A Who's Who David Copperfield, as a boy David Copperfield Blunderstone Clara Copperfield Edward Murdstone Miss Jane Murdstone Yarmouth Peggotty Dan Peggotty Ham Peggotty Emily Mrs. Gummidge Barkis Salem House School Mr. Creakle Tungay James Steerforth London Mr. Micawber Mrs. Micawber Mrs. Crupp The Pawnbroker Dover Miss Betsey Trotwood Mr. Dick London Mr. Spenlow Dora Spenlow Miss Julia Mills Canterbury Uriah Heep Mr. Wickfield Agnes Wickfield Mrs. Heep Highgate Mrs. Steerforth James Steerforth Rosa Dartle David Copperfield, as a boy Daniel Radcliffe For 10-year-old Daniel Radcliffe, who portrays the young David Copperfield, on-set entertainment during the production was never in short supply. "Bob Hoskins taught me loads of rude rhymes, and tried to make me laugh. Ian McKellen was really cool. Somebody said he's doing the X-Men movie, which is great. I liked working with Pauline Quirke, too." Hanging around on-set for hours posed no problem for Daniel, as members of the crew kept him occupied. His chaperone, or his mother Marcia, was always there with him. Marcia confides that he's a changed boy. "He can really focus on one thing now," she says. "His short-term memory has improved, I think. He can now concentrate on a scene completely. It was difficult to start with, separating the acting from what was going on around him. It was all so exciting, and he's so full of energy. But now he can be fooling around one minute, and switch into real concentration for a scene." Radcliffe followed his debut acting performance in David Copperfield with the feature film The Tailor of Panama. He landed the role of a lifetime, Harry Potter in the long-awaited film of the same name, largely based on his appearance in David Copperfield. David Copperfield Ciaran McMenamin Ciaran McMenamin made a major error when he heard he had won an audition for the title role in David Copperfield. The 24-year-old actor, who found early fame as Jez in British television's The Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star, rushed down to his local video shop and rented MGM's 1935 film of David Copperfield. It did not help when he got the part. It took McMenamin weeks to get W.C. Fields' famous portrayal of Micawber out of his mind. "When we were rehearsing, I kept giggling every time Micawber (Bob Hoskins) spoke. I kept hearing Fields's voice in my head." The other early problem for McMenamin was learning to become a proper Dickensian Englishman, putting aside his strong Enniskillen accent. "It had to be done ... you can't have 'David O'Connor Copperfield.'" He perfected the English accent with dialect coach Jeanette Nelson. Ciaran McMenamin trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. back to top Blunderstone Clara Copperfield Emilia Fox Clara is David's mother, widowed at 20: a beautiful, childlike woman who dotes on her only son. She trustingly marries Mr. Murdstone believing he will be a good father for David. When Noel Coward wrote the song Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington, his inspiration was Angela Worthington, a friend of Maggie Smith and grandmother of Emilia Fox -- or Millie, as she is better known -- who plays David Copperfield's mother Clara. The daughter of Edward Fox and actress Joanna David and niece of James Fox, she did have serious doubts about going on the stage and keeping the family acting dynasty going. "After school I thought I might be an actress. Then I thought: 'Don't. Don't.' I had many, many second thoughts about it. Acting is such a fragile business." Fox says of her role that Clara is a person who some people tend to dismiss as weak because she doesn't stand up to the cruel Murdstones. She, however, sees Clara more as a victim of circumstance and the age she lived in. She loved the script from the beginning. "The adaptation has kept a very strong core of the story. And what an extraordinary cast!" Edward Murdstone Trevor Eve David's tyrannical stepfather practices what he calls "firm discipline" -- in fact, it is a brutal and violent cruelty. His repressive reign of terror leads to the death of Clara and his appearance in David's life spells the end of an idyllic childhood. "The Murdstones? Nice couple," observes Trevor Eve, who sees Murdstone as something of a sexual predator, a little akin to his role in The Politician's Wife. "I suppose when Dickens didn't like a character, he really didn't like them. These two are unrelentingly horrible. Dickens gives a totally black image of this evil man. But there is an indication in the novel that he did have great feeling for Clara. I don't think Edward's just a heartless human being. Clara