Into this world of typical Dickensian social injustice, comes Nicholas Nickleby (James D'Arcy, Tom Jones, Dance to the Music of Time), a young man forced to find a way to earn a living following the death of his father. It's the sort of school grub that fits right in with the Squeers' philosophy of education: 'Cheap, like learning should be.' While the poor boys cower, snuffle and starve, the Squeers and their two fat children giggle and squeal and stuff their faces.

The breakfast menu for the wretched orphans says it all: one large spoon of 'brimstone,' a dose of sulphur guaranteed to suppress the appetite.

Their school is Hell for a group of Dickens' other favourite characters - innocent, suffering children. The Squeers are, of course, a pair of the Victorian master storyteller's most grotesque creatures, and this Channel 4 production cannot resist making a meal of them. Forget Pioneer House: not a lot of starching and bathing goes on at Dotheboys Hall, judging by the state of Mrs Squeers' slatternly garb and bathcleaner-style headgear. As Mrs Squeers, wife of the master of Dotheboys Hall school for boys, Ferris is a paragon of drunken licentiousness and grubby malice. Ferris, whose actually claims her favourite role to have been the world's meanest headmistress in the film of Roald Dahl's Matilda, is one of the stars in the latest television adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel, Nicholas Nickleby. Nicholas's many adventures give Dickens the freedom to follow the eccentricities of a vivid gallery of characters, exploring themes of class, love, and self-awareness with exuberant comedy and biting satire.By FRANCES GRANT If you think Pam Ferris (Darling Buds of May, Where the Heart Is) was born to play cosy, cuddly characters, this weekend's Sunday Theatre should well and truly put paid to that. His meandering route to happiness includes work as a teacher at Dotheboys Hall, where the brutal Wackford Squeers ill-treats his impoverished pupils, and a spell as an actor with the absurdly melodramatic Crummles troupe. The likeable young Nicholas, left penniless on the death of his father, sets off in search of better prospects. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is closely modelled on the eighteenth-century novels that Charles Dickens loved as a child, such as Robinson Crusoe, in which the fortunes of a hero shape the plot. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby combines comedy and tragedy in a tale of triumph over adversity, where Nickleby succeeds despite social injustice-a story that mirrors Charles Dickens's own rise from poverty to great success.

The adventures of nicholas nickleby