The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby with Roger Rees: DVD Cover

    The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Director: Jim Goddard Cast: Roger Rees, Emily Richard, David Threlfall, John Woodvine

    DVD - 4 Disc Set Learn more

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    • DVD Release Date: 09/24/2002
    • Original Release: 1982
    • Rating: Not Rated
    • Sales Rank: 10,713

    Viewer Rating: (3 ratings)

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    • Overview
    • Editorial Reviews
    • Scenes
    • Customer Reviews
    • Cast & Crew
    • Full Product Details

    Features

    Digitally remastered from original elements; Bonus program: Charles Dickens episode of A&E's award-winning Biography series; Charles Dickens biography/bibliography; Interactive menus; Scene selection

    Full Product Details

    Scene Index

    Side #1 --
    1. Crumpets [8:01]
    2. A Simple Family [11:53]
    3. Accommodations [8:49]
    4. Like A Mother [10:14]
    5. New Assistant [7:39]
    6. Outcasts [9:54]
    1. My Love [7:42]
    2. Speculation [10:25]
    3. Happy for You [8:10]
    4. Away [2:56]
    5. My Princess [4:39]
    6. Revolt [10:10]
    1. Fugitives [7:07]
    2. I'm Proud of You [10:49]
    3. Unemployed [7:16]
    4. On the Road [14:29]
    5. The Theater [4:50]
    6. The Cast [11:55]
    Side #2 --
    1. Perfectly Gone [10:03]
    2. A Frieght [9:07]
    3. A Hanging [9:34]
    4. Subject of a Bet [8:23]
    5. Romeo and Juliet [9:15]
    6. Deception [9:33]
    1. Object of Scorn [11:38]
    2. Ruined [6:30]
    3. A Perfect Beauty [7:44]
    4. Over Wound [8:59]
    5. Sad Delusions [10:04]
    6. A Toast [10:35]
    Side #3 --
    1. Utmost Contempt [10:17]
    2. Welcome Advances [14:08]
    3. Separate Ways [8:37]
    4. The Agency [5:41]
    5. A Fine Specimen [6:06]
    6. Brothers [10:54]
    1. Time Will Tell [8:30]
    2. Escape [6:12]
    3. Assaulted [10:51]
    4. Money for Love [8:38]
    5. The Deal [6:41]
    6. I Won't Go [13:43]
    Side #4 --
    1. Good News [8:18]
    2. Madeline's Choice [9:24]
    3. The Duel [8:24]
    4. A Great Debt [9:09]
    5. Find the Will [9:17]
    6. Reurn Home [12:32]
    1. The Deed [8:55]
    2. Connections [7:27]
    3. Secret Son [5:02]
    4. Acceptance [8:43]
    5. Breakout [9:09]
    6. The Future [9:22]

    Scene Index

    Editorial Reviews

    Filmed in 1982, this Tony award winning production of Charles Dickens classic Nicholas Nickleby clocks in with an intimidating running time of nine hours, though it is considered to be one of the best adaptations of the original novel. Roger Rees plays the young Nicholas, who, along with his mother (Jane Downs), and sister (Emily Richard), are forced to seek financial assistance from Nicholas's smarmy uncle (John Woodvine). Ralph does provide Nicholas with a job, but it may have been kinder to leave him on the street--the school he has been sent to work for is run by a sadistic schoolmaster who delights in savagely beating his students. Nicholas leaves the school alongside Smike (David Threlfall), a limping, crooked-backed little boy who had been victim to much of the school's abusive policies. Once unemployed, Nicholas must find a way to to protect his family and come to terms with his own complicated emotions. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide All Movie Guide

    Customer Reviews

    • Viewer Rating:
    • Ratings: 3Reviews: 2

    Brilliant, Must Watchby Anonymous

    Reader Rating:
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    February 05, 2006: It took me a while to get started on this series. Perhaps because I had never watched a stage show captured for television. I expected it to be a series of exhausting conversations in a dismal setting that seldom changed. But, I was wrong on all accounts. The ‘Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby’ is a classic and outstanding show. Every character from Nicholas and Smike to Ralph and Crummles has done tremendous justice to their roles. The display of emotions, clarity of dialogues, and intensity of expressions are astonishing. I assume there must have been thirty to thirty-five actors in the show. The number of characters in the play is definitely higher. The dexterity with which actors have played multiple roles is phenomenal. Despite the limited resources and space constraints inherent in such shows, the setting changed swiftly and fittingly. Not once did I feel the dreariness of a stagnant location. The sound effects, from the knock of doors to Newman Noggs’s snapping fingers, are very natural. This is a magnificent rendering of Dickens’s novel and a must watch. I suggest watching one part a day, because it gives sufficient break to chew over that episode, and absorb the performances in their entirety.

    Theatre doing what it does bestby Anonymous

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    April 19, 2005: The Movie Guide review above hardly does this adaptation justice, even pointing to its 9-hour running time as a liability when, in fact, it is a primary part of the enjoyability and quality of the production. With so much leisure at their disposal in which to tell the sprawling and dramatic tale of young Nicholas and his various friends, enemies, and acquaintances, writer David Edgar and directors Trevor Nunn and John Caird, who originally staged this production with the Royal Shakespeare Company, are able to develop Dickens' characters with real depth and subtlety and to reveal his story in all its intricacy and intimacy. Once settled in for a run of a week's worth of evening viewings, the viewer is truly able to enjoy the time spent among these wonderfully realized characters. The production lacks all the pomp and panoramic glory of the average BBC costume drama and instead relies on the imagination of its audience and the aplomb of its actors, most of whom play multiple roles (more than 100 roles amongst 39 actors) to create the mood and setting. And the actors do a splendid job of it. Most of these seasoned RSC veterans are excellent in their numerous roles, but Alun Armstrong as Wackford Squeers, Edward Petherbridge as Newman Noggs, and Bob Peck as John Browdie and Sir Mulberry Hawk are standouts. This is unabashed, unadorned theatre. It does not try to imitate film and benefits greatly from its embrace of this "weakness." There is nothing to match a live performance on the stage, but this comes as close as filmed versions of theatre can. I defy anyone to find a more compelling and cathartic portrayal of Ralph Nickleby's descent into solitude and madness than that portrayed on the final disc of this production. It is pure humanity--and pure theatre!