teacher Matthew Kelly – Old Mr. Turveydrop, Prince's father Robert Pugh – Mr. Chadband, a friend of Snagsby's Catherine Tate – Mrs. Chadband, his wife Dermot Crowley – Mr. Vholes, Richard Carstone's lawyer Ian Richardson – Chancellor Peter Guinness – Coroner Louise Brealey – Judy, Smallweed's granddaughter Brian Pettifer – Mr. Growler, a physician Anthony Cozens – Usher Alastair Galbraith – Mr. Brownlow, a lawyer Alistair McGowan – Mr. Kenge Sevan Stephan – Mr. Tangle, a lawyer Roberta Taylor – Mrs. Pardiggle Reception Previewing the first episode of the serial in the BBC's Radio Times listings magazine in its week of broadcast, critic David Butcher wrote that: "Watching this extraordinary version of Dickens's novel feels less like watching a TV drama and more like sampling a strange other world... it's Gillian Anderson who, despite having only a handful of lines, is at the heart of the drama. It's a magnetic performance (one of many) in a tremendous piece of television." In the same issue, the magazine—which also devoted its front cover to the programme, a fold-out photograph of the cast posing in modern glamorous dress in the style of a Dynasty-style soap opera cast—contained a preview feature by Christopher Middleton which went behind the scenes of the production. Middleton was equally positive about the adaptation. "The word 'big' doesn't really do it justice," he wrote. The Radio Times kept up its positive reaction to the series throughout the programme's run. Of episode eight, Butcher again wrote a positive preview. "We're halfway through this mesmerising serial and it shows no sign of letting up," he wrote. "As ever, each frame is composed to perfection, each face lit like an oil painting, and the acting is out of this world. You might want to take the phone off the hook." For the week of the final episode, the magazine's television editor, Alison Graham, joined in the praise, picking out individual cast members for particular attention. "Anna Maxwell Martin as Esther was a superb heroine, but in years to come it's [Gillian] Anderson's portrayal of a secretly tormented aristocrat that we'll treasure." And of Charles Dance, "As the scheming attorney-at-law, Dance was wolfishly lethal, his hooded eyes and sonorous voice loaded with evil. It's almost enough to make you take against lawyers." The praise for the serial was not, however, universal. Writing for The Guardian newspaper, Philip Hensher criticised the programme sight unseen.