AllMovie

Filmed in 1982, this Tony award winning production of Charles Dickens classic Nicholas Nickleby clocks in with an intimidating running time of nine hours, though it is considered to be one of the best adaptations of the original novel. Roger Rees plays the young Nicholas, who, along with his mother (Jane Downs), and sister (Emily Richard), are forced to seek financial assistance from Nicholas's smarmy uncle (John Woodvine). Ralph does provide Nicholas with a job, but it may have been kinder to leave him on the street--the school he has been sent to work for is run by a sadistic schoolmaster who delights in savagely beating his students. Nicholas leaves the school alongside Smike (David Threlfall), a limping, crooked-backed little boy who had been victim to much of the school's abusive policies. Once unemployed, Nicholas must find a way to to protect his family and come to terms with his own complicated emotions.