Another Great Expectations. Why?

NanaDana

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 haven’t seen any old versions of this so will def watch it to see what it’s like.
I have seen the Muppets Christmas Carol tho😂 very funny and also the Goes Wrong Show version.

Good so far.

I enjoyed the first episode even though it departed from the original right from the beginning.
I have read that it departs further from Dickens in the next episode.

Pittcity

I enjoyed the first episode even though it departed from the original right from the beginning.
I have read that it departs further from Dickens in the next episode.

So our expectations should not be too great, then!

Grandma70 I pronounce Shrewsbury as Shrowsbury.

Sorry I just started another thread on this.
I thoroughly enjoyed this first episode.
Brilliant acting and atmospheric setting.
Looking forward to next Sunday.

Withholding judgement, but disappointed by Pumblechook - not nearly pompous enough. And I doubt whether Jaggers was a KC.

I've always liked the actor who plays Pumblechook grumppa but I did feel that the character was a bit underplayed. I'm presuming this was the director's idea. I find a lot of the small details irritating, Biddy calling Pip Pip when he was Pip Pirrip. Gargery was his sister's married name. Miss Haversham wanting the cleverest boy in the village when there's no suggestion in the book that Pip was outstandingly clever. In fact Estella makes fun of his ignorance at every opportunity.

Nothing on the 1946 John Mills film - that was brilliant.
I was very disappointed with last night’s adaptation.

The 1946 John Mills version is amazing.
The fact that John Mills was approaching forty when he played the role of Pip as a young man.
I just still relish this film, the characters so mememorable.
It’s always takes me to a happy place somehow😍

It's had dire reviews. I'll watch it this afternoon and see for myself.

I think if you're watching it fresh, knowing nothing of the book or previous versions, it would be enjoyable. Especially for those who liked Peaky Blinders and similar.
Did it suffer from the usual bad sound/mumbling or was it my ears?

I stuck with it, but found it overly dark which I'm not sure Dickens himself intended.
Olivia Coleman was good.

Nothing annoys me more than currently fashionable writers taking a classic novel or play and re-inventing it to gain themselves notoriety. Peaky blinders didn't engage me but it was original and the author's own work; altering a brilliant story and its characters to fit in with modern mores is cheap. I saw the opening scenes and they were a travesty.

I liked the 2011 series with Gillian Anderson and Ray Winstone.

Eddie Izzard will soon be doing a ‘one woman’ show of GE.

I haven’t seen any of the new one yet. Not sure if I will - I’ll leave it up to MrC who is a bigger fan of Dickens than I am.

I agree with everything that Chestnut said yesterday.
I’m a bit fed up with seeing OC in everything to be honest.
She wasn’t very good in The Crown

I could not face yet another interpretation of Great Expectations, the photographs and the publicity blurb were enough, and I see that it has not gone down well with the critics.

Aldom I’m with you it will always be Shrowsbury to me My family on both sides were Salopians going back generations. That’s the way they pronounced it and I see no reason to change, despite the comments from one of my children and the fact that autocorrect seems determined to change my mind!

And imo Muppet Christmas Carol is the definitive version; and definitely Michael Caine’s finest hour

If I watched it purely as a play then I enjoyed it. If I compared it with other versions or the book then it differed a lot. I hope anyone doing it for A level does not use it like they did Brave Heart and get it all wrong.
Also, Olvia Colman rolled out in another "Big Frock", I can't stand her as it is and this was just what I was expecting but hoping for something different from her, to prove she is the excellent actress others say she is.

Aldom

Grandma70 I pronounce Shrewsbury as Shrowsbury.

So do I, but I know someone from there who says Shroosbury. Apparently even the locals differ.

Back to the point. GE was better than I expected. I quite enjoyed it, but I see Dickens as a superior journalist rather than a great novelist, so I see no need to treat him with any great reverence.

For me it's no no and no.
An article by Christopher Stevens says it all:
Pip (Tom Sweet) is no longer a quick-thinking innocent with an over-active imagination, but a morose, insolent adolescent with a foul mouth.

Chestnut

For me it's no no and no.
An article by Christopher Stevens says it all:
Pip (Tom Sweet) is no longer a quick-thinking innocent with an over-active imagination, but a morose, insolent adolescent with a foul mouth.

He's a modern teenager!

Perhaps he dropped his mobile phone in the marshes, that's why he's so miserable.

FannyCornforth

And imo Muppet Christmas Carol is the definitive version; and definitely Michael Caine’s finest hour

I agree absolutely .

I'm not a fan of Michael Caine, but I love the Muppet Christmas Carol and watch it every year.

I don't think there can (or should) be only one interpretation of a novel in perpetuity. The whole point of being a scriptwriter (or producer) is to come up with new and relevant ways of interpreting a text, to make it resonate with a new audience. The characters didn't speak in an outdated manner in the original - they were contemporary to the time - so modernising the language isn't tampering with the intent. Additional plot twists just add to the fun. Unless someone is being tested on their recollection of the original (eg in an exam), what does it matter? If it's on the A level syllabus the obvious solution for candidates is to read the book . Otherwise, it is entertainment, and no different from retellings of fairytales or Shakespeare, or anything else, IMO.

Doodledog I’m so glad you agree!
I watch it every Christmas too, sometimes twice.

While we’re on this subject, I’ll do another gratuitous plug for the magnificent BBC series Dickensian.
I believe it’s available to stream on UK TV Play.

I’d sell my soul for a good adaptation of Wilkie Collins’ Armadale.

Actually, I’d sell my soul for a good adaptation of The Woman in White, but I’ve accepted that they’ll never capture the way it looks and feels in my head.

Aah just to appeal to a "modern " audience methinks. I'll give it a watch, but if it loses its dynamic of the story, it'll be consigned to not worth a waste of my time.