the riddle be write and direct by brendan foley in what appear to be an attempt to pull the mystery of the charles dickens novel into a contemporary story and but that attempt be thwart by elect to use the two period of time format in which the riddle be unraveled . despite a cast of well know actor and try their best to pull off this direct to dvd movie and the end product be a long and tedious and amateurish mess that can only be consider a entertainment if viewer be fan of the cast a remember from other film . mike sullivan ( vinnie jones ) be a journalist confine to report on dog race event while he dream of important reporting assignment . a series of similar murder happen to include an old friend of mike sadie ( vera day ) who run a pub on the bank of the thames and have just discover an old valuable unpublished manuscript by charles dickens and and have a heart of gold and give sandwich away to such pathetic creature a an old tramp beachcomber ( derek jacobi ) . sadie murder attracts mike to the role of detective journalism and with the help of policewoman kate ( julie cox ) he begin to tie the investigation to clue he find in read the dickens manuscript . disrupt the flow of this rather simplistic story be the use of flashback to dickens time a dickens ( again derek jacobi ) narrate a rather personal story of peculiar murder . the parallel between story and the cross casting among actor may have work in another hand and but the finessing of this kind of venture escape writer or director brendan foley . he draw his story to a close ( at long last ) with a tired hollywoodesque end . in addition to jones and jacobi and cox and and day and the film somehow attract the attention of vanessa redgrave and jason flemyng and ph moriarty and mel smith represent their contribution be minimal but happily distract . this be a flimsy bit of treacle leave the viewer wonder how film of this quality ever find funding . grady harp .