Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the protagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls (1846–47).

The tale became a staple of Victorian melodrama and London urban legend, and has been retold many times since, most notably in the Tony award-winning Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler.

Claims that Sweeney Todd was a historical person are strongly disputed by scholars, although possible legendary prototypes exist.

Plot synopsis

In the original version of the tale, Todd is a barber who dispatches his victims by pulling a lever as they sit in his barber chair. His victims fall backward down a revolving trapdoor into the basement of his shop, generally causing them to break their necks or skulls. In case they are alive, Todd goes to the basement and "polishes them off" (slitting their throats with his straight razor). In some adaptations, the murdering process is reversed, with Todd slitting his customers' throats before dispatching them into the basement through the revolving trapdoor. After Todd has robbed his dead victims of their goods, Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime (in some later versions, his friend and/or lover), assists him in disposing of the bodies by baking their flesh into meat pies and selling them to the unsuspecting customers of her pie shop. Todd's barber shop is situated at 186 Fleet Street, London, next to St. Dunstan's church, and is connected to Mrs. Lovett's pie shop in nearby Bell Yard by means of an underground passage. In most versions of the story, he and Mrs. Lovett hire an unwitting orphan boy, Tobias Ragg, to serve the pies to customers.

Bonham Carter

Bonham Carter is an English family name. Notable Bonham Carters are:

These are all members of the Bonham Carter family.

See also

Mrs. Lovett

Mrs. Lovett is a fictional character appearing in many adaptations of the story Sweeney Todd. She is most commonly referred to as Nellie, although Margery, Maggie, Sarah, Shirley, Wilhemina and Claudetta are other names she has been given. First appearing in the penny dreadful serial The String of Pearls, it is debated if she was based on an actual person or not. The character also appears in modern media related to Sweeney Todd including the Stephen Sondheim musical and its 2007 film adaptation.

Character overview

In every version of the story in which she appears, Mrs. Lovett is the business partner and accomplice of barber/serial killer Sweeney Todd; in some versions, she is also his lover. She makes and sells meat pies made from Todd's victims.

Usually, Mrs. Lovett is depicted as a childless widow, although in some depictions (but very rarely) Mr. Albert Lovett is shown. Before she goes into business with Todd, she is on the verge of poverty, with her premises being filthy and infested with vermin. In the musical she has resorted to using a rather revolting substitute for meat, and laments her pies are the worst ones in London. While she feels no remorse about killing people and serving them as pies, she is sometimes shown to have a softer side to those in need; for example, she informally adopts the young orphan Tobias Ragg as her own, and considers taking in Todd's daughter Johanna as well.

Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter, CBE (born 26 May 1966) is a British actress. She made her name as an actress in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses, before her film debut as the titular character in Lady Jane. She is best known for her roles in films such as A Room with a View, Fight Club, The King's Speech, and playing Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter series. She has frequently collaborated with director Tim Burton, in films Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland, and Dark Shadows. In 2012, she played Miss Havisham in Great Expectations and Madame Thénardier in Les Misérables, and in 2015 the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella.

A two-time Academy Award nominee for her performances as Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove and as Queen Elizabeth in The King's Speech, Bonham Carter's acting has been further recognised with seven Golden Globe nominations, an International Emmy Award for best actress, three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year honours list for services to drama, and received the honour from the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 22 February 2012.

Fleet Street

Fleet Street is a major street in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was named.

Having been an important through route since Roman times, businesses were established during the Middle Ages. Senior clergy lived in Fleet Street during this period where there are several churches including Temple Church and St Bride's. Fleet Street became known for printing and publishing at the start of the 16th century and it became the dominant trade so that by the 20th century most British national newspapers operated from here. Much of the industry moved out in the 1980s after News International set up cheaper manufacturing premises in Wapping, but some former newspaper buildings are listed and have been preserved. The term Fleet Street continues to be used as a metonym for the British national press, and pubs on the street once frequented by journalists remain popular.