I thought the singing scene at the end didn't fit in with the feel of the rest of the series, in fact the last episode was a bit of a let down for me. If the rest of the series had been of the standard we got last night, I doubt if I would have carried on watching.
trisher you missed plenty coverage of the social divide. We saw children being trafficked, which was very vivid for early evening TV. We saw the Cratchits not able to afford medicine for the young Tim. The oldest Cratchit boy promised to spend a hard saved couple of pennies to treat the girl he was courting to a ride on an elephant, but he ended it with the girl and gave his savings to his mother to buy the tonic for his little brother. We saw Bob Cratchit go out every night after the market was closed to pick up what food he could find left behind on the ground. We saw Nancy was definitely a prostitute and her pimp was Fagin. We saw her being bought out from Fagin by Bill Sykes. We saw Mrs Gamp as the gin swilling grubby local woman people turned to with medical problems (think of another way to describe her right now). We saw how the workhouse children were treated by the Bumble, including Oliver Twist being chased out of the house for asking for more stew, left to his own devices. In fact, poverty was implied everywhere except in Satis House and the dressmaker's shop. Even the Barbarys were facing total ruin at one point and the future painted for them was very grim for them.
Sorry, but that aspect of Dickens was always there. And remember that Jordan also gave us the wonderful Life on Mars and Hustle, as well as writing for many successful shows like Minder and Boon.