Episode 1

This gripping new adaptation by Andrew Davies brings to life Dickens' powerful story of love, honour, debt and hope in 1820s London.

When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, his curiosity is piqued by the presence in his mother's house of a young seamstress, Amy Dorrit. The cold and forbidding Mrs Clennam isn't usually given to charity, so why has she made an exception in taking on Amy? Is she making reparations for a past wrongdoing? Does it have anything to do with Arthur's father's dying words and the pocket watch with its mysterious inscription, 'do not forget'?

Arthur's quest to discover the truth takes him across the City to the Marshalsea Prison for Debt where he meets and befriends Amy's father, William Dorrit, the prison's longest serving inmate. As he tries to help the Dorrits, Arthur discovers that the dark shadow of debt stretches far beyond the walls of the Marshalsea Prison to affect the lives of many. Just as it is possible to climb to the very top in London Society's intricate game of snakes and ladders, so it is possible to slip right down.

But if Arthur succeeds in unravelling the mystery of his family's past, where will it leave him in the scheme of things? And where will it leave the Dorrits?