# Little Dorrit (2008)

> A devoted young woman born in a debtors prison works to support her proud father until a returning gentleman uncovers the hidden links between their lives and his family's secrets.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/12646

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 14
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama
- Created by: Andrew Davies
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Claire Foy, Matthew Macfadyen, Tom Courtenay, Judy Parfitt, Emma Pierson, Alun Armstrong, Eddie Marsan, Jason Thorpe
- TMDB rating: 8.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1178522/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: none
- Tone: melancholic, warm, sincere, intimate

## What critics say

Acclaimed by audiences as a lavish, faithful Dickens adaptation with strong performances and a rich sense of period detail.

## Synopsis

Little Dorrit (2008) is a British period drama miniseries created by Andrew Davies for BBC One, adapted from Charles Dickens's novel. Claire Foy plays Amy Dorrit, a devoted young woman who spends her days earning money for her family while caring for her proud father, a long-term inmate of the Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Matthew Macfadyen plays Arthur Clennam, a gentleman who returns from overseas to untangle his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that his own life is bound up with the Dorrits. Tom Courtenay anchors the family as the imprisoned father, while Judy Parfitt, Andy Serkis and Eddie Marsan add pressure from the wealthy and the scheming. Told as a fourteen-episode miniseries, the story unfolds through the slow accumulation of secrets, debts and hidden kinship, and each episode builds its drama from the small indignities of poverty, the gossip of genteel households and the quiet persistence of a daughter who will not give up on her father. Set in Victorian London, the series moves between the cramped confines of the prison and the stifling drawing rooms of the rich. Its tone is melancholic yet warm, sharp about social hypocrisy and tender about loyalty. Fans of Bleak House, Great Expectations and Cranford will find resonance in its literary ambition, its class critique and its costume-drama craft.

## Shows like Little Dorrit

- [The Miniaturist (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/63593)
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- [Bleak House (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/2362)
- [Tess of the D'Urbervilles (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/7475)
- [A Tale of Two Cities (2026)](https://ember.film/tv/1105129)
- [North & South (2004)](https://ember.film/tv/12717)
- [Sense and Sensibility (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/12945)
- [Cranford (2007)](https://ember.film/tv/13285)
- [Great Expectations (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/38838)
- [Fingersmith (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/12873)

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