A Little Dickens for the Holidays

Sally Field holds a warm, affectionate place in her heart for Aunt Betsey, the delightfully eccentric character she plays in “David Copperfield,” TNT’s new adaptation of the beloved Charles Dickens novel.

The four-hour drama that premieres Sunday also stars newcomer Hugh Dancy as the adult Copperfield, “Seinfeld’s” Michael Richards, Eileen Atkins and Anthony Andrews.

As the benefactor and surrogate mother to the orphan Copperfield, Aunt Betsey provides her nephew with a home, love, education and a position in society. She also shares her home with Mr. Dick (Dudley Sutton), an odd, childlike man who loves to make and fly kites.

“The whole thing was just a blast,” says the two-time Oscar-winner (“Norma Rae,” “Places in the Heart”).

“David Copperfield” marks the first time Field has played a British character. “She is a wonderful Dickensian character--that is the fun of it. I don’t know whenever in my life I would ever have the opportunity to play a Dickensian character....”

In preparation, the actress watched other filmed adaptations of “David Copperfield,” including the legendary 1935 version directed by George Cukor. “They were hard to look at because many of the adaptations were done by brilliant actors, just extraordinary English actresses who have played Aunt Betsey.”

Though she had read other Dickens’ novels, Field had never read “David Copperfield” until she got the part. “I read it on the plane to Ireland,” she says. “It was great to have an excuse to read it. I think that Dickens avails himself so wonderfully to the screen because his stories are so plot-driven.” Director Peter Medak (“The Ruling Class”) also gave her a books-on-tape version of the novel--read by Oscar winner Paul Scofield--so she could be “constantly immersed in the dialect.”

Field was thrilled to be working with some of the best English actors around, including Atkins, who plays one of Copperfield’s nemeses, the vile Jane Murdstone.

“She is one of my heroes,” Field says of Atkins. “I think she is extraordinary and for me to be standing up there and doing an English accent in front of her--it was a bit daunting. But they were so wonderful for me.”

Field and Richards, who plays Mr. Micawber, the colorful spendthrift who takes young Copperfield under his wing, are the only Americans in the cast. They are there at the insistence of TNT executives, Medak notes.

“They kept saying to me, ‘You have got to understand that this is for an American audience,’ ” he explains. “They came up with the idea of Sally. And it was a wonderful choice. She completely sank herself into the part. The same with Michael. I was really so much better off with both of them than with other [British actors] I could have had. I loved working with Michael and Sally because they just gave their heart and soul to it.”

Field has nothing but praise for Dancy, who is a real charmer as Copperfield. “Hugh is so adorable,” she says. “He is so darling. He is a handsome young man and so Copperfield in his way. He was so immersed in it. He was so serious. He just desperately wanted to be good, yet there was another part of him that was this young man who couldn’t wait to have a good time.”

Medak recalls that he still didn’t have either the young or adult Copperfield cast a week before shooting was scheduled to begin. “We were going crazy,” he says. “Hugh couldn’t come in because he was away someplace, so he put himself on tape and sent the tape in. When I saw his tape, I kind of passed out. I said, ‘This boy has got to come in.’ He’s just wonderful.”

Dancy, who was not familiar with the novel, found Dickens and his beloved creation to be deceptively complex. “Although Dickens produced all of these heartwarming classics, he was a pretty complicated man,” the actor says.

“I think the best way to look at David, as a way of understanding him as a character, is that he also is a very complicated man. Even when David gets older, there are these unpleasant people circling him. The way I thought about [these characters] was that there were creations of his imagination, figments of his youth. All of the characters he knew as a child remerge when he grows up.”

Part I of “David Copperfield” airs Sunday at 8 and 10 p.m. and midnight. Part II airs Monday at 8 and 10 p.m. and midnight; the entire four-hour drama repeats Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).