and I do play footsie in one scene but it's only two seconds of screen time, so if anyone goes out to put the kettle on, they've missed it." These days you're likely to find Eve at work with his wife, actress Sharon Maughan, in the offices of their production company. He says the company has given him a new career direction. He loves producing, and he'll do it while continuing with his acting. Miss Jane Murdstone Zoë Wanamaker A steely cold woman, Miss Murdstone moves into young David's home and becomes the willing instrument for her brother's tyrannies. She hates David from the first moment she meets him and loses no opportunity to torment him. "I've scoured the book, on every page ... and there is no redeeming feature in Jane Murdstone at all," laughs Zoë Wanamaker, fresh from a Broadway triumph playing the title role in Electra. "I find Jane a woman without a modicum of niceness in her ... and that's fabulous. It's great. I don't think I have ever played a really nasty person. So it's good fun to play this sort of character." Dickens gives just a line of description which Wanamaker and the makeup team followed to the letter. "I wear dark lenses to make my eyes more piercing, eyebrows that almost meet in the middle. And I even get a little moustache on my face to make it really horrible. When Dickens writes a character he doesn't like, there is no subtext. You never see another side of Jane." Wanamaker was born in New York. Her father, the late American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, campaigned for many years for the building of a replica of London's Globe Theatre, only to die before it became a reality. Her mother was the actress Charlotte Holland. "I think the U.S. sees me as an English person and in England I am the token American," says Wanamaker, who played royal twin Cora in the all-star BBC/WGBH serial Gormenghast, seen on PBS during the summer of 2001. Wanamaker also joins castmate Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, playing Madame Hooch. back to top Yarmouth Peggotty Pauline Quirke Clara's faithful servant, Peggotty, is full of warmth and devotion and is a second mother to David. She struggles to defend both her mistress and her "darlin' boy" when the Murdstones diminish her role in the household. "We assume that Peggotty is in her early 20s when the story starts, so I'm pushing my luck a bit there," laughs actress Pauline Quirke, 40. "By the end of the story, she's in her late 40s, early 50s." Quirke enjoyed playing the role immensely. Peggotty and Barkis, whom she marries after he drops the famous hint that "Barkis is willin'," are the characters many remember most from David Copperfield, as well as Peggotty's brother Dan's home -- a houseboat on the beach at Yarmouth. Pauline Quirke began acting at a very young age and has numerous films, plays, and television performances to her credit. She gained great critical acclaim for the role of Olive Martin in the chilling thriller The Sculptress, which aired on PBS's Mystery! in 1997 and again in 1999. Dan Peggotty Alun Armstrong Peggotty's brother is a happy, generous man who warmly welcomes David into his eccentric little family's home in a boat on Yarmouth Sands. When tragedy strikes, Dan meets it with a dignity that teaches the adult David much about life's most important values. For distinguished actor Alun Armstrong, it was a choice between playing out a favorite childhood memory of a kind old Norfolk fisherman called Dan Peggotty who lived in a houseboat or accepting a role in the next Clint Eastwood movie. Armstrong, a self-professed Dickens enthusiast, explains: "We did David Copperfield in school. We read it around the class, everyone taking a paragraph. Whenever I think of Dickens, the thing I remember most is the boat on the beach. I wanted to do this part and I did in fact turn down Clint to do it. I said to him, 'The thing is, I've got the opportunity of doing a Dickens.' And he said, 'Oh, you must do it.'" Armstrong has been seen recently on Masterpiece Theatre in Aristocrats (in the role of Henry Fox). His wide range of theater work has won him many awards, including a Laurence Olivier award for the title role of Sweeney Todd. His long list of television credits includes the role of Squeers in the Royal Shakespeare Company/Broadway version of Nicholas Nickleby. Ham Peggotty James Thornton Dan's nephew, a simple, warm-hearted man, has lived with his uncle since his father died at sea. Ham loves his cousin, Emily, with all his heart. In the family's tragedy, he is the one who suffers most -- and who pays the hardest price. Emily Aislin McGuckin Emily is Dan's