Last night, the BBC aired another rendition of Charles Dickens’ iconic novel Great Expectations, but this time it has a more dark and contemporary edge, starring Olivia Colman and Fionn Whitehead.
Dickens’ work has been a fixture on our televisions – and in our classrooms – for decades, owing to his prolific production, which includes additional masterpieces such as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, and A Christmas Carol.
Great Expectations has been adapted for cinema or television around 16 times, with the BBC doing it four times earlier – most recently in 2011, starring Gillian Anderson, Ray Winstone, and Douglas Booth. So, what may make his new version worthwhile?
Steven Knight steps in. The Peaky Blinders and Taboo creator wrote the script and executive produced the drama alongside actor Tom Hardy and director Ridley Scott.
What Knight brings to the table is precisely what you’d expect: a scoop of gloom with a side of roughness and profanity. While the series’ profanity and subsequent instances of drug use have some Dickens purists clutching their pearls, it is precisely the infusion of change that is required. Why would we want more of the same when we have 15 past attempts to fall back on?
Crucially, the first episode of the six-part mini-series adheres to the spirit (and plenty of text) of the novel, emphasising the squalid conditions of the convict ship moored down the river from orphan Pip (Joe Sweet, later played by Fionn Whitehead) and the danger it represents.
Pip (a pleasingly mardy Sweet) lives with his severe elder sister (Halyley Squires) and her loving blacksmith husband Joe Gargery (Owen McDonnell), despite his desire for a brighter future. The first episode depicts his disastrous encounter with escaped convict Magwitch (Johnny Harris), who threatens the youngster in order to obtain food, water, and a blade to break his shackles after coming across him in the cemetery.
We watch a battle break out prior onboard the ship destined for Australia between Magwitch and his sworn adversary Compeyson (Trystan Gravelle), before they both flee while a fire rages. This is where Knight has opted to drop a couple F-bombs, which seems appropriate given the circumstances.
Pip’s intelligence has also caught the eye of the officious Mr Pumblechook (Matt Berry putting his fine pipes to great use as a Victorian bore), who sees him as a suitable companion to the adopted daughter of wealthy and reclusive spinster Miss Havisham. (Colman).
The episode concludes with Pip and the prideful, chilly Estella (Chloe Lea) having an uncomfortable encounter at her house before he meets the gloomy Miss Havisham. Colman hasn’t lost a beat in her depiction of one of Dickens’ most famous characters, even down to recreating the bridal gown from the wedding ceremony where she was jilted years previously.
Her hazy air suggests the opium she will eventually use in one of Knight’s modifications to the character, but her terrible desire for vengeance on men is entirely Dickens’ (and Colman’s). The Oscar winner is unsettling with her fading brows and era-appropriate teeth, calculating Estella’s future as an instrument of her vengeance she asks to watch them ‘play’.
With Dickens being a famous person of his day renowned for advocating for social reform such as children’s rights and education, as well as stressing the severe poverty of the period in his writings, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched to add a harder, darker dimension to the plot – including narcotics.
The first episode of this newest Great Expectations adaptation gives an appropriate combination of Dickens and a dash of creative flair, with a solid pace and straightforward storytelling.
It is also positioning itself to give respite as an interesting companion piece to the thousands of GCSE students who are once again digging through analysis of Dicken’s long-winded descriptions and conversation.
Great Expectations Sunday at 9pm on BBC One.
Source My Celebrity Life.
