# David Copperfield (1999)

> A young man's difficult childhood in 19th century England becomes a long journey toward maturity and self-worth.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/16533

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 2
- Episode runtime: 90 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama
- Created by: Simon Curtis
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Tom Wilkinson, Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán McMenamin, Emilia Fox, Pauline Quirke, Maggie Smith, Trevor Eve, Michael Elphick
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167872/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: none
- Tone: wistful, sincere, melancholic, hopeful, sentimental

## What critics say

Audiences broadly regard this faithful BBC adaptation of Dickens's novel as a positive, emotionally affecting period drama.

## Synopsis

David Copperfield (1999) is a British BBC One period drama miniseries created by Simon Curtis, adapted from the Charles Dickens novel. Daniel Radcliffe plays the young David Copperfield, whose childhood is shaken by his mother's loss and a cruel stepfather, Murdstone (Trevor Eve), and Ciarán McMenamin takes over the role as the adult David. The engine of the story is a boy's struggle to survive poverty and neglect in a harsh Victorian England, moving from a Suffolk home to the streets of London and the hard labour that follows, while he searches for a place to belong. Kindly figures such as Peggotty (Pauline Quirke) and the eccentric Betsey Trotwood (Maggie Smith) offer refuge and shape his growth. The two-episode, ninety-minute structure gives the story a sweeping, classic scale, told in a retrospective voice-over by an older narrator (Tom Wilkinson). The tone is wistful and sincere, with moments of warmth and hope set against social cruelty and grief. Fans of Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and Little Dorrit will find resonance in its literary heart, its class injustice and its patient, emotionally generous storytelling of a childhood survived and a self made.

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