By Bob Wake
CultureVulture.net

The splendid new PBS Masterpiece Theatre presentation of David Copperfield (coproduced by BBC America and WGBH Boston) is remarkably faithful to the sublime melancholy that pervades the story. We’re always aware while reading the book that Copperfield is relating his story as an adult struggling to recapture the essence of a painful childhood. Adrian Hodges’ television script accomplishes something similar with its generous use of spoken narration taken directly from Dickens and beautifully read by Tom Wilkinson. There is a world-weariness and sad wisdom that Wilkinson brings to his off-screen role. He sets the tone for the production again and again.

The first hour contains a marvelous example of narration and action blending seamlessly. Eight-year-old Copperfield (Daniel Radcliffe) departs for boarding school after a brief Christmas vacation at home. The coach pulls away and he watches from the backseat as his mother (Emilia Fox) stands in the distance holding aloft Copperfield’s infant stepbrother. It’s the last time Copperfield will see either of them alive. The scene is eloquently directed by Simon Curtis, but it is Wilkinson’s narration (taken from the closing lines of chapter eight) that supplies the heartbreak: "So I lost her. So I saw her afterwards, in my sleep at school -- a silent presence near my bed -- looking at me with the same intent face -- holding her baby in her arms."

Masterpiece Theatre aims straight for the heart of David Copperfield and finds the quiet emotions and the understatement that have often been lacking in previous versions. George Cukor’s 1935 film overplays the sentimentality and melodrama to a degree that distorts the richness of Dickens’ range. Cukor’s film is usually remembered for W. C. Fields’ joyous supporting role as Wilkins Micawber. But Freddie Bartholomew as young Copperfield is the real star of the movie, and his performance is as garish and false as the worst of Shirley Temple. The PBS production wisely focuses on the behavior of the adults, rather than on the adolescent actor portraying Copperfield. Daniel Radcliffe has a naturalistic presence -- rare enough in child actors -- and he seems like a real boy, which is all that’s really required. David Copperfield is not meant to be an exceptional child. He is an ordinary child to whom extraordinary things happen. Full review...

Cast Overview

Bob Hoskins is the ever-optimistic Mr. Micawber, Academy Award-winner Maggie Smith is David's upstanding Aunt Betsey, and Ian McKellen is the sadistic schoolmaster Mr. Creakle in this sparkling adaptation of Charles Dickens's beloved novel based on his own difficult journey from boy to man.

Biographers have long noted that David Copperfield's story is the author's -- in the traumatic child-labor experience, the first romance, the aborted legal career, and the early efforts at writing. Indeed, as David matures in the course of the film, he grow to look ever more like historical photographs of Dickens.

The characters, too, are drawn from life. Mr. Micawber is based on Dickens's own father. Dora is his first flame. Even Uriah Heep resembles someone Dickens knew -- Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen, who had the same reptilian affect.

In 1869, the year before his death, Charles Dickens looked back on a lifetime of marvelous literary creations and singled out David Copperfield as his "favorite child." "Of all my books," he wrote, "I like this the best." Daniel Radcliffe, who went on to play Harry Potter, another favorite young hero, plays the imperturbable boy David, with Ciaran McMenamin as the hero in manhood.

Daniel Radcliffe, actor
An interview with Daniel Radcliffe, the young David in David Copperfield

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."

Londoner Daniel Radcliffe earned glowing reviews for his performance in David Copperfield; his natural poise and charm are readily apparent in his performance as the resolute and good-natured David.

He followed his acting debut in Copperfield with John Boorman's 2001 film, The Tailor of Panama, in which he played the son of the tailor opposite Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush and Jamie Lee Curtis. Boorman described him as "a lovely kid."

When Radcliffe landed the coveted title role in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the eagerly anticipated film of the first book in the popular series by J. K. Rowling, the world shook beneath his feet. He is already in production on the second book in the series and Warner Bros. has the rights to all four published so far. The Harry Potter juggernaut has started rolling.

Masterpiece Theatre Online had the agreeable task of chatting with the charming and soft-spoken Mr. Radcliffe about his thoughts and experiences as a young actor -- and as an everyday kid.

Dan, you just recently had a birthday...
Yes, I turned 12 in July (of 2001). We were on holiday at the time; we were in Spain. I opened all my cards and presents... well, most of my presents, before I went on holiday, so I had a chance to play with them a bit ... but I opened cards and things there and it was really, really fun.

Did you have a birthday cake?
I'm not much of a cake person.

Have you always wanted to be an actor?
Well, I haven't really decided what I want to be yet... I'm definitely very interested in it, but there are a number of other things I'm very interested in as well -- music, writing... scripts and things, but especially autism which I want to go to the university maybe, and study.

Are you thinking you might want to work with children with autism?
I'd definitely like to learn about it ... to understand more.

Do you play an instrument?
No, I don't play an instrument, but I really want to play the drums.

