Another Great Expectations. Why?

I shan't be watching as GE has been done to death and I have seen several versions already. I will record and take a peek to confirm what I already suspect, but honestly who comes up with this nonsense? I find Olivia Colman so flippin' annoying in real life that I can't take anything she does seriously any more. I just see her as Olivia Colman in a wig and long dress.

It clashes with Grace so I’ll probably watch it on iPlayer.

You’d think Dickens only wrote GE, David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. 🤔

But this is the Peaky Blinders style version, as the trailer keeps telling us. I can’t see how it’s going to be an improvement,

You’d think Dickens only wrote GE, David Copperfield and Oliver Twist

A Christmas Carol has been done to death too - but they’re his best loved books I guess?

I am looking forward to watching, but will probably leave it until another day. I speak as someone who has watched BBC's Pride and Prejudice dozens of times!

As others have said it has been done so many times. Why? Surely we deserve something new. We will probably watch at some point but won’t be in a rush to watch.

BBC has many flaws but they do historical drama superbly well. I loved Bleak House. I'm a big fan of Dickens so I'll give it a go

It seems to be an opportunity to include a black actress, from what I’ve read. Why? I really am not interested in watching it yet again. I’ve seen it, read it …

I do wish Elizabeth Gaskell’s works were dramatised apart from Cranford and Wives and Daughters.
That would really interest me and there are scores of other classic novels which would make wonderful dramatisations.🙄

merlotgran

It clashes with Grace so I’ll probably watch it on iPlayer.

You’d think Dickens only wrote GE, David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. 🤔

He wrote a A Christmas Carol as well, merlotgran 😂

I wish they'd made TV adaptations of some lesser-known Dickens and Trollope books when I was at school, it would have made Hard Times, Barchester Towers etc so much more interesting!

I'm glad its not just me who is not looking forward to another GE. I'm not a big fan anyway - school managed to put me of Dickens. I expect Ms Coleman to be good she always is but I can wade through it to watch her. I would really like something that raised the spirits on a cold March Sunday evening.

Yes Grandmabatty I need my mind taking off things so will definitely be giving it a go.
Younger audiences may not know the stories, so it will be new to them; same goes for the many “new” history documentaries produced about Nazi Germany, or The Six Wives Of Henry The Eighth.

BigBertha1 it is spring, don’t you know 🫠 …. Well the buds are out at least. My radiators are going on NOW

Why not another one? With its Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) credentials it should certainly be a different take on the tale. Mind you, it'll have to go some to come anywhere near to the standard of the David Lean directed 1946 version, with John Mills and Jean Simmons. As for other Dickens offerings, I've lost count of the versions of A Christmas Carol that I've seen. None of them a patch on the Alec Guinness version, but all worth a watch nevertheless... even The Muppets one!

I love GE, but wish it wasn’t up against Grace. Honestly - last night there was a dire tv offering and tonight will involve juggling. We are away, and don’t have wifi, so I can’t record anything or use players. I will have to watch half of Grace, then GE, then go to ITV+1 for the second half of Grace.

I think GE is done so often because it is almost the perfect novel. It is so well-plotted, the characters are believable and the themes universal. There will always be people who haven’t read it - young people who haven’t had time yet, for a start, and those who know the plot can watch for the screenplay and differences in the adaptation. I’m looking forward to it.

I shall be watching Great Expectations, simply because, like A Christmas Carol, it was filmed in Shrewsbury. I lived there for many happy years. A beautiful historic town.

Aldom

I shall be watching Great Expectations, simply because, like A Christmas Carol, it was filmed in Shrewsbury. I lived there for many happy years. A beautiful historic town.

Indeed, but how do you pronounce it?

I shall give GE a chance, but I’m not keen on what I’ve heard about this new adaptation.

I will not be watching. I hated having to read Dickens at school and the various films and TV versions of his works have done little to change my views. They have been done to death. For heavens sake it's time for something more modern. My predictions about the new version of Great Expectations..... terrible sound and dark pictures, similar to the latest Agatha Christie remakes.

Blimey, what a lot of grumbling! If you don't want to watch it, then don't, no need to announce it. I shall have a look as I really like the cinematography, lighting and drama of The Peaky Blinders. As for Grace which I also watch, it is on ITVX for catch up, and I seriously recommend paying the small fee to remove the adverts, makes watching it far more enjoyable than in ITV.

I do pat the fee, HPQ, but that doesn’t help me tonight as I can’t access ITVx without wifi. I could watch one or the other on my laptop or iPad, but was just saying that after Saturday night’s dearth of decent programmes it is ironic that there is a clash of decent watching tonight.

Sorry if it sounded like grumbling Houseplantqueen. I guess I'm just nostalgic for my youth when there was such
a wide variety of good quality drama on the Tele. I expect it's all down to budget and what producers consider most commercial. I still think there would be an appetite for less well known stories - if people were given the chance to hear them

It is true that there are always the same Dickens books chosen for tv adaptations, but maybe this is because they are popular and can also be sold to the US market who are reported to have an insatiable demand for British historical drama? I find it is often the case that there is nothing we want to watch, or several programmes which clash, what annoys me the most is when one of the main channels has a major football match on and the other channels seem to me to not bother with any decent alternative because they assume everyone will be watching the football!

OK I'm 15 minutes into it and hating it already. It's right up there with the recent Agatha Christie adaptations, keep the title and the names of the characters and write a whole new story with modern language, modern attitudes and things that never happened in the original. If you loved David Lean's version I don't think this one is for you.

I’m enjoying it, but I enjoy (some of) the AC modernisations too.

When you know the story well, having extra twists adds to the enjoyment and if you don’t know the original you won’t notice. Modern language makes things more relevant- the characters were modern when they were written- so I doubt that Dickens would care either way .