The reason I haven’t written anything about the Dickens adaptations we bough a little while back is because I haven’t yet seen many of them. But one of them we’ve just finished watching. The six hour long The Pickwick Papers.

I’ve never seen a screen adaptation of this book before, but I have read the book. Several years ago. And for some reason before we started watching I couldn’t quite remember what the story was. Not because the book wasn’t worth remembering, of course it was! It isn’t my favourite Dickens, but it’s still good! I think it was more the fact that there are so many little different things that happens in this one. It’s not just one big plot like in some stories. However as soon as we began watching it all started to come back to me again.

Like I’ve said previously I have very high opinions of BBC’s period dramas, but not necessarily always the older ones. The ones I’ve seen that are from the 70s or 80s have not always impressed me favorably. And since this one was from 1985 I was prepared for it being a bit of a disappointment. But I didn’t think it was. I thought it was one of the better older BBC series I have seen. Somehow it didn’t feel quite so… well, old… I really enjoyed it! And I think that the others who watched it with me (my dad, sister and brother) enjoyed it too.;)

Many of you are probably familiar with this book and have read it yourself, but for those who haven’t let me just give you a quick idea of what it’s about.

The Pickwick Club is a society founded by Mr. Pickwick, and he and his three close friends, Mr. Tupman, Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle (you’ve got to love the names Dickens came up with!) decide that they will travel about the country writing about interesting things and people they encounter. A lot of things happens to them that the were not prepared for or expecting, they have countless little adventures along the way and meet many new friends.

Some parts were really funny, I thought the characters were very much what they were in the book (at least as I remember it) and Sam Weller was fantastic! But I have to say I didn’t much care for the tights (at least they looked like tights) that Mr Pickwick wore…

I have just ordered a couple of other Dickens books from Amazon. Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend. I am very much looking forward to reading them! I haven’t actually read that many of Dickens books, (I think only 5) because most of them are so long! It’s not that I have anything against long books, I don’t, only it always seems like a much bigger project and a bigger commitment to begin on a really thick book. But I have found with each of the Dickens that I have read, that by the time I got to the end of it it has always been worth it!