If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good movie but grossly overrated

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It took me a while to get started on this series. Perhaps because I had never watched a stage show captured for television. I expected it to be a series of exhausting conversations in a dismal setting that seldom changed. But, I was wrong on all accounts. The 'Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby' is a classic and outstanding show. Every character from Nicholas and Smike to Ralph and Crummles has done tremendous justice to their roles. The display of emotions, clarity of dialogs, and intensity of expressions are astonishing. I assume there must have been thirty to thirty-five actors in the show. The number of characters in the play is definitely higher. The dexterity with which actors have played multiple roles is phenomenal. Despite the limited resources and space constraints inherent in such shows, the setting changed swiftly and fittingly. Not once did I feel the dreariness of a stagnant location. The sound effects, from the knock of doors to Newman Noggs's snapping fingers, are very natural. This is a magnificent rendering of Dickens's novel and a must-watch. I suggest watching one part a day, because it gives sufficient break to chew over that episode, and absorb the performances in their entirety.

My husband bought the video set shortly after we viewed the series for the first time. I play it every year, at Christmas. Being great fans of Dickens's works we are thrilled and delighted every time with the entire production, from the excellent acting, staging, music, etc. No one could wish for a more perfect cast.

I've seen many legendary performances, and yet this show was, without a doubt, the most fun I've ever had as an audience member. If, after the full 8+ hours of theater I'd seen that day, they came out and said they had 4 more for us, I'd have leapt to my feet in gratitude! A once in a lifetime production that I feel very lucky to have seen. And the tapes/DVDs bring it all back gloriously.

This video of the Royal Shakespeare Company's 8-hour production of Nicholas Nickleby is well worth the time. It's funny, moving, and very Dickensian. There's also a brief look at Victorian productions of Shakespeare (when Nicholas stars as Romeo) which is absolutely hilarious. The actors all do a wonderful job, particularly those playing Nicholas, Kate, and Ralph Nickleby and Smike. This is one of those rare videotaped plays which captures the best of the real production with none of the drawbacks of most taped plays.