Or maybe the first push in this review ought to belong to the amazing timeliness of Dickens's story, published serially between 1855-57. "Little Dorrit," which premieres Sunday night at 9 on Channel 2, isn't just a generally relevant tale of poverty and self-esteem, one that can easily evoke our recession-era empathy. Quite specifically, it is a 19th-century portrait of the Madoff scandal, as a crowd of Londoners lose their fortunes to a Ponzi-scheming character with the Madoff-like (and French punny) name of Mr. Merdle. Alas, some things - too many things - never change.
Whatever it takes to interest you in this adaptation of one of Dickens's less popularized novels, that's what I'd like to start with. If you're at all inclined toward TV's literary efforts, you'll find much to savor in this production, which was written by Andrew Davies, the prolific screenwriter who gave us PBS's "Pride and Prejudice" in 1995 and "Bleak House" in 2006. "Little Dorrit" has so many virtues - indelible performances, stirring pathos, and an emotional and psychological heft unusual for Dickens - that you can forgive its one significant flaw (more on that later).
There are two families at the center of the action, with an interlocking array of characters between them. The Dorrits live in Marshalsea debtors' prison, where William Dorrit (Tom Courtenay) has established himself as the "Father of the Marshalsea." He's locked in, but his three children can come and go as they please, including his youngest daughter, Amy (Claire Foy), a kind waif who quietly caters to her father's grandiosity and self-pity. The Clennams inhabit a rotting, creaking London townhouse, where the cold Mrs. Clennam (Judy Parfitt) is imprisoned in her wheelchair. When her son, Arthur (Matthew Macfadyen), returns from the East with news of his father's death, Mrs. Clennam is unmoved.
