Little Women (1970 TV series)

Little Women
GenreHistorical
Based onLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott
Written byDenis Constanduros
Alistair Bell
Directed byPaddy Russell
StarringJo Rowbottom
Janina Faye
Angela Down
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes9
Production
ProducerJohn McRae
Running time25 minutes
Production companyBBC
Original release
NetworkBBC One
Release25 October (1970-10-25) –
20 December 1970 (1970-12-20)
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Little Women was a BBC television series in 1970, based on the 1868-69 two-volume novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. It was the third BBC adaptation of the novel.

It was shown on the Sunday tea-time slot on BBC1, where the BBC often showed fairly faithful adaptations of classic novels aimed at a family audience. It consisted of nine episodes.

It is not one of the better-remembered adaptations of Little Women, possibly because it was made on a relatively low budget and nearly all shot in the studio. There were also comments about the actresses playing the March sisters being too old for the part, and some of the cast struggling with an American accent. However it did have some merits e.g. the character of Laurie was more developed than in some versions, and it may have stuck to the original novel more closely than most adaptations e.g. by showing the March sisters often quarreling (this was discussed in the letters page of the Radio Times).[1][2]

  1. ^ Lupack, Barbara Tepa (1 November 1999). Nineteenth-century Women at the Movies: Adapting Classic Women's Fiction to Film. Popular Press. ISBN 9780879728052 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ "All the Little Women: A List of Little Women Adaptations". Masterpiece. Retrieved 23 November 2020.