Bleak House - press pack phase three
Starts Thursday 27 October on 91Èȱ¬ ONE
Charles Dance plays Tulkinghorn
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Charles Dickens' Bleak House is a vivid portrayal of Victorian Britain: it is a compelling social commentary on 19th-century Britain, revealing London's poverty-stricken areas, warts and all. Ìý
More than anything, however, it is a damning indictment on the legal system at that time.
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The central lawyer in Bleak House is Mr Tulkinghorn, a formidable character in many ways, who is played by Charles Dance.
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Lawyer to Sir Leicester Dedlock and involved in the ongoing saga of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in Andrew Davies' adaptation of the novel, Tulkinghorn is a force to be reckoned with. Ìý
He's also desperate to unearth Lady Dedlock's secret past and is intent on making her life hell.
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"I think he's a complete s**t," laughs Dance, who plays the menacing lawyer. "He doesn't have a redeeming feature in his make-up. He's a snob, a social climber and a misogynist, really a very unpleasant man.
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"Jarndyce and Jarndyce is a case that's dragged on and on for a very long time and Tulkinghorn is relatively sure of the outcome. He is therefore able to spend more time delving into the private lives of the Dedlocks.
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"As far as he is concerned, Jarndyce and Jarndyce is a very long-winded piece of bread and butter, but this is something else. This is more juicy for him to get his teeth into and he aims to bring down Lady Dedlock."
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As his family have been lawyers to the Dedlocks for generations, Tulkinghorn seems to think he knows what's best for Sir Leicester (played by Timothy West).
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"His father was attorney to Sir Leicester's father before him and he is attorney to Sir Leicester. He grovels in a quite subtle but unpleasant way to his betters. Tulkinghorn considers Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson) no better than he is, but she is clever. He looks upon Lady Dedlock as a gold-digger. She has no right to be where she is.
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"He has precious little time for her – she is only Lady Dedlock because she's married to Sir Leicester, and that's something that Tulkinghorn finds very difficult to deal with. If Tulkinghorn had his way, Sir Leicester would be a bachelor and he would be his confidante. Unfortunately, he married this woman and Tulkinghorn thought it was a mistake right away."
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The lawyer is in his element when he realises Lady Dedlock has something to hide and takes great pleasure in making her squirm. The more he delves, the more afraid Lady Dedlock is and, soon, she is desperately trying to cover up her past.
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"He happens upon, or gets wind of, a piece of information that makes him very suspicious and I suspect, although there's no proof of it, that he has actually spent a considerable time waiting for an opportunity, for something to happen.
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"A stone is turned over that kind of reveals something nasty and provokes him to turn over a lot more stones. The more stones he turns over, the more he finds out about this secret of Lady Dedlock's past. And, really, that's where she'd prefer it to stay, but Tulkinghorn wants to open this up and get a hold over her.
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"He doesn't blackmail her to the point that he asks her for money, but what he does do is emotionally blackmail her."
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Dance is no stranger to Dickens, having played Ralph Nickleby in a TV version of The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby (2001).
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But, says Dance, the two adaptations are incomparable. "It wasn't on such a grand scale inasmuch that it wasn't divided into 15 half-hour episodes and it's not such a huge novel. There wasn't quite such a labyrinth-like plot.
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"With Bleak House, the very title sums it up. It's not called Jarndyce And Jarndyce, it's not called The Trial Of Lady Dedlock and it's not called The Adventures Of Josiah Tulkinghorn. It's Bleak House. The very word 'bleak' is onomatopoeic for a start – you can't say bleak and think happy and jolly. Bleak is a bleak word – it tells you what you're in for. There's a lot of bleakness in Bleak House."
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