beautiful, red-haired niece. Since childhood, she has nursed the dream of becoming a lady. When David brings his friend Steerforth on a visit, the seeds are sown for terrible tragedy. The young Emily is played by Laura Harling. Mrs. Gummidge Patsy Byrne Mrs. Gummidge has lived with Dan Peggotty since her husband, Dan's partner, died at sea. She constantly bemoans her lot in life, but even she finds strength when disaster strikes. Barkis Michael Elphick Barkis is the local cart driver. A man of very few words, he decides to marry Peggotty after having tasted one of her pies. He needs David to take her the message, however -- "Barkis is willin'." More than 30 years ago, Michael Elphick was an apprentice theater electrician working on a Chichester Festival Theatre production of Othello, starring Maggie Smith and Laurence Olivier. He never imagined he would one day play opposite Smith. "She was absolutely wonderful, incredible." Elphick says that on rereading David Copperfield for his part, he realized just how sad many of the events were. "But Barkis is a lovely character, and I did get a bit anxious about delivering his most famous line: 'Barkis is willin',' said when he tells David to take the message to Peggotty. It is such a well-known line. The big mystery for me is how Barkis, when he died, managed to leave £3,000. He's such a scruffy bugger. There are no clues in the book to show how he got the money ..." Doing a Norfolk accent for David Copperfield proved difficult. "It's the rhythm of it and the fact that the h's are pronounced more strongly than most other accents. I've got several tapes of Norfolk people talking, and even they vary their accents a lot, depending on which bit of the country they live in." back to top Salem House School Mr. Creakle Ian McKellen The vicious, whispering headmaster of David's first school is a friend of Mr. Murdstone's. Mr. Creakle's repressive teaching methods are evident as he singles David out for extra torment. Although Ian McKellen, nominated for an Academy Award in 1999 for his performance in Gods and Monsters, has played 35 Shakespeare characters, he admits that he hasn't done much Dickens. "However entertaining Dickens is as a writer, however outrageous the characters are, however exaggerated the view of life he presents, underpinning it all is a moral outrage that people should behave so badly to each other, which of course is very appealing to us 150 years on," says McKellen. With Creakle, he adopts a distinctive whisper to communicate his unpleasantness to the boys. "Creakle is a joyfully horrible man who deserves a very sticky end." The future holds two major roles for McKellen. "I'm playing Magneto, Master of Magnetism, in X-Men, then I'm playing Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, and they're going to make dolls of me. So I'm going to fall out of your cereal packet." He roars with laughter at the thought. Tungay Karl Johnson Creakle's one-legged sidekick, Tungay echoes his master's commands in an unfeeling yell. No warmth clouds his communications. James Steerforth Harry Lloyd Steerforth takes David under his wing at Salem House and earns his blind devotion, man and boy. The consequences of this will haunt David throughout his life. It was only after the audition that 15-year-old Harry Lloyd admitted that he had a connection with the author of David Copperfield. "I was asked what I knew about Dickens," says Lloyd. "I said I should know loads because of the family heritage, but I don't really know anything. They said 'Heritage? What was that again?' I said, 'Well, Charles Dickens was my great-great-great-grandfather. My mum's maiden name is Dickens.' They said it's the best answer they'd ever had to that question! Then they said it wouldn't affect their decision in any way, being related! I don't think it did any harm, but I don't think it was a distinguishing factor." Lloyd, who goes to school at Eton, was spotted when casting people were visiting various schools, looking for a young Steerforth. Oliver Milburn, who plays Steerforth as an adult, also went to Eton. back to top London Mr. Micawber Bob Hoskins The eternal Micawber is always convinced that something is about to turn up, just as the last hope is being snatched away. Shabby but genteel, he welcomes David to share in what little he and his family have, showing the boy the first glimpse of love after his period of desolation. "Oh yeah, there was no way I was not going to do it," says Bob Hoskins of playing the role of Wilkins Micawber. "Micawber! And just look at the cast! I'd worked with the director, Simon Curtis, on The Changeling for the BBC. And the moment