Our Mutual Friend (TV Series 1958 - Episode 1)

Our Mutual Friend is a 1958 British television mini-series adapted from Charles Dickens' 1865 novel Our Mutual Friend. It is the first BBC adaptation of Dickens' haunting novel of love, loss and greed.

The series ran through 1959 for a total of twelve episodes, broadcast live and telerecorded for potential repeats. Unlike most BBC series of the 1950s, the series exists in its entirety, and in 2017 was released to DVD by Simply Media.

One fateful day waterman Gaffer Hexam (Julian Somers) and daughter Lizzie (Rachel Roberts) fish a dead body from the Thames. It is identified at that of John Harmon, a young man who recently returned to London from South Africa to claim his fortune. Had Harmon lived, his dead father's will required him to marry the pretty but spoilt Bella Wilfer (Zena Walker). Instead, the estate passes to Nicodemus 'Noddy' Boffin (Richard Pearson) and his wife Henrietta (Marda Vanne), a kindhearted childless couple who adopt and look after Bella. The mysterious John Rokesmith (Paul Daneman) becomes their trusted secretary, and they engage one-legged ballad-seller Silas Wegg (Esmond Knight) to entertain them with nightly readings. But Wegg decides that blackmail would be the best way to obtain what he desires. But what of Rokesmith's true identity? Can the course of love and destiny run smooth?

Carl Bernard and Rachel Gurney are the devious but foolhardy Alfred and Sophronia Lammie, Gerald Cross is 'articulator of bones' Mr Venus, Basil Henson principled lawyer Mortimer Lightwood, Robert Scroggins simple foundling Sloppy, Fay Compton overwhelmed child-minder Betty Higden, Helena Hughes meek and kindly dolls' dressmaker Jenny Wren, and Wilfred Brambell her drunken father Mr Dolls.

Cast & Characters:
Paul Daneman: John Rokesmith
Zena Walker: Miss Bella Wilfer
David McCallum: Eugene Wrayburn
Richard Leech: 'Rogue' Riderhood
Richard Pearson: Nicodemus Boffin
Rachel Roberts: Lizzie Hexam
Basil Henson: Mortimer Lightwood
Marda Vanne: Mrs. Henrietta Boffin
George Howe: Reginald Wilfer
Helena Hughes: Jenny Wren
Alex Scott: Bradley Headstone
Carl Bernard: Alfred Lammle
Rachel Gurney: Mrs. Sophronia Lammle
Robert Scroggins: Sloppy
Charles Hodgson: Mr. Fledgeby
Daphne Newton: Mrs. Wilfer
Wilfrid Brambell: Mr. Dolls

Production Team:
Adapted by: Freda Lingstrom
Director: Eric Tayler
Designer: Stephen Bundy
Producer: Douglas Allen

Episode 2: https://rumble.com/v6qp8cu-our-mutual-friend-tv-series-1958-episode-2.html