Little Dorrit (TV serial)

Little Dorrit
Cover of the BBC DVD release
Genre	Period drama
Based on	Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Written by	Andrew Davies
Directed by	Adam Smith (6 episodes) Dearbhla Walsh (5 episodes) Diarmuid Lawrence (3 episodes)
Starring	Claire Foy Matthew Macfadyen Tom Courtenay Judy Parfitt
Composer(s)	John Lunn
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	14
Production
Executive producer(s)	Rebecca Eaton Anne Pivcevic
Producer(s)	Lisa Osborne
Cinematography	Lukas Strebel Owen McPolin Alan Almond
Editor(s)	Nick Arthurs Philip Kloss David Head
Running time	452 minutes
Production company(s)	BBC WGBH Boston
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	26 October – 11 December 2008
External links
Website

Little Dorrit is a 2008 British miniseries based on the serial novel of the same title by Charles Dickens, originally published between 1855 and 1857. The screenplay is by Andrew Davies and the episodes were directed by Adam Smith, Dearbhla Walsh, and Diarmuid Lawrence.

The series was a joint production of the BBC and the American PBS member station WGBH Boston. It originally was broadcast by BBC One and BBC HD, beginning on 26 October 2008 with a 60-minute opening episode, followed by 12 half-hour episodes and a 60-minute finale. In the United States, it aired in five episodes as part of PBS' Masterpiece series between 29 March and 26 April 2009. In Australia, episodes were combined into seven-parts on ABC1 each Sunday at 8:30pm from 27 June 2010 and has since been repeated on UKTV.

The series won seven Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Miniseries.

Since her birth, twenty-one-year-old Amy Dorrit has lived in the Marshalsea Prison for Debt, where she cares for her father William, who, having lived there for decades, enjoys a position of privileged seniority. To help her family, she works as a seamstress for Mrs. Clennam, a cranky, cold, forbidding semi-invalid who lives in a crumbling home with her servants, the sinister Jeremiah Flintwinch and his bumbling wife Affery.

Mr. Clennam is ill in China with his son, Arthur. His dying wish is that his remaining family "Puts it right". He gives Arthur a pocket watch to deliver to Mrs. Clennam; Arthur has no idea what this means. He returns to England and gives his mother the watch. She opens it and reads "Do not forget." The plot thickens. Arthur is enamoured of the beautiful Pet Meagles, who favours ne'er-do-well aspiring artist Henry Gowan, much to the distress of her parents.