Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" is a complex tale of young love, murder, and the quest for a mystery man's identity. The story unfolds in an eight-part adaptation on PBS starring "X-Files" heroine Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock. Click photo for larger image. Related Coverage: L.A. Confidential: 2006 Winter Press Tour Journal

PASADENA, Calif. -- After "The X-Files" closed its investigations into the paranormal, actress Gillian Anderson, who played FBI agent Dana Scully, became an X-File herself. She all but disappeared from public view.

But she's back in PBS's hearty "Masterpiece Theatre" production of Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" Sunday at 9 p.m. on WQED. The eight-hour production, running Sunday nights through Feb. 26, is a labyrinthine, large-cast period drama sure to draw the interest of fans of costume dramas.

Dickens originally published the novel in serialized magazine installments between 1852 and 1853, and the BBC aired the series as 16 half-hour episodes, each with its own cliffhanger. Nothing has been cut for the American airing.

Anderson stars as Lady Dedlock, who recognizes handwriting on a legal document, a discovery that sets the story rolling. The backdrop is an interminable legal case of contested wills, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. A kind claimant in the case, John Jarndyce (Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in the original "Star Wars" saga), takes in Jarndyce heirs Ada (Carey Mulligan) and Richard (Patrick Kennedy) and orphan Esther (Anna Maxwell Martin).

Anderson said she initially turned down the opportunity to star in "Bleak House." After "X-Files" ended, Anderson wanted a break and told her agents she was only interested in film or theater roles. She moved to London for a play, bought a house, met and married the man who is now her husband. Her agent convinced her to read the "Bleak House" script.

"In England, it's much easier to flip between doing television and film," Anderson said Saturday, evincing just a hint of a British accent. "It doesn't ruin one's career the way it sometimes does in America. I had to take that on faith, but from the moment I started working on it, it was the best fun I'd had in a really long time."

Anderson said she's definitely game for another "X-Files" movie, but contractual entanglements have stalled that project. In the meantime, American producers haven't come calling.

"People don't know what to do with me in America," she said. "I've disappeared. ... I think there's a perception that I was a temporary television celebrity who disappeared off the planet.

"I try in my life to follow my heart in terms of what moves me and what is important to me," Anderson said. "I know what it feels like to do things that are soul- decaying, and a lot of the large aspects of life in Hollywood, in the stereotypical way, I find unbelievably soul-decaying, and I choose, albeit frustratingly to other people in my life, not to expose myself to too much of that."

"Bleak House" screenwriter Andrew Davies is acclaimed for his scripts, most notably 1995's "Pride & Prejudice" and both "Bridget Jones" movies. He said adapting Dickens proved to be its own challenge because of the large cast of characters in his novels.

" 'Bleak House' is a great baggy thing, the plot doesn't work in all sorts of parts, so you've got to tinker with it," Davies said. "Usually I tell myself, find the spine of the story and stick to that and chuck out anything not related to the spine of the story, but that doesn't work with Dickens. You lose the flavor of him if you don't include all those other extra comic characters that he couldn't stop himself from creating. The plot bulges out. It's like horrible boils or something, but in a nice way."

PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre" celebrates its 35th birthday this year, but it continues to lack a sponsor since ExxonMobil pulled out three years ago. Executive producer Rebecca Eaton said PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have made funds available to hire an outside consultancy to pitch the series directly to sponsors (in the past it was among a smorgasbord of programs from Boston's WBGH pitched to potential sponsors).

"We're looking to buy more programs and jack 'Masterpiece Theatre' up to its former size of approximately 10 years ago," Eaton said.

She said she approached Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions about two years ago with the idea of teaming up for adaptations of novels from Oprah's Book Club, but was told Harpo already had too many projects in the works.

Upcoming "Masterpiece" productions include the final "Prime Suspect," starring Helen Mirren, and adaptations of "Casanova," "Jane Eyre" and "Sense & Sensibility."

