First broadcast: 2001
Creator: John Sullivan, adapted the stories from Charles Dickens’ novel David Copperfield
Stars: David Jason, Bill Bailey, Martin Jarvis, Jan Francis
The lowdown: David Jason plays Wilkins Micawber, a good hearted book keeper who is tricked into making a serious mistake and suffers in poverty for years afterwards. This is the Victorian back-story of Charles Dickens’ famous character from David Copperfield. Jason shines as a man who is desperate to keep up appearances and maintain his ever growing family. But a cruel money-lender is after his blood. Despite all his problems he remains upbeat and his catchphrase is “something will turn up, it always does.”
Memorable moment: Blundering Micawber accidentally pulls on a rope while standing backstage at the theatre and is sent soaring past the scenery in full view of the auditorium. The audience laughs at his stupidity and as he sails by the playwright he yells out “They seem to be enjoying it, sir.”
Trivia: John Sullivan also penned the classic comedy Only Fools and Horses, the show which turned Jason into a TV icon for his performance as Peckham wheeler-dealer Del Boy Trotter.
Sullivan decided to write the screenplay for Micawber after his wife bought him a leather-bound set of Dickens novels. He read them in the same order as he had done years before when he was a schoolboy. When he got to David Copperfield Sullivan says it was blindingly “obvious” who should play the character. So he bought a copy and sent it to Jason.
