Concept and creative process
‘Pickwick’ was a successful musical version of ‘The Pickwick Papers’ by Charles Dickens, adapted for television by James Gilbert and Jimmy Grafton. The titles were based around one of the illustrations, ‘Mr Pickwick Slides’, drawn by ‘Phiz’ (Hablot Knight Browne) for Dickens’ book ‘The Pickwick Papers’. The drawing was reproduced in the title sequence panorama of London’s winter countryside, almost exactly as it was engraved, and the remainder of the panorama was drawn in the style of ‘Phiz’, setting the scene for the musical to follow.