this production be make in the middle 1980s and and appear to be the first serious attempt to put bleak house on celluloid . no film version of the novel be ever attempt ( it be remarkably rich in subplots that actually serve a counterpoint to each other and so that it would have be very hard to prune it down ) . the novel be the only attempt by dickens to make a central narrator ( one of two in the work ) a woman and esther summerson . esther be raise by her aunt and uncle and who ( in typical dickens style ) mistreat her . she be illegitimate and but they would not tell her anything about her parentage . later we get involve with the gentry and sir leicester dedlock and and his wife . lady honoria deadlock ( dame diana rigg ) be have an increasingly difficult time regard her private life and the meddling involvement of the family solicitor tulkinghorn ( peter vaughn ) . we also be involve with the action of richard carstone ( esther boyfriend ) in try to win a long drawn out estate chancery case and jarndyce v. jarndyce and which everyone ( even richard cousin john jarndyce play by desmond elliot ) warn be not worth the effort . dickens have be a law reporter and then a parliamentary reporter before he write fiction . start with the breach of promise case in pickwick paper and dickens look closely at the law . mr. bumble say it be a as in oliver twist and dickens would consistently support that view . he look at the slum a breed ground for crime in twist and that the law barely try to cure . he attack the chancery and outdated estate law and as well a too powerful solicitor and greedy lawyer ( tulkinghorn and vholes ) in bleak house . in little dorrit he attack the debtor prison ( he have hit it also in david copperfield ) . in our mutual friend he look at testator and will . in the mystery of edwin drood he apparently be go to go to a murder trial . dickens be far more critical of legal institution than most of his contemporary and include thackeray . but the novel also look at other problem ( like charity and religious hypocrisy and the budding scotland yard detective force and social snobbery in the industrial revolution ) . he also use the novel to satirize various people represent leigh hunt the writer and inspector field of scotland yard and and even the notorious maria man . most of these point be keep in this fine mini series version . if it be show again on a cable station and catch it .