BBC's New Historical Epic Based On 167-Year-Old Classic Earns Stellar Rotten Tomatoes Score

Dan Zinski is a freelance scribe currently contributing to ScreenRant as a movie and TV news writer. He previously wrote for FanSided, The Viking Age and Lightly Buzzed.

It’s a case of great expectations realized for a new BBC period epic. Or perhaps it’s really a case of realistic expectations realized, given the network’s reputation for producing quality prestige series. That reputation began to be built in the 1970s with such multi-season shows as Downton Abbey precursor Upstairs, Downstairs, and such limited series as I, Claudius, starring Patrick Stewart. The 1980s and 1990s built upon the BBC’s image as the network of fine period drama, with shows like The Barchester Chronicles, Pride and Prejudice, and Great Expectations, and the run has only continued in the decades since, thanks to series like Peaky Blinders, Poldark, and Call the Midwife.

The BBC’s new series A Tale of Two Cities has all the literary pedigree one could ask for, being based on Charles Dickens’ immortal novel, and now it has the critical praise to go along with that, receiving enough positive feedback to post a very early Rotten Tomatoes score of 80%. That score could go up or down as more reviews are compiled.

Starring Kit Harington of Game of Thrones fame, the BBC’s new take on Dickens is described in its synopsis: “In 1782 London, Lucie Manette's life changes when she learns her presumed-dead father may be alive in Paris; she enlists erratic lawyer Sydney Carton to free the imprisoned messenger, French émigré Charles Darnay, sparking a complex love triangle.” Harington stars as the love-struck Carton, alongside Mirren Mack as Lucie, and Francois Civil as Darnay.

Positive Tale of Two Cities reviews focus on the key performers, particularly Roxane Duran as the notorious Madame Defarge, while also noting the 167-year-old story’s new-found timeliness. ScreenRant’s own review reads in part, “I liked A Tale of Two Cities a lot, without always loving it, but in its strongest moments, it's a very worthy new take on Dickens' story that builds to an excellent climax worthy of its crown as one of the finest endings in literary history.”

The review singles out Harington for praise, saying of the Game of Thrones star, “Kit Harington is obviously playing a more interesting - or at least more complex - character than Jon Snow (who got by on looking either confused or upset a lot of the time), with a far nastier edge that makes him a bit like a Heathcliffe or Mr. Darcy type, with an alcohol problem.” It continues, “The show might make that parallel a little too loudly for some, but Harington does well with it.”

A Tale of Two Cities made its American debut on MGM+ September 6, with more episodes dropping weekly on Sundays.