The Pickwick Papers - Other Adaptations

Other Adaptations

The novel has been filmed at least four times:

• 1913 – a silent short starring John Bunny as Pickwick and H. P. Owen as Sam Weller
• 1921 – The Adventures of Mr Pickwick, silent, lost, starring Frederick Volpe and Hubert Woodward
• 1936 - On November 13, 1936 (less than two weeks after the BBC began regularly scheduled television broadcasts) The British Music Drama Opera Company under the direction of Vladimir Rosing presented the world's first televised opera: Pickwick by Albert Coates.
• 1938 - 'The Pickwick Papers', Orson Welles' ‘Mercury Theater on the Air’ (November 20, 1938)
• 1952 – starring James Hayter, Nigel Patrick, Alexander Gauge and Harry Fowler (the first sound version)

There have also been BBC radio and television adaptations. The first TV adaptation was by Constance Cox. In 1985 BBC released a 12-part 350-minute production starring Nigel Stock, Alan Parnaby, Clive Swift and Patrick Malahide

There was also a London stage musical version entitled Pickwick, by Cyril Ornadel, Wolf Mankowitz, and Leslie Bricusse. It starred Harry Secombe, later to become more famous as Mr Bumble in the film version of Oliver!. But Pickwick (the musical) was not a success in the United States when it opened there in 1965, and the show was never filmed. It did feature the song If I Ruled the World, which became a modest hit.

Part of the Pickwick Papers featured in Charles Dickens' Ghost Stories, a 60 minute animation made by Emerald City Films (1987). Including The Ghost in the Wardrobe, The Mail Coach Ghosts, and The Goblin and the Gravedigger.