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.