Bleak House (Full Frame)

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This stunning BBC production, starring Diana Rigg and Denholm Elliott, brings to life one of Dickens's finest works, an unflinching look at the absurdity of the legal profession, whose sole purpose seems to be lining the pockets of lawyers. At the court of Chancery, the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case grinds on for years with no end in sight. Entangled in the law suit are a growing number of innocent victims: Ada Clare and Richard Carstone, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a child with mysterious parentage; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper. As the case staggers onward, yet more people become embroiled in the furious legal battle, including the proud Lady Dedlock, who finds herself persecuted by the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn, then hunted by the determined Inspector Bucket, one of the first detectives to appear in English literature. A savage, but often comic, indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, "Bleak House" is one of Dickens's most ambitious novels.