# Dickensian (2015)

> Characters from Charles Dickens' novels, including Scrooge, Fagin and Miss Havisham, live and cross paths in a single Victorian London neighbourhood.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/55997

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 20
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, history
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Alexandra Moen, Ned Dennehy, Stephen Rea, Pauline Collins, Peter Firth, Phoebe Dynevor, Omid Djalili, Zaak Conway
- TMDB rating: 7.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4531728/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: atmospheric, wry, warm, gritty, melancholic

## Synopsis

Dickensian (2015-2016) is a British period drama created for BBC One, a single-season run of twenty half-hour episodes that gathers figures from Charles Dickens' novels into one shared Victorian London. Ebenezer Scrooge (Ned Dennehy) is the sour moneylender whose orbit keeps crossing that of the Cratchit family, with Martha Cratchit (Phoebe Dynevor) and Tim Cratchit (Zaak Conway) struggling against poverty. Inspector Bucket (Stephen Rea) pursues crime through the grimy streets, while Frances Barbary (Alexandra Moen) and the Havisham siblings Arthur (Joseph Quinn) and Amelia (Tuppence Middleton) bring the gentry into the mix. Each episode follows many small threads: a pawned coat, a debt collected, a secret kept behind a shop door. The Old Curiosity Shop sits beside The Three Cripples pub, and Fagin's Den hides down a murky alley off a bustling street. The result is a warm, wry, atmospheric blend of comfort and menace, with the tangled fates of rich and poor set against gaslit London. Fans of Upstairs, Downstairs, Oliver Twist and Peaky Blinders will find resonance in its class-conscious period texture and its familiar literary faces.

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