After his version of David Copperfield was rejected by the BBC, writer John Sullivan devised a series based on the character Wilkins Micawber starring David Jason.
In this opening episode Micawber is living in very modest circumstances, creditors are chasing him but we still see a man with a heart of gold. He has had to taken on a lodger and he recounts to him how he was once solicitor, a junior partner and looking to make his way up in the world.
Despite his lower class, he met and married his wife Emma who came from a more wealthy family. Emma's mother despised Wilkins but her father allowed Wilkins to sign off the family's accounts. Unfortunately Wilkins was drunk at the time and failed to notice errors which led to a charge of embezzlement against him, a spell in jail and thrown out by the Law Society as a solicitor.
After the death of his father in law, Wilkins learns the truth. He had been framed to stop him marrying Emma, but she still stayed with him.
The production values were very good, after all after enticing John Sullivan to ITV they were not going to skimp on the budget. I did feel that Jason was a touch too old playing Micawber especially as he has infant children here, when the action takes place before he met David Copperfield.
In this opening episode Micawber is living in very modest circumstances, creditors are chasing him but we still see a man with a heart of gold. He has had to taken on a lodger and he recounts to him how he was once solicitor, a junior partner and looking to make his way up in the world.
Despite his lower class, he met and married his wife Emma who came from a more wealthy family. Emma's mother despised Wilkins but her father allowed Wilkins to sign off the family's accounts. Unfortunately Wilkins was drunk at the time and failed to notice errors which led to a charge of embezzlement against him, a spell in jail and thrown out by the Law Society as a solicitor.
After the death of his father in law, Wilkins learns the truth. He had been framed to stop him marrying Emma, but she still stayed with him.
The production values were very good, after all after enticing John Sullivan to ITV they were not going to skimp on the budget. I did feel that Jason was a touch too old playing Micawber especially as he has infant children here, when the action takes place before he met David Copperfield.