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The Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Charles Dickens' great
Victorian novel, Nicholas Nickleby was the first major drama commissioned by
Channel 4 and was transmitted in four separate parts on consecutive Sundays in
November 1982. By that time, the production had become legendary. Because of
cuts in subsidy, the RSC had been unable to mount its usual three new
productions for the 1980 season and had instead decided to mount a single
production, involving the talents of practically every member of the company.
Masterminded by Trevor Nunn and John Caird, this became a 9-hour version of
Nicholas Nickleby, adapted by David Edgar and featuring 43 actors, who shared
150 speaking parts.
At first lukewarmly received by the critics, unprecedented public acclaim had
helped to compel a re-appraisal of the play; a two-hour South Bank Show (ITV, 1978-)
special had furthered its reputation; and by the time of its broadcast, it was
widely seen as the great theatrical event of the early 1980s. The television
version was filmed in six weeks by Jim Goddard at the Old Vic during the summer
of 1982.
One might see the broadcast as simply preserving a memorable theatrical
occasion and some definitive Dickensian characterisations, of which Roger Rees's
impetuous Nicholas, John Woodvine's imperious Ralph, Edward Petheridge's
heartfelt Noggs and David Threlfall's heartbreaking Smike were merely the most
prominent amongst an outstanding cast. Yet its evocation of a world of
individual greed and ruthless commercialism, defined brusquely as 'the world we
live in', evoked for many the ethos of monetarism and Victorian values espoused
by the contemporary Conservative government. Later Dickens adaptations such as
the BBC's Bleak House (1985) and Christine Edzard's two-part film of Little Dorrit (1987) followed its lead in using Dickens to comment on contemporary
society; and what was perceived in some quarters as the production's
'anti-Thatcher polemic' also anticipated the tone of some films supported by
Channel 4, most notably My Beautiful Laundrette (d. Stephen Frears, 1985).
When the channel had expressed its aim to cater for minority tastes, the
Cabinet Minister, Norman Tebbit thought it meant programmes for enthusiasts of
golf, sailing, fishing, and such. Channel 4's concept of the socially
marginalised was more radical and sophisticated than that. In this respect,
Nicholas Nickleby symbolised more than just a prestige project for the new
channel: it reflected something of its ethos and captured something of the
spirit of the times.
Neil Sinyard
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