Armando's Tale Of Charles Dickens

Satirist and lifelong Charles Dickens fan Armando Iannucci, worried that endless adaptations of the novelist's work have led his skills to go unappreciated, sets out to prove why he still matters as a writer in the 21st century. Using David Copperfield as a starting point, he unpicks the language and the revolution of a master storyteller, and with the help of funnymen Barry Cryer, Kevin Eldon and Phill Jupitus, he gets beneath the skin of some of the more outlandish characters. Finally, through encounters with the types of people Dickens wrote about, including lawyers and a debtor, Iannucci claims that his stories are just as relevant today.

Armando's Tale of Charles Dickens began with Armando Iannucci embarking on the Great Expectations boat ride at Dickens World, an epitome, for the presenter, of the pasteurised, theme-park Dickens that he wanted to get away from. "I think he's the funniest comedian we've ever produced," he declared, rather mysteriously delivering this uncontroversial remark as if he was flying in the face of received opinion.

Never mind, though, because although his film couldn't entirely overcome television's deep anxiety when it comes to the discussion of literature, this had more close reading than most contain, and Phill Jupitus actually pointed us to a Dickens story that most people wouldn't have heard of – "Mugby Junction" – enthusing over a marvellous description of a man "who had turned grey too soon, like a neglected fire". It also had a pertinently uncomfortable moment when Iannucci visited Fort House in Broadstairs, to be shown round by the current owners. The camera darted a sideways look at the pencil drawing of Princess Diana on the mantelpiece and the oil painting of Leo and Kate on the bow of the Titanic, and said nothing. But it had noticed, and trusted us to get the point: Dickens might be long dead, but Dickensian characters aren't. Watch on PutLocker, SockShare, YouTube or below on YouTube as well.