Another Great Expectations. Why?

Doodledog, I confess I am partial to moralising in fictional narratives. I was brought up Protestant and I even feel mildly guilty when I enjoy something that's nothing but pure entertainment.

Have watched two episodes now and tbh found it boring.
I don’t mind classic books being re-written for tv or a new slant on things but just didn’t enjoy this.

I was thinking aloud really, but yes, I know that education is in the remit of the BBC, and it does that well. But all drama need not be educational. Classics were not written to educate, but to entertain the readers of the day. Yes, some of them had political messages, but all the same the readers read for the same reasons we do, and we now have the additional option of watching a televised version. So yes, your second post is pretty much what I am saying . IMO and updated and relevant production is in many ways more true to the original than a slavish copy that is now out of date.

Doodledog, do you think it's okay to present Dickens's moral and political ideas to a modern audience, and even better when the dialogue is updated? I gather this is what you are saying.

Doodledog, isn't it part of the BBC's remit to educate and we pay our licences in exchange for quality? There is plenty of pure entertainment on commercial channels.

Education is not about passing exams, it's about how to access honest information and stimulus to explore further.

This is an interesting debate. I don't see TV productions as necessarily educational, particularly dramas (obviously I'd expect a documentary to be as close to the makers' views of the truth as possible), but I take the point about people who have never learnt history at school (how can it not be a core subject?) never knowing about other times. OTOH, a story is only one person's view of the times, and it would be misleading to base a perspective of an era based on one novel or dramatisation, particularly if the author is making a political point. It is not the role of TV dramatists to teach classics to exam standard - they are reproducing them as entertainment for our times. There are plenty of 'faithful' productions for educational purposes if teachers want to use them alongside the books.

I still believe what I posted upthread that Dickens was very current when he wrote, and his characters were using street language, so he would probably hate the idea of their still being portrayed as what now sounds pompous and irrelevant old duffers. I think he would thoroughly approve of their being given more 21st century scripts.

I have only seen 2 episodes of this series (we've been away), but I plan to catch up with the rest at the weekend if possible.

Callistemon, now I understand. I bet there are a lot of husbands and wives who wish the spouse would take an interest in something or other.

Do please let me know the titles of the history books your husband is reading. I am interested in the teaching of history and I wonder if he appreciates the historical novels you read. Some of these authors have properly researched their material. I used to be devoted to Maurice Walsh who is very old-fashioned and romantic now. Even romantic novelists can start a reader on an interest in some aspect of history.

Lovetopaint037

After the second episode I was so infuriated that I vowed not to watch any more. It was so wrong on so many levels. If a writer wants to use a book as an inspiration for his modern take on it then he should do it but for goodness sake give it his own title. Do not take a gem of a book and tear it to pieces and then place the blame on the original genius that Dickens was.

👍

Caleo

What is DH?

My Dear Husband 😁

He reads history books for fun.
I don't mean historical novels which I like.

History has been very badly taught and results in some school leavers being put off it for life.

Fortunately some modern children's literature ( e.g. Rosemary Sutcliffe's novels) can save the day. Among novels and plays for adults there are a few with historically accurate backgrounds.

I like to read about how ordinary people lived before there was anything written about ordinary people. My history book that I bought recently is about Scotland and its people before there was such a country as Scotland. I like the new Great Expectations because it's an exciting story with the theme of how politics was then and the implication of how the more things change the more they stay the same.

Lovetopaint037

After the second episode I was so infuriated that I vowed not to watch any more. It was so wrong on so many levels. If a writer wants to use a book as an inspiration for his modern take on it then he should do it but for goodness sake give it his own title. Do not take a gem of a book and tear it to pieces and then place the blame on the original genius that Dickens was.

Completely agree with you, and yes it should have had a different title!

What is DH?

I'd not consider buying and reading a history tome

DH does then I have to listen as he recounts something he read of interest ........... 😴

After the second episode I was so infuriated that I vowed not to watch any more. It was so wrong on so many levels. If a writer wants to use a book as an inspiration for his modern take on it then he should do it but for goodness sake give it his own title. Do not take a gem of a book and tear it to pieces and then place the blame on the original genius that Dickens was.

Callistemon wrote:

"Not many people are going to sit and read a history tome about life as it was for many people in centuries past".

Again, that is absolutely true. Of Dickens I have read only Bleak House, and I found it to be full of feelings of the characters and not at all like a history tome. I like reading some history books and I chose and bought one recently mostly because the author writes about how it may have felt to be an ordinary obscure person two thousand years ago in Britain. I'd not consider buying and reading a history tome.

Callistemon wrote:

"Their works were of their time---"

I do agree and I think we need to remember that fact. But there is something in some works of art that makes them relevant today. The new interpretation of GE is relevant to today's society, and I think Dickens intended his work to be social commentary.

Their works were of their time and if we modernise them, we do not learn about those times through drama.

There are plenty of modern dramas on TV and in the cinema.

Not many people are going to sit and read a history tome about life as it was for many people in centuries past and history is not a compulsory GCSE subject at school now.

"----his works being trashed."

Would Shakespeare born in 1947 use a word processor?

Would Mozart play a piano ?

Would Darwin understand genetic engineering?

Deedaa

I think Dickens would probably be appalled at the speed society is moving backwards.

I agree, along with him being appalled at his works being trashed.

I think Dickens would probably be appalled at the speed society is moving backwards.

I agree Deedaa. I guess you seek an authenticity in the form of closeness to the original script by Dickens, whereas I want loads of social and historical comment which I believe to be consistent with current historiography.

I am not say Dickens was in error in any way. I am saying that events have moved on so that Dickens was more than justified, and society today is still Dickensian .

If you have never read the book Caleo we are talking about two completely different things. I imagine that as a straight drama this adaptation works perfectly well. I'm can't say what Dickens would have thought, all his work was very focussed on the social conditions at the time.

Deedaa, I have never read the novel by Dickens. I like to watch dramas as I find them, and I don't object to divergence from the original novel.
I have no complaints about sheer entertainment I like The Sound of Music as well as anyone. However I do like to have my prejudices shaken up and rearranged , and I guess Dickens would applaud the historically focussed perspective of the new GE drama.

What you say is very true Caleo but why not just write a new drama about it? It might give a better result because the writer doesn't seem to grasp the plot of the novel at all. Why are we seeing Magwitch all the time? Once he was recaptured he was out of sight and out of mind until the shock (to Pip and to the reader) of his return many chapters later. Estella wasn't forced into an arranged marriage, she married Bentley Drummle because she wanted to show her power over men. I wonder what he's going to do with the death of Miss Havisham and the murder of Mrs Gargery.