Granada Television's 1977 adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1854 novel Hard Times, is an amazingly steady, focused work that achieves a welcome drumbeat of gravity befitting the original source material. Director John Irvin, working from a judicious adaptation by Arthur Hopcraft, keeps the well-plotted story securely on its tracks -- at 203 minutes, it's a surprisingly swift viewing. Hard Times is one of the cleanest, most direct Dickens TV adaptations that I can remember seeing. It conveys, simply and powerfully, all the righteous anger and tender mercies of Dickens' feelings about industry, society, materialism and the right for humans to remain at heart, optimistic.

In the fictitious Victorian industrial city of Coketown, two of its leading citizens mercilessly stand on hard principles befitting the hard times that come with Britain's industrial revolution. Thomas Gradgrind (Patrick Allen), an Utilitarian school governor with political aspirations, believes his young charges should strive for unemotional perfection through rigid, crushing repetition of facts, and facts alone ("Facts alone are wanted in life."). Decorations such as pictures of horses drawn by the children will never adorn his walls, because in real life, would horses ever appear on actual school walls? If not, then they are "fancies," products of the dreaded human imagination, and are to be avoided at all costs. His two prime pupils are his own children: Louisa (Jacqueline Tong), his beautiful, emotionally stagnated daughter, and his son Tom (Richard Wren), who is literally bored out of his mind with the horrendous, never-ending course of memorization of meaningless facts to which his father subjects him.

Gradgrind's friend, the rags-to-riches industrialist Josiah Bounderby (Timothy West), also believes in the total worthlessness of human beings except as vessels for human endurance in his mills. Obsessed with his social position, the loutish, unfeeling, uncouth Bounderby has acquired for his home the services of Mrs. Sparsit (Rosalie Crutchley), born of the gentry but now destitute. Bounderby delights in keeping her around, more as a springboard for his incessant reminders that he came from nothing, while she was given the world at her feet ("I never had turtle soup, venison, and a gold spoon in my mouth as a child."). Bounderby, finding cold comfort in the similarly hard-hearted theories of Gradgrind, knows that Gradgrind's students will make excellent automatons for his slave shops, while Gradgrind sees living proof of his theories in Bounderby's current success. Both men conclude that Louisa would make an excellent mate for the ape-like Bounderby - whether she likes it or not.

When a circus comes to Coketown, their free-spirited presence sets into motion a series of events that will radically change the outlooks and fortunes of both men. Gradgrind's children are caught attending, and are severely chastised for their indulgence in this wasteful frivolity. One of Gradgrind's pupils, Sissy Jupe (Michelle Dibnah), is taken under his wing as his ward when her indolent, drunken father, who worked at the circus with a trained dog, runs offs and abandons her. Sleary (Harry Markham), the kindly, world-weary circus owner, agrees that if Sissy wants to lead a "better life," she should go with Gradgrind.

Meanwhile, two men, with radically different moral outlooks, enter Bounderby's sphere of influence. Stephen Blackpool (Alan Dobie), a religious, moral millworker, is unjustly fired by Bounderby, and in the process, set up by Gradgrind's son, Tom, for an offense that will ultimately prove disastrous to both Tom and Stephen. Captain James Harthouse (Edward Fox), a smooth, utterly opportunistic aristocrat, insinuates himself into Bounderby's house in an effort to make friends with the powerful industrialist, and thereby ease his own way into Parliament. Once he encounters Bounderby's obviously unhappy new bride, Louisa, he makes a focused effort to win her hand away from the oblivious Bounderby.

I've always watched director Irvin's career with interest; he has a certain elemental seriousness to his approach, an adherence to the essential reality of a given scene, that I find compelling. A successful British director (including the brilliant TV adaptation of the Le Carre espionage tale Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), when he tried to break into the American mainstream market with 1981's stunning The Dogs of War, its box office failure (along with the misconceived, but beautifully shot Ghost Story) momentarily stopped Irvin's momentum. Returning several years later with three commercial projects (Raw Deal, Hamburger Hill, and Next of Kin), it was obvious that Irvin's hard-edged, beautifully sinister stylistic approach was getting buried under increasingly suspect material. So it's rewarding to see Irvin's craft matched to an esthetically sympathetic script here in Hard Times.

Of course, none of that would have mattered if his actors weren't up to their roles, but this being England, Irvin had no shortage of classically trained actors from which to pick. Allen is effortlessly stern and imposing as the misguided Gradgrind (I love Dickens' names, including my personal favorite here: Mr. McChoakumchild), while West steals the show with his gloriously crass performance as the sputtering, beet-faced blowhard Bounderby. And Fox, as always, utilizes his singularly silky, menacing presence to great effect as the amorous, ultimately debauched and dispatched cad Harthouse. Tong, whom I've never seen before, often times reminds me of Meg Tilly, with that same sense of barely suppressed sensuality that's perfect for her role here as the emotionally constricted Louisa. Special mention also must go out to Harry Markham as Sleary, who has the best, most heartfelt scene in the film (and which I won't describe so as not to spoil the plot for those unfamiliar with the story). He's really quite a wonder here, and indicative of the plethora of outstanding character actors that fill in the backgrounds of these classic British TV productions.

The DVD:

The Video:
Shot on both tape and film (as was the custom in British TV production at the time), the full frame video image for Hard Times looks a little grainy and washed out here, but considering the storyline, this look actually works to its favor.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English 2.0 mono soundtrack accurately represents the original TV presentation. It's okay, but some of the dialogue came across as garbled (original source material probably) -- subtitles or close-captions, which are absent, would have helped.

The Extras:
There are text bios on Dickens and the cast.

Final Thoughts:
Acorn Media's two-disc set for Granada Television's 1977 adaptation of Charles Dickens' Hard Times is a welcome addition to your British TV library. Director John Irvin's professional, hard-edged cinematic style is perfectly suited to Dickens' condemnation of the cruelties of the industrial revolution, and the subsequent desire by social engineers to factor out human beings' essential tenderness and imagination in order to make more effective workers. Sporting effective, memorable performances by a cast of British pros, Hard Times is highly recommended for fans of Dickens who are looking for a thoughtful adaptation of one his lesser known works.