David Copperfield (1969)

David Copperfield is a 1969 British American international co-production television film directed by Delbert Mann based on the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens adapted by Jack Pulman, who later went on to adapt the Roman saga I, Claudius for BBC Television. The film was made in the UK for 20th Century Fox Television with some exteriors filmed in Suffolk. Some interior scenes were filmed at The Swan Hotel in Southwold.

The film starred Robin Phillips in the title role and Ralph Richardson as Micawber. Among other well-known actors and actresses featured, some in cameo parts were Richard Attenborough, Laurence Olivier, Susan Hampshire, Cyril Cusack, Wendy Hiller, Edith Evans, Michael Redgrave and Ron Moody.

Synopsis

Charles Dickens' Immortal Story of a Young Man's Journey to Maturity. This version finds David Copperfield (Robin Phillips) as a young man, brooding on a deserted beach. In flashback, David remembers his life in 19th century England, as a young orphan, brought to London and passed around from relatives, to guardians, to boarding school. He relives his struggle to overcome the loss of his idyllic childhood and the torment inflicted by his hated step-father after his mother’s death. Then virtually abandoned on the streets of Victorian London, David Copperfield is flung into manhood and contends bravely with the perils of big-city corruption and vice; hardships which ultimately fuel his triumph as a talented and successful writer.

Actors