Neville (Sacha Dhawan, The History Boys), meanwhile, finds himself rather smitten by Rosa. Helena (Amber Rose Revah) is taken in at the Nun’s House, where she quickly befriends Rosa. Severely complicating Jasper’s pervy aspirations is the fact Rosa is betrothed - by dint of her late father’s will - to the age-appropriate Edwin Drood, who also happens to be Jasper’s nephew.Īdding more complexity is the recent arrival in Cloisterham of two orphaned siblings from Ceylon, Neville and Helena Landless (a bluntly symbolic surname from Dickens’ pen). He also lusts after 17-year-old Rosa Bud (Tamzin Merchant, The Tudors), an orphan who lives in the Nun’s House of Cloisterham.

Choirmaster John Jasper, played by Matthew Rhys (ABC’s Brothers and Sisters), feels trapped in what he sees as a humdrum existence and seeks escape in an opium den. As its unsubtle name suggests, Cloisterham is a place apart, and much of the local activity centers on the cathedral. Most of the action takes place in Cloisterham, a fictitious stand-in for the actual town of Rochester. Part one hews closely to the Dickens book. This made-for-television film is broken into two hour-long episodes, and is divided as such on the DVD. With Hughes’ thoughtful writing, solid direction by Diarmuid Lawrence and great performances by a talented cast, this latest entry in the Edwin Drood canon provides a praiseworthy finish to Dickens’ incomplete story. Since that time, there have been several attempts - in print, on stage and on the big and small screen - to sort out the story’s ending. Unfortunately, Dickens passed away before he could finish the work. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a co-production of the BBC and PBS Masterpiece and released on DVD this month, is based on the Charles Dickens story of the same name. There’s a curious credit in the opening titles of part two of The Mystery of Edwin Drood it reads, “Completed by Gwyneth Hughes”, a nod to Edwin Drood’s biggest mystery of all: how it ends.

The mystery of edwin