Bleak House is the first BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel of the same name. It was adapted by Constance Cox as an eleven-part series of half-hour episodes first transmitted from 16 October 1959. It is the first BBC television adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, Bleak House (1959). Starring Andrew Cruickshank , Diana Fairfax and Colin Jeavons. Dickens elegant satire about a disputed inheritance and the self-serving workings of the legal system gripped the public imagination in this classic 1959 TV series adapted by the prolific Constance Cox, best known for surprising viewers with her explosive Oliver Twist. Andrew Cruickshank stars as John Jarndyce and Diana Fairfax as his ward Esther Summerson in this delightfully complex comic drama. A mystery story in which Esther uncovers the truth about her birth and her lost mother Lady Dedlock (Iris Russell); a murder story featuring one of the first detectives in English fiction, Inspector Bucket (Richard Pearson); at it s heart is a redemption tale about a desolate home transformed by compassionate love. A slick and satisfying examination of double-dealing and injustice.