Charles Dickens'

iconic drama-comedy about David Copperfield's hard upbringing was filmed for the first time as early as 1911 and has since been a regular on screen and TV screen - so why should we see another version?

Most maybe because it's the best so far.

This, of course, without scientific empirical evidence, not all interpretations have passed through the synapses of the undersigned, but there is at least an impressive wit and timeless sense of freshness.

This is

partly due to what is called "color-blind casting", where the main character and some other smaller roles are played by non-whites.

Which made one or two conservative Englishmen put the tea in their throats, but new angles are (almost) always good.

Dickens himself liked to go against the flow, dictating adventures when time raged for realism, so it seems completely congenial that just one of his most imaginative works gets an innovative transformation.

Dev Patel, best

known for Slumdog Millionair, has a film character who has exactly the mix of naivety, forward movement and strength that the lead role requires.

The color-blind cast seems to be the new black.

The same Patel plays Sir Gawain in the corona-delayed round-the-table movie The Green Knight and in the Netflix series Cursed, African-American Devon Terrell plays the icon King Arthur.

But just as much of the

story's innovative atmosphere should be attributed to the director and screenwriter Armando Iannucci, who gives the classic a mildly harsh treatment.

This British master of quick-jaw dialogue (In the loop, Veep) has, together with Simon Blackwell, created a playful text with heavy-handed formulations that probably made Dickens himself stand guard in the burial chamber in Westminister Abbey.

But it is not only ornate words that impress, so does the agile image processing, with its fine transitions that enhance the fairytale feeling.

It's really just the sometimes a little too dripping tone that gradually melts down the cup of joy.

The overplay is certainly deliberate, but still a bit disturbing, at least for us father allergy sufferers - but no, it's still affordable.

Here are a bunch of

talented actors who can handle all the comic key raises with bravura.

Hugh Laurie, of course, he is obvious with Iannucci, but also the always sharp Tilda Swinton and not least Gwendoline Christie (the imposing Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones) who here plays the evil sister of David's brutal stepfather - a deadly sibling duo who are mental relatives, and perhaps role models, to the bishop and his sister in Fanny and Alexander.

In short, a reboot that makes it splash in the legs of an aged fairy tale.

Not bad.