For over twenty years, Armando Iannucci has built up a strong career in television and film with notable contributions to the likes of I’m Alan Partridge (1995-2002), The Thick of It (2005-12), In the Loop (2009), Veep (2012-19) and more recently, The Death of Stalin (2017).

But having brought the likes of Alan Partridge, Selina Meyer and the foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker to life, the Scottish filmmaker / writer has now turned his attention to a more pleasant project in the form of the renowned Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield.

The light-hearted story has been brought to life via a new film entitled The Personal History of David Copperfield which is due to open the London Film Festival today.

Iannucci himself unveiled the film’s witty trailer today which you can check out below.

The synopsis reads:

“From birth to infancy, from adolescence to adulthood, the good-hearted David Copperfield is surrounded by kindness, wickedness, poverty and wealth, as he meets an array of remarkable characters in Victorian England. As David sets out to be a writer, in his quest for family, friendship, romance and status, the story of his life is the most seductive tale of all.”

BAFTA-winner Dev Patel (Lion, Hotel Mumbai) plays David alongside fellow award-winning British actors Peter Capaldi (The Thick of It, Doctor Who) as Mr Micawber, Hugh Laurie (House, The Night Manager) as Mr Dick, Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin, Doctor Strange) as Betsey Trotwood and Ben Whishaw (Mary Poppins Returns, A Very English Scandal) as Uriah Heep.

Other familiar faces in the cast include Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones, Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Benedict Wong (Marco Polo, Doctor Strange), Rosalind Eleazar (Harlots, Deep Water), Sophie McShera (Cinderella, Downton Abbey), Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk, The Goldfinch), Darren Boyd (Spy, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man), Daisy May Cooper (This Country) and Paul Whitehouse (The Fast Show, The Death of Stalin).

The Personal History of David Copperfield will be released in the UK on 10 January 2020.