Bleak House - this autumn on 91Èȱ¬ ONE
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Episode synopses (phase one)
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Episode One
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Andrew Davies' innovative adaptation for 91Èȱ¬ ONE kicks off with a feature-length episode.
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Young orphan Esther Summerson is brought to the High Court of Chancery by lawyer Mr Kenge, where she is thrown together with two wards of the court, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare.
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Both are caught up in the infamous suit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which brings nothing but ruin and despair to all it touches.
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At the Chancery courts, the three meet other beleaguered participants in the case, including the eccentric Miss Flite, who lodges nearby with the peculiar (and very drunk) rag and bottle merchant, Krook.
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They have another lodger, Nemo, who is a mysterious figure: a law-writer by trade, but a self-destructive opium addict by nature.
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When Esther meets him, she feels a strange shiver of recognition…
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Esther, Richard and Ada spend their last night in London with the Jellyby family, before setting off to Bleak House to live with their guardian John Jarndyce.
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They are astonished to find the Jellyby household running to ruin as a result of Mrs Jellyby spending more time dealing with far-flung matters of philanthropy than the problems on her own doorstep.
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Esther sympathises with her daughter, Caddy, who is at her wits' end.
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Esther, Ada and Richard receive a warm welcome at Bleak House from Mr Jarndyce. There they are introduced to his friend, Harold Skimpole, a man who shirks responsibility for his actions, as well as the public-spirited Mrs Pardiggle, who escorts Esther, Ada and Richard on a charitable excursion to the slum dwellings of some poverty-stricken brick makers.
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The elegant life of another Jarndyce suitor, the beautiful Lady Dedlock, is turned upside down when her husband's lawyer, Tulkinghorn, gets wind of the secret in her past.
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Tulkinghorn's investigation leads him into the dark underbelly of London, where he searches for Nemo. But when Tulkinghorn decides to pay Nemo a visit, he receives a very nasty surprise…
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Episode Two
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Tulkinghorn and Krook call out the doctor, Allan Woodcourt, who suspects that Nemo's death was caused by an accidental overdose of opium.
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The coroner confirms as much. Nemo is given a pauper's funeral - and at the gloomy burial ground Tulkinghorn interrogates a young crossing-sweeper, named only Jo, whom Nemo had befriended. He is convinced Jo knows something.
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Ada and Richard are beginning to fall in love. Jarndyce instructs Richard that it is time to choose a career, so he happens, very quickly, upon the idea of medicine.
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As a result, arrangements are made for Richard to study with Mr Bayham Badger in Chelsea. The four have dinner with the irrepressible Mr & Mrs Badger, where they encounter Allan Woodcourt. He and Esther are attracted to one another.
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At Chesney Wold, Lady Dedlock has taken a shine to the young maid Rosa – to the absolute horror of her existing French maid, Hortense.
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However, Lady Dedlock has more serious troubles when Tulkinghorn gleefully informs her of Nemo's fate.
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Meanwhile, Krook is gloating over a bundle of letters he filched from Nemo's trunk under Tulkinghorn's nose.
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Although he can't read, they smell, he reckons, like love letters…
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