I knew Imelda [Staunton] was playing Micawber's wife, it immediately became a partnership, a couple playing a very modern marriage. Micawber's very involved with the children and probably does a bit of cooking, too. I know Micawber is pompous and verbose, but I always take him rather seriously, like he was all those things he said. And his wife is the most heroic character in literature; she stands by him. That's the way Imelda and me are playing it, really. He is an extraordinary kind and loving man waiting for something to turn up. In the end he scores, he makes it." Hoskins, nominated for an Oscar for his role in Mona Lisa, plays Micawber with a touch of "Churchillian" grandeur. "Chekhov, Shakespeare ... I've done all that sort of stuff, but Dickens is new to me." His film roles also include The Long Good Friday, The Cotton Club, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Mermaids, and Enemy at the Gates. Mrs. Micawber Imelda Staunton Micawber's devoted wife and mother to his many children, Mrs. Micawber always feels as if she has fallen unjustly on hard times. But, though her family urges it, she "never will desert Mr. Micawber." Fresh from working with her actor husband Jim Carter in Shakespeare in Love and a singing engagement in a New York club, Imelda Staunton recalls her work on David Copperfield: "The Dickensian stories can be very dark, with cold people, hopelessness. The Micawbers are sort of putting one finger in the air and saying, 'We are people who love each other and who are kind and have a lot of kindness in our hearts.' "They adore each other, and in those days you didn't just walk out, however tough things got. That wasn't really an option, even if Mr. Micawber is a bit bewildered, bothered, and bewitched. David Copperfield is a fantastic soap, and I don't mean that in any degrading way, because Dickens wrote it as a serial. It's a rich story and the characters are priceless." Mrs. Crupp Dawn French David's London landlady, Mrs. Crupp declares that she will look after him as if he were her own son. Her fondness for "peppermint cordial," however, renders her not entirely able to fulfill her promises. Actress Dawn French, best known to American audiences as The Vicar of Dibley, didn't feel remotely nervous about taking a part in David Copperfield. "Absolutely not, no," she laughs. "Especially when they're really good like this. With comedy," she says, "it depends what's up for the piss-take. Either the actor, the character or the story -- or the props. Or just the era. We knew we'd enjoy being in those costumes and make something of it." Mrs. Crupp was something of a mystery to French when she was considering whether to take the part. It was a character she couldn't remember from the book, which she had read to her at bedtime when she was about 13. "It had such very funny people. Micawber was one of the best inventions ever. And Uriah Heep is like a character out of Pinocchio or something like that: a kind of genuinely seething, bubbling, jealous, angry bomb waiting to go off. "Mrs. Crupp may be an old soak, but she loves David and loves all the young kids. It's not like she's evil. There are plenty of other characters for that." The Pawnbroker Paul Whitehouse David's first lesson in the skills of life is at the expense of Micawber's local pawnbroker. In theory a ruthless negotiator, David's innocent integrity always seems to get the better of him. "I'm glad you rang," said Paul Whitehouse in a telephone interview. "I was thinking my role might have ended up on the cutting room floor." Admittedly, the star of his own BBC Television series, The Fast Show, only had 15 lines of dialogue but, as he says, "They can't cut me out. My role is such an important plot point. It's just a little cameo role. I have a battle with the young David Copperfield, who has been coached in haggling by Mr. Micawber." Whitehouse won the Top Male Comedy Performer and Best Comedy Series for The Fast Show at the 1996 British Comedy Awards. back to top Dover Miss Betsey Trotwood Maggie Smith The aunt of David's father, Betsey storms out when his widow gives birth to a boy. Disliking men after a disastrous marriage, she is forced to reevaluate her views when David flees to her as a child. Formidable and eccentric, she has a true heart, deep loyalty, and a fierce sense of justice. The legendary Maggie Smith inspired the David Copperfield cast, encouraged the younger actors, thanked the makeup team with champagne, had the crew chortling with laughter during her scenes with Dawn French, and produced what will probably become the definitive portrayal of Aunt Betsey Trotwood. Smith has