Little Dorrit - Series 1 (2008)

This gripping new series by Andrew Davies brings to life Dickens's powerful story of struggle and hardship in 1820s London. When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, his curiosity is piqued by the presence in his mother's house of a young seamstress, Amy Dorrit. The cold and forbidding Mrs Clennam isn't usually given to charity, so why has she made an exception in taking on Amy? Is she making reparations for a past wrongdoing? Arthur's quest to discover the truth takes him to the Marshalsea Prison for Debt. Here he meets and befriends Amy's father, William Dorrit, who is the prison's longest serving inmate. As he tries to help the Dorrits, Arthur discovers that the dark shadow of debt stretches far beyond the walls of the Marshalsea Prison, to affect the lives of many. Just as it is possible to climb to the very top in London Society's intricate game of snakes and ladders, so it is possible to slip right down. But if Arthur succeeds in unravelling the mystery of his family's past, where will it leave him in the scheme of things? And where will it leave the Dorrits?