SILVER SPRING, January 22, 2007—Acorn Media announces the March 13, 2007 DVD debut of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, a classic PBS Great Performances miniseries with unforgettable characters, a richly detailed setting, and remarkably contemporary ideas.

From the production company that brought Brideshead Revisited and The Jewel in the Crown to the screen comes an adaptation that fully and faithfully realizes Charles Dickens’ scathing portrait of Victorian industrial society. In a grimy mill town, civic leader and educator Thomas Gradgrind (Patrick Allen) places conformity over curiosity and sense over sentiment, only to find himself betrayed by the standards that govern his own unhappy life.

Hard Times is directed by John Irvin (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) and stars Patrick Allen (Dial M for Murder), Timothy West (Bleak House), and Edward Fox (Gandhi).

Headquartered in suburban Washington, D.C., Acorn Media is one of North America’s most active providers of British television programming on home video. Acorn’s DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn Media at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com.

For more information or to request a screening copy, please contact Chad Campbell, Senior Publicist, Acorn Media, at 301.608.2115 ext. 138 or ccampbell@acornmedia.com.