Television series

Our Mutual Friend

Name: Our Mutual Friend
Genre: Drama
Released: 1998
Cast: Paul McGann, David Bradley, Dominic Mafham, Peter Vaughan, Pam Ferris

Drama

A BBC adaptation of Dickens's final novel, all fog-bound London corruption and tangled inheritances. It moves with the deliberate pace of 1998 television—no cutting every two seconds—which means you feel the weight of secrets and money and class resentment accumulating. Gorgeous, strange, for people who like Victorian fiction and aren't afraid of plot.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love Dickens's knotted plotting and sly, sour comedy about money and social climbing, and enjoy a cast that plays the grotesques with relish.

Skip it if you want a tight, brisk adaptation, since this one is leisurely and talky, with a lot of scene-setting before anything clicks into place.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a leisurely four parts, and keep track of a crowd of schemers, suitors and hangers-on, since the threads only knit together slowly.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Bleak House2005

The 2005 BBC miniseries of another Dickens masterwork about inheritance, fog, and a legal system that devours lives. Same DNA, similar scale, equally intricate plotting with a cast that gleams.

But Longer and darker than Our Mutual Friend. The Chancery Court storyline can feel abstract if you're not invested in how Victorian law crushed people.

The Remains of the Day1993

A study of British restraint and unspoken feeling across class lines. Like Dickens stripped down to its emotional core—all the yearning underneath the formality. Anthony Hopkins at his most controlled.

But Almost nothing happens. If you need plot momentum or action, this will feel like watching paint dry in a very nice country house.

North & South2004

Elizabeth Gaskell's novel of industrial Manchester, money, and the collision between old class systems and new wealth. The same weight of social observation as Our Mutual Friend, slightly faster pacing, utterly engrossing.

But The romance subplot feels a bit tacked on if you're there for the social commentary. Some find the industrial scenes repetitive.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Our Mutual Friend

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Taste of Cherry1997

Both are about inheritance—material in Dickens, existential here. Both trust the viewer to sit with discomfort and unanswered questions. Both understand that the most important things are unsaid.

Abbas Kiarostami's Iranian film about a man driving through the hills looking for someone to bury him after he dies. Utterly strange, achingly human, structured as a series of conversations. Surfaces are everything and nothing. A profound meditation on how we connect across isolation.

But It's deliberately quiet and circular. If you expect resolution or conventional meaning, you'll find it frustrating or depressing. The subtitled dialogue is spare and sometimes cryptic.

The Crimson Petal and the White2011

Victorian London as a character itself—grimy, hypocritical, full of hidden lives. A sex worker and a merchant's obsession unfold against gorgeously detailed period production. Gripping in a way Dickens wanted to be.

But Explicitly sexual in places. The narration can feel affected. If you prefer your Victoriana chaste, this will make you uncomfortable.

Vanity Fair1998

Thackeray's ruthless satire of greed and ambition, adapted with real wit and energy. Becky Sharp climbing through society mirrors the scheming for money in Our Mutual Friend, but with more speed and dark comedy.

But The tone is more cynical and arch. If you want to like the characters, this will frustrate you—everyone's a hustler, including the heroine.

Middlemarch1994

George Eliot's novel of provincial life, marriage, and thwarted dreams in 1830s England. The same patient observation of how money and love tangle people up, with deeper psychological insight.

But Even slower than Our Mutual Friend. If you need external conflict—chases, revelations, drama—this operates almost entirely in interior life.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall1996

Anne Brontë's daring novel of a woman escaping an abusive marriage, adapted with surprising modernity. A woman trying to claim independence against Victorian society's money laws. Compact, fierce, moving.

But Short enough that it might feel slight if you're expecting the scale of Our Mutual Friend. The abuse content is serious and unflinching.

Wives and Daughters1999

Gaskell again, but warm where Our Mutual Friend is cold. A masterpiece of ensemble cast and shifting allegiances. Gentle in tone but as psychologically subtle as anything in Victorian literature.

But The stakes feel lower. If you're drawn to Our Mutual Friend for its corruption and dark money-hunger, this is too humane and forgiving.

The Way We Live Now2001

Trollope's novel of financial speculation and crashing fortunes in 1870s London. A more explicitly satirical take on money-madness and social climbing. Faster and meaner than Our Mutual Friend.

But The central fraud plot becomes convoluted. Some characters are sketched rather than drawn. Can feel scattered if you're not following the financial scheming closely.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu2005

Like Our Mutual Friend, it's about how institutions and indifference grind people down. Dickens wrote about it; Puiu films it without the Gothic melodrama, which somehow makes it worse. Both see suffering as systemic, not sentimental.

A Romanian film following an old man's slow journey through the bureaucratic nightmare of a hospital system. It's a Dickensian nightmare of systems that don't care, rendered in real time, with a deadpan comedy that breaks your heart. Cristi Puiu directing with absolute precision.

But It's two and a half hours watching an elderly man suffer humiliation in waiting rooms. Genuinely bleak. No redemption, no comfort, no metaphor to soften it. Difficult to sit with.