won two Oscars -- Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Best Supporting Actress in California Suite -- and has been nominated for three others. David Copperfield is her first Dickens. "I have done very little television," she says. "So doing David Copperfield is odd because it follows straight on from another television film, Masterpiece Theatre's All the King's Men with David Jason." "David Copperfield is a magical story and I am very, very fond of Betsey ... Dickens, because he was so theatrical himself, always wrote good characters. Dickens's writing is so dense. So much detail." Smith joins Copperfield cast mates Daniel Radcliffe and Zoë Wanamaker in the highly anticipated film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in the role of Professor McGonagall. Mr. Dick Ian McNeice Abandoned as mad by his family but given a home by Aunt Betsey, Mr. Dick is a wonder to the heart-sore David. Troubled only by his never-ending memorial, he helps David to rediscover the joys of being a child. Working with Jim Carrey on Ace Ventura: Pet Detective must have seemed light years away from the quiet ambience of the David Copperfield location for Betsey Trotwood's house. But Ian McNeice was perfectly at home and had the time of his life. Although there isn't a great deal written for Mr. Dick, director Simon Curtis allowed McNeice "a reasonable amount of leeway," McNeice grins wickedly. His favorite part of the role was the travel: "We went all over the country for locations! That's what I like about this business, you go to so many wonderful places and get paid to go there." back to top London Mr. Spenlow James Grout Mr. Spenlow, partner in the law firm Spenlow and Spenlow, employs David as one of his clerks, never dreaming that David would dare to fall in love with his daughter. Dora Spenlow Joanna Page Mr. Spenlow's daughter, the sweetly pretty but immature Dora, eagerly falls into marriage with David. Her inability to cope with being anything other than a "child wife" nearly destroys David, but he never loses his love for her. Joanna Page also appeared in Masterpiece Theatre's The Cazalets. Miss Julia Mills Clare Wilkie Miss Mills is Dora's "confidential friend" and loyal supporter. back to top Canterbury Uriah Heep Nicholas Lyndhurst Lurking and evil, the humble, flame-haired Uriah Heep is Mr. Wickfield's slippery, scheming clerk, whose ambition sees David as a threat. His hatred for the man he first meets as a boy is intensified by his love for Agnes. Heep is a difficult character to play, says Nicholas Lyndhurst. "The hardest part is trying to get what I call 'shark-eye' -- just looking without emotion, and that is quite difficult because Heep is perfectly polite. There's not a lot -- until you get into the story -- which you wouldn't like about him. He's perfectly civil and polite, but there's something about him that nobody likes. And I want the audience to know that immediately. He's also one of those people who invades your body space. He just makes you very, very uncomfortable." The 6 foot, 4 inch Lyndhurst is well known in England for his work in situation comedies. At the beginning of the shoot he felt he was "treading water" with some of the other stars of the David Copperfield cast. I was terrified when they said Maggie Smith was in it. Then they said Bob Hoskins ... aaagh ... what the hell am I doing here? This cast ... it's mesmerizing." Mr. Wickfield Oliver Ford Davies Devoted to his daughter Agnes but devastated by his wife's early death, the good but weak Mr. Wickfield takes solace in the bottle. He is an easy target for the manipulative Heep. "Mr. Wickfield didn't marry until he was about 40 and he married this young woman, probably in her early 20s, which was very common then," says Oliver Ford Davies. "She died giving birth to Agnes, and that quite broke him up. He couldn't remarry and he took to the drink quite early." Heep looms large in Wickfield's life. Just an "'umble clerk," he has ambitions beyond his station in life -- to marry Agnes and to seize control of Wickfield's business. "One of the really Machiavellian things about Uriah Heep is how long he is prepared to wait for these things to happen -- a long time. There's a very good scene where Heep talks about how 'the pear wasn't quite ripe.' He's prepared to wait until he has Wickfield where he wants him, under his control. In this adaptation, we see Wickfield at home, just disintegrating." Public recognition for Oliver Davies has risen since his appearance as Siobibble in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Like Ian McKellen in X-Men and Lord of the Rings, Davies also