“There were three possible actresses for the part,” says Andrew Davies, who adapted the novel about escaping the misery of debt into 30-minute chunks (tonight’s first episode is an hour-long treat). “But, physically, Claire was perfect. She was the youngest-looking and the smallest. And then we discovered other marvellous things about her” – not least her lack of starriness.

Born in Stockport, Foy grafted hard at acting school, taking factory work to supplement her grant. Today, with her career on the verge of lift-off – Vogue put her top of its annual list of 40 new talents – she still shares a house with five other young actors.

For the latest milestone adaptation of a classic Victorian novel, Little Dorrit’s producers were looking for an actress of the calibre of Anna Maxwell Martin or Ruth Wilson – who, like Foy, had both been ingenues before their award-winning period drama roles.

“When I thought about those actresses, I never put myself in the same bracket,” says Foy. “Mostly, I was thinking: ‘They just don’t give a part like that to someone like me.’ ”
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