Bleak House (2005 Justin Chadwick & Susanna White)

Andrew Davies cuts up Mr Dickens till he's all a-tumble - what larks! But the fiddly, whizzy, most alarmin' new fangle style of filming, that's a ne'er do well and puts the wind afirm in the East.

Anna Maxwell Martin, Denis Lawson, Charles Dance, Carey Mulligan, Gillian Anderson.

Timothy West, Ian Richardson, Pauline Collins, Alun Armstrong, Natalie Press, Alistair McGowan, Patrick Kennedy, Burn Gorman, Warren Clarke, Nathaniel Parker, Johnny Vegas, Hugo Speer. Special mention to Richard Cant as a slightly camp, full-of-attitude footman.

Good balance between gritty, cruel unhappiness and romance and humour, with a devastating black comedy twist.