Were your parents enthusiastic about your acting?
I think that that they were really quite happy for me to do it ... as long as I kept in touch with all my friends and still led a normal life. My mum is a casting director and my dad was a literary agent and now he's my chaperone.

How many callbacks did you have for the role of David Copperfield?
I think it might have been about 5.

Had you done any acting prior to that?
No. None.

Was the experience of making that film what you expected?
There was a lot more detail than I expected. I didn't realize about the lighting and the set design... and all of those things.

Had you read the Harry Potter books before plans for a film were underway?
I had read the first two, I think starting when I was 8, but I wasn't a big reader around that time. But as soon as I got the part, I read all of the books. I was only planning to read number one first but I got so into them I read one, two, three and four back to back!

Do you have a favorite of the four?
Definitely number two...

How did you end up auditioning for Harry Potter?
It was quite funny actually because apparently the director -- Chris Columbus -- had asked if I could come audition. But I was doing Tailor of Panama; I couldn't come. But then I met the producer, David Heyman, in the theatre one night by complete coincidence. I was introduced to him in the interval. He seemed really nice. He was with the writer, Steve Kloves.

Then we got a call from him. My mum got a call from him sometime the next week asking if I'd just like to meet... not for an audition, but just to meet. We went and he was really nice, really funny. We were interested in a lot of the same things. But then, quite soon after, I was asked if I'd like to come in for an audition and... it was so fun.

What did you have to do in the audition?
It was really, really funny. First of all, we read one of the scenes with Hagrid, and then Chris Columbus got me to improvise about that scene... he kept fumbling the lines... to see what I would do. It was funny.

Did you feel nervous or pressured?
I felt very nervous because I knew that I was about to step into a room with a very famous director. But I didn't feel pressured because I didn't expect to get the part.

Were other kids auditioning at the same time?
The producer, the casting director and Chris were all really good because they would never have two boys auditioning for the same part in at exactly the same time. So, when I went in there, it was me, a boy auditioning for, I think, Dean Thomas, and a boy auditioning for Neville. And that was it.

Do you have any theories or thoughts about why you ended up getting the part?
I have no idea.

Really?
Yeah. Absolutely no idea.

When you found out that you got the part, after your Mum and Dad knew, who was the first person that you told?
My granny... both my grannies.

Were they excited?
Yes!

How did your friends react when they heard?
Well, they all called up and immediately said, "congratulations, congratulations!" They reacted so well and none of them -- not one single person -- was jealous. It was really good. I didn't actually tell any of my friends. I was going to but they phoned me first because they had seen it on the news.

When you're filming, are you tutored or do you go to school?
I'm tutored on set for a minimum of three hours a day and a maximum of five and I have the most fantastic tutor. One-on-one tutoring really, really works because I got the best exams ever in my life... because of one-on-one.

Do you miss going to school?
Not really, because I see my friends so regularly. This year a couple of my really close friends have gone into this other class so I would hardly see them. But I'll actually see more of them when I'm filming than I do in school because I see them on the weekend.

Have you become a celebrity at your school?
Not at all. They're all acting really normally.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like listening to music. I like keeping fit. I run, I run a lot. I do pressups and things, I do football and I do all kinds of sports. What else do I do... I play PlayStation a lot. A lot.

Do you like to read more now?
Yes, definitely, because that's what the Harry Potter books really did; they introduced me to reading. At the moment I'm reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And watching films... films is my biggest of all hobby.

Do you have a favorite movie?
Probably What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

And do you have a favorite book?
It's either Harry Potter number two or a book called Holes by Louis Sachar. It's really good.

There are so many special effects in Harry Potter. You sometimes needed to act or react to something that wasn't really there... did you find that difficult?
It requires quite a lot of concentration. In the case of all the ghosts for example, there's Chris Columbus and another man who are doing the voices for the ghosts and they're doing them so well that you kind of feel that they are there.

When you think back on shooting Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, do you have a best memory?
I think probably the Great Hall scenes. That's a very, very difficult question but I think the Great Hall scenes. All the kids were there, 360 or something extras, and it was really fun to film. Hedwig comes in, carrying the broom...

Any bad experiences?
No. No, I really am trying hard, but I can't think of one.

Did you find it difficult to learn lines?
It's more the movement and the choreography and the facial expressions you use with the line. The lines, you keep going over them... you have to constantly learn them. After a while they really sink in and you have to focus on the other aspects like when to move and what facial expressions to make.

How many hours a day do you normally work?
Four hours probably, filming.

Is it work for you?
No. I really enjoy it. I don't consider it a job at all; it's so fun.

Has your life changed since this all started for you?
Not at all; its really been just the same as usual apart from I don't go to school, and that's the only thing. But I still see my friends just as much and, when I'm on location and I don't see them, I email them.

Do you think that when the movie opens things will change for you?
No, I can't see things changing; I don't want them to. I really don't think they will.

Do you have a special plan for the premiere?
No, I just really want to enjoy it and hope it goes well.

Source: PBS.org