Miniseries Does Supreme Justice to Dickens's 'Bleak House'

In a classy aside, Anderson tells the TV critics: "I understand the politics of it and it's very flattering, but certainly the clip -- and I know why it was done. But the clip gives the impression that Lady Dedlock is the central character. And she's really not the central character. The central character is Esther Summerson."

Anderson's right about that, but it's also true that Lady Dedlock is crucial to the action. And the actress's coldly vulnerable portrayal is one of the film's great strengths. We first see her in the drawing room of her grand estate. She looks out the window and her husband, Sir Leicester, asks whether it's still raining.

"Yes, my love," she answers placidly. "And I am bored to death with it. Bored to death with this place. Bored to death with my life. Bored to death with myself."

It's hard to remember the last time boredom seemed so engaging.

As Esther, Martin is the moral heart of the piece, and her strength and empathy are evident throughout. Martin is pretty in an unconventional way -- think of the young Jane Wyman -- and her mouth, without speaking, can convey whole subtle paragraphs of emotion.

If a snake and a wasp could produce offspring, their son would probably be a lot like Dance's Tulkinghorn. His circling of Lady Dedlock is, well, a Dance of Death, and he attacks the part with relish.

The actor acknowledges he has never portrayed so vile a character.

"To put it bluntly," he says, "he's a complete [bleep] without a redeeming feature in his makeup at all. It's not my job to ask an audience for sympathy, to make an audience like him. He's through and through a despicable character. He's a social climber. He's the worst face of the law. And he was enormous fun to play."

"Bleak House" evokes a world quite different from our own, a world where even in the most civilized countries, the downtrodden are without recourse while the privileged live even their dark moments with a veneer of civility.

It's a nice world to visit, and it's fun to realize that the man driving that coach is the impish, white-haired personage to the right of the stage.

As the "Bleak House" question-and-answer session concludes, a friendly softball is lobbed Davies's way. "I'm wondering what's your secret," the questioner says. "You're so prolific."

"Well, I have no private life, I think," he responds, as the audience laughter begins. "I just sit there and do it most of the time. And in fact -- yeah, I don't really have any friends either."

He pauses. "In fact, if anybody likes the look of me, will they come up and -- "

The laughter is filling the large room now, and Davies resumes:

"What I was going to say, doing this -- because I'm -- I'm getting quite old now. And you know, if I go up to young people in the street and say, 'Would you like to have a good time with me?' they report me to the police. But if I write these scripts, it gets -- "

The crowd is very happy, and he continues in this vein even after Eaton breaks in and says, "Oh, Andrew, stop it." He stops when he's ready to stop, and whether he's typing or talking, many people seem to like it that way. As writer and raconteur, Davies is a master.

The first Bleak House installment (120 minutes) begins tomorrow night at 9 on Channel 26; the series continues every Sunday through Feb. 26.