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Another Great Expectations. Why?

(196 Posts)
eddiecat78 Sun 26-Mar-23 17:34:22

Surely by now anyone remotely interested has already read the book or watched one of the many adaptations on film or TV. Meanwhile numerous other classics don't get a look in. I remember back in the 70s the BBC regularly showed classic series - often on a Sunday night I think. It's what gave me the incentive/confidence to read Dickens, Austen, the Brontes and less well known writers too.
Perhaps I'm in the minority but I won't be watching.

AJgranma Tue 28-Mar-23 11:52:49

Started to watch but didn’t like it at all. Went back to the 2011 Gillian Anderson version (loved it). Now going to rewatch Bleak House & Little Dorrit - both wonderful.

Joseanne Tue 28-Mar-23 11:53:40

Ballet gets updated too in the same way. There's always room for more contemporary versions.

AJgranma Tue 28-Mar-23 11:55:27

Dickensian (Amazon Prime) is also really good!

Bignanny2 Tue 28-Mar-23 11:55:58

Watched the first episode and just hope it gets better, I’m going to give the second episode a chance but then that’s it if it doesn’t improve !

Buttonjugs Tue 28-Mar-23 12:58:29

I watched it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m finding good drama a bit thin on the ground and watch about ten minutes and stop because I can’t get into it. I find the additional swearing refreshing because I am pretty sure people did it back then! It makes it more realistic. And like someone further up the thread said, Dickensian is utterly brilliant (I read Bleak House afterwards). My all time favourite Dickens dramatisation is Little Dorrit, with Claire Foy as the main character. She has also been by far the best Queen in The Crown.

Thomas67 Tue 28-Mar-23 13:11:26

The new BBC version is excellent. Very atmospheric and the acting is of a high standard.
I have like others seen several other versions but I’m still enjoying this one.

2507C0 Tue 28-Mar-23 13:16:30

I watched it and enjoyed it and I will be watching it each week. We have to remember that many people will not have seen the previous Great Expectations and it may well get younger people (than us!) interested. I like Olivia Coleman as an actress and that drew me in. I think it is a welcome change from other series that revolve around technology, women being murdered and similar.

semperfidelis Tue 28-Mar-23 13:17:22

I did watch some of the first episode. Sure enough the chronology has been messed around, the early dialogue used the f.word on several occasions, (Not sure that expletive was used at all at the time) the dialogue was stilted and the screen shots so fashionably murky it was difficult to se.

Alypoole Tue 28-Mar-23 13:53:24

44Chestnut

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.
So agree with you about OC. Why is it always her? Couldn't watch her as the Queen. Not for me.

effalump Tue 28-Mar-23 14:51:50

There's probably several younger generations who haven't seen any of these. It wouldn't surprise me if the producers 'modernise' the stories to entice young people to watch them and they probably won't bare any resemblence to the originals.

polly123 Tue 28-Mar-23 14:58:08

Really enjoyed it and thought Olivia Coleman a subtly menacing Miss Haversham. Loved Peaky Blinders and the wonderful atmospheric photography which this series has too.

IrishDancing Tue 28-Mar-23 15:01:15

Just watched episode one and didn’t enjoy it very much. I have read the book more than once and watched previous adaptations - just in case the literati on GN put my not liking it down to ignorance of the original story. wink

nipsmum Tue 28-Mar-23 15:30:46

I just binge watched the 3 episodes of the 2011 version on the BBC I player. Once is enough.

Lemontart Tue 28-Mar-23 16:07:15

I totally agree, it's not my favourite Dickens book and it's been done to death. I have plenty of recorded programmes to watch instead.

AGAA4 Tue 28-Mar-23 16:21:49

I am a bit of a purist and like productions to adhere to the story as much as possible.
I went to see Macbeth last year and all the actors wore jeans and t shirts. The witches were hanging from ropes. Well acted but felt wrong to me.
I will try this new GE. I may enjoy it.

Greciangirl Tue 28-Mar-23 17:59:52

Well, I thought it was absolutely spell binding.
Fascinating.

The BBC always Does these period pieces so well.

The acting was superb. Like it or not.

Lellie Tue 28-Mar-23 18:06:57

Mrs Gaskell's North and South was dramatised for TV too.

Jaxie Tue 28-Mar-23 18:36:09

I hate this version. Poor direction: Pip would never have left a candle burning in his bedroom for example. Ridiculously implausible dialogue. Miscasting ie Estella. Dickens must be rotating in his grave. The David Lean film definitive in my book.

JPB123 Tue 28-Mar-23 20:09:30

I won’t be watching.Not my favourite Dickens story. I did love
Dickensian,I think it was called……a mix of many Dickens novels.

Deedaa Tue 28-Mar-23 20:17:50

AGAA4 I saw a production of Macbeth a few years ago which had 4 witches. The 4th one was apparently the ghost of a son that the Macbeths had lost years before. I can only say that it added nothing at all to the play.

Grandmabatty Tue 28-Mar-23 20:22:51

Technically there are four witches in Macbeth. The fourth is Hecate. However it isn't