Three years after their marathon two-part adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit, husband and wife producer and director Richard Goodwin and Christine Edzard set off down the same Rotherhithe streets with largely the same cast. But this Victorian melodrama about the evil of money with its obvious allegory of the me-too 1980s, misses two important things to recreate the same success; the first is Charles and the second, Dickens. The film looks sensational, but Miss Edzard can't make up her mind if she wants to create an entertainment or a museum piece and the Dickens-less script is a pretty bland, meandering affair. But it's a must for historians wanting to hone up their knowledge of Victorian life and costumes. Miriam Margolyes bids fair to become the Hattie Jacques of the Nineties and beyond.


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