Numerous adaptations have been made of Dickens' most autobiographical work, among the best David Copperfield being the BBC miniseries of 1999 with Maggie Smith as Betsey Trotwood, Ian McKellen as Creakle, Bob Hoskins as Micawber, and Daniel Radcliffe (the future Harry Potter) as young David.

If you cried reading the book, you won't be able to hold back the tears during this film version either. Nor hold back the laughter. Nor the anger. Not that it's a soppy melodrama—far from it. This David Copperfield is just extremely effective in its faithfulness to Dickens' vision, bringing out clearly and succinctly the characters, the times and the pathos of the novel. How we fear for David's mother, how we hate the Murdstones for their persecution of the boy, how we feel for young David. Then how we revel joyously in the eccentric and lovable company of the Micawbers, Ms. Trotwood and the delightfully loony Mr. Dick (veteran, chubby character actor Ian McNiece). How we are creeped out by Uriah Heep. And so the the emotional rollercoaster continues.

Maggie Smith is the actor justifiably honoured for her supporting role here but the real surprise may be Hoskins who, based on his usual characters, I would have thought to be too crude to impersonate Dickens' famously indebted but optimistic businessman and good-hearted family man. But he quickly replaced any other notion of Micawber I'd ever had.

British dramas based on classic works can often seem ponderous and slow. But this one moves along at exactly the right pace to keep our interest while giving us the time to help us fully experience every turn as the characters do. On video the running time is just over three hours, covering the most important episodes of the novel.

A similar-length American TV version of David Copperfield, filmed in Ireland and released the next year, is not as successful but passable. It features British actor Hugh Dancy, as an appropriately romantic elder David. But the two American stars chew up the scenery: Sally Field doesn't quite nail the Aunt Betsey role, and Michael Richards of Seinfeld fame is a stumbling, buffoonish Micawber. The script also takes great liberties with the source material, replacing many of Dickens's subplots with new ones of the screenwriter's fancy, such as making stepfather Murdstone an ongoing villain of the piece.

George Cukor's marvellous 1935 Hollywood movie, originally released as The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger, has Freddie Bartholomew, one of the greatest child stars of the century, in the title role as a boy and also features Edna May Oliver as the aunt, Basil Rathbone as the cold-hearted Murdstone, and comedian W.C. Fields, whose blustery, ne'er-do-well persona perfectly fits Mr. Micawber. Plus Lionel Barrymore, Elsa Lanchester, Maureen O'Sullivan and more great British actors brought in to play the quirky supporting characters—all in all, an incredible stand-out cast. The only weak spot is a bland Frank Lawton, who has the thankless task of following Bartholomew in the last third as the grown-up version of David.