Radio Times: Review by:; Alison Graham

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a curiosity known more for being Charles Dickens’s last, unfinished novel than for its dark story of drug-fuelled sexual jealousy and murder. Though, oddly, it became a musical.

Here Matthew Rhys stars as restless, opium-addicted choirmaster John Jasper, who develops a fixation for the winsome Rosa, fiancée of his nephew, Edwin. This slow- burning dramatisation by Gwyneth Hughes (Five Days) is packed with a lowering atmosphere of barely controlled violence, as people lurk in sepulchral shadows and brood.

It’s a curious, murky thing and very hard to connect with on any level, let alone fathom what’s going on: everyone looks shifty and beetle-browed and there are frequent fantasy sequences as Jasper, off his face on opium, has the same thrilling nightmare about killing the foppish Edwin (Freddie Fox). Understandable, as he’s a callow young jerk.
But stay fast, because things properly settle into their stride in the concluding episode.

About this programme

1/2. Psychological thriller based on Charles Dickens' unfinished final novel. Choirmaster John Jasper is a troubled man, frustrated by his life in the claustrophobic cathedral town of Cloisterham, addicted to opium as he seeks to expand his horizons and obsessed with the 17-year-old Rosa. The only thing standing between him and the girl is his own nephew, Edwin Drood. Matthew Rhys, Tamzin Merchant and Freddie Fox star in the first of this two-part adaptation. The conclusion follows.