has a plastic figure of his character -- something the distinguished actor finds quite amusing. "It's a limited edition, so it's very rare. Ewan McGregor's will be two a penny, but Siobibble will be a collector's item!" Agnes Wickfield Amanda Ryan Since the death of her mother, the calmly beautiful and noble Agnes has looked after her father with dedicated devotion. She shares a happy childhood and sisterly friendship with David but seems doomed never to find her deep love for him reciprocated. Amanda Ryan admits she'd "never read a Dickens in my life. But I thought David Copperfield was wonderful. I really enjoyed playing Agnes. I don't think I have ever played anyone so nice before. She has a huge generosity, which is basically love itself. Whatever she says comes from love, rather than any feelings of fear, jealousy, or whatever. "I told my boyfriend one day that I'd be rather sad to give her up. I was rehearsing a part for the National at the same time as doing the Copperfield scenes. I remember thinking on my last day that I wanted to stay in the world of Agnes and Dickens." Ryan found Dickens a very moving writer, particularly when he came to write of David's love for Agnes. "The boy can write," she laughs. Mrs. Heep Thelma Barlow Uriah's devoted mother, she is the spitting image of her son. She acts as his eyes and ears and watches Agnes like a hawk. After 24 years on the British television program Coronation Street, Thelma Barlow enjoyed her cameo role as Uriah Heep's mother. "I've had my teeth done 'Dickensian' and I've got ginger hair to match Uriah's. It's my own hair, but gingered up and plastered down. The makeup is very clever, to get a likeness between Nicholas Lyndhurst and myself. The cap makes my face look longer, too." The effect is daunting, with Mrs. Heep sitting like a vulture at the Wickfield house, keeping a close eye on Agnes for Uriah. "Uriah is rather reptilian. He just waits there, waiting to strike. His mother is blinded by her love for him, but I think she might be quite a devious woman herself." back to top Highgate Mrs. Steerforth Cherie Lunghi The wealthy, widowed mother of David's friend, Steerforth, Mrs. Steerforth is blind to the faults of her handsome but amoral son. Her refusal to help when he ruins Emily compounds the tragedy that subsequently occurs. Cherie Lunghi has been criss-crossing the Atlantic to work in Britain and the U.S. for the last four years. Her base was in America so that her daughter Natalie could be near both her mother and father, film director Roland Joffe (The Mission, in which Cherie starred). "I thought how lovely to do a period piece with such a cast. And it also fitted in with my timing to come home. I just think Dickens is wonderful. He's part of British heritage and where I come from. There's a feeling of continuity." Lunghi says, "Mrs. Steerforth is an obsessive, infatuated mother. She lives vicariously through her son and wants him to be a success. She's a snob. She can't see what he really is, and what she's making him. He's a terribly indulged man. His mother never taught him right or wrong. He's got the idea that he can do what he pleases with women." James Steerforth Oliver Milburn Steerforth, David's school friend and childhood hero, is handsome and charismatic but embittered by his own self-loathing. When David introduces him to the Peggotty family, he can have no idea that this will lead to tragedy, separation, and death. "Great Expectations was the first Dickens I read, when I was 13 -- it was a bit of a trial," says actor Oliver Milburn, now 27. "When I picked up David Copperfield again, I didn't know what to expect. But I was amazed to find how modern it was; modern, funny, sad, very readable." Milburn says that Steerforth is a natural charmer. "He is kind of quarter devil and three-quarters amazing. His crowning glory is the story of his time in Yarmouth. And in the book it says he was carried back through the town with great reverence because local people knew him. He did charm people. But he has this incredible, lackadaisical life where he sees no wrong in seizing the moment and taking it to its conclusion, even if that conclusion means the ruin of someone else's life. Without his mother's influence on him, I think he would have been flawless. It's the way he has been brought up to feel superior and removed from the vast majority of the human race." Rosa Dartle Clare Holman Mrs. Steerforth's companion, Miss Dartle is an embittered figure, twisted by passionate love for Steerforth and with a face that is physically scarred by his youthful violence. 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