Veteran newsies speak

Walter Cronkite, appearing on a panel for a PBS "American Masters" special about him that will air this summer, said if were on the air today, he would editorialize critically about America's continued presence in Iraq as he did during the Vietnam War. He said following Hurricane Katrina there was an opportunity to leave Iraq gracefully.

"We had the opportunity to say to the world and to the Iraqis, 'Mother Nature had not treated us well and we find ourselves terribly missing in the amount of money it takes to help these poor people out of their homeless situation, to help rebuild some of our cities, and therefore we are going to have to bring our troops home. However, we assure you, our hearts are with you and we will do everything we can to help you rebuild and restore this country of yours,' " Cronkite said. "We would have retired with honor. I don't think it's necessary to constantly say we are leaving them in the lurch exactly. We're gonna have to leave it with them someday, and it's my belief we should get out now."

Cronkite was critical of current news anchors who editorialize in the bounds of a newscast, but as the man whose editorial arguably helped speed the end of the Vietnam War, he said he has no problem with a news anchor editorializing as long as it's labeled as such and separated from the bounds of a newscast.

"There is a point, it seems to me, that an individual reporter who has gained a reputation for being honest and fair can help the American people in making a decision on a major issue," Cronkite said. "I think we ought to take that opportunity, but it's only an extraordinary situation that can permit that."

The 89-year-old Cronkite remains under contract to CBS News and is a loyal viewer of "The CBS Evening News," whose executives are currently seeking a new anchor or anchor team to replace long-term sub Bob Schieffer.

"I'm standing by if they want me, but that's not going to happen, obviously," he quipped. "I think the guy who ought to follow Schieffer is Schieffer. I think he is terrific."

Former "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel, named managing editor of Discovery Channel earlier this month, and his executive producer, Tom Bettag, didn't want to discuss the new, highly-criticized edition of "Nightline" that came to exist the week after his departure late last year.

"The greatest gift that Tom and I can give our friends at "Nightline" is just to sort of hang back and give them a chance to create their own new version of this broadcast, and that takes time," Koppel said. "You make mistakes, you correct them, and I'm sure they will do that."

He still watches "Nightline," but not live.

"I TiVo as often as not," Koppel said. "Who the hell stays up until 11:30 at night?"

Koppel and Bettag acknowledged that they met with representatives of the yet-to-launch American edition of Arabic language news network Al Jazeera, among other networks.

"It took us not very long to decide that that wasn't something we were going to do," Koppel said. "I'm not going to prejudge what the English-language Al Jazeera's going to look like."

Koppel acknowledged that Al Jazeera is looked upon as a propaganda outlet for Al Qaeda terrorists, but he said it is "a huge step up from where the Arab world's journalism has been over the past 40 years. You know, are they more inclined toward anti-American stories perhaps than American networks are? That may be possible, although I suspect if they want to make any progress with their English-language outlet here in the United States that that will not be true of the English-language channel."

When pressed by a reporter, Koppel reminded her, "I routinely meet with some of the nastiest people in the world."

"Some of them are in this room," Bettag cheerfully added to the room full of TV writers.

Channel surfing

An upcoming edition of PBS's "American Masters," directed by Ric Burns ("New York: A Documentary Film"), will focus on Andy Warhol (no air date set)... USA has renewed "Monk" for a fifth and sixth season of 16 episodes each. ... Bravo series "Blow Out" and "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List" will return for new seasons in the second quarter of 2006. ... SciFi Channel will air 13 episodes of the latest edition of the BBC's "Doctor Who" starring Christopher Eccleston. ... Trio, no longer in existence as a cable network, has migrated to broadband at www.triotv.com. Its sister site, www.brilliantbutcancelled.com, will make episodes of the short-lived CBS drama "EZ Streets" viewable along with "The Jake Effect," a comedy created for NBC but never aired, meaning it wasn't technically canceled and its brilliance remains to be seen. ... Former WPGH news manager Jeff Alan has been named news director at KOIN, the CBS affiliate in Portland, Ore.