by the furnace is Birmingham (after they have travelled on the Warwick and Birmingham Canal). The town in which Nell faints and is rescued by the school master is Wolverhampton in the Black Country. The village where they finally find peace and rest and where Nell dies is Tong, Shropshire. Other real locations used in the novel include London Bridge, Bevis Marks, Finchley, and Minster-on-Sea. It is reported by local Coventry historian David McGrory that Charles Dickens used Coventry's Whitefriers gatehouse in The Old Curiosity Shop. This gatehouse building still exists in Much Park Street. Adaptations There were several silent film adaptations of the novel including two directed by Thomas Bentley: The Old Curiosity Shop (1914) The Old Curiosity Shop (1921) Nelly, an opera based on the novel, by Italian composer Lamberto Landi, was composed in 1916; it premiered in Lucca in 1947. The first talkie version was a 1934 British film starring Hay Petrie as Quilp. The novel was serialised for television by the BBC in 1962, starring Patrick Troughton as Quilp. No recordings of this production are known to exist. A British musical version of The Old Curiosity Shop (titled Mr. Quilp in the United States) was released in 1975. The filmmakers were hoping to cash in on the recent success of Oliver!, which was also based on a Dickens classic, but the film was notably unsuccessful. An anime adaptation called Sasurai no Shoujo Nell (Wandering Girl Nell) aired in Japan from 1979 to 1980. In 1979, a nine-part miniseries was created by the BBC and later released on DVD. There was no Frederick character and the story ends with the grandfather mourning at Nell's grave. In 1984, an animated version was produced by Burbank Films in Australia. In 1995, Tom Courtenay and Peter Ustinov starred in a Disney made-for-television film adaptation as Quilp and the grandfather, with Sally Walsh as Nell. A BBC Radio 4 adaptation was broadcast in 1998. The production starred Tom Courtenay as Quilp, Denis Quilley, Michael Maloney and Teresa Gallagher. A second adaptation for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2002-03, was narrated by Alex Jennings, with Emily Chenery (Nell), Phil Daniels (Quilp), Daniel Bliss (Kit), Trevor Peacock (grandfather), Clive Swift, Anna Massey and Julia McKenzie. A television film adaptation was produced by ITV, broadcast in the UK on 26 December 2007, and repeated on 14 December 2008. Little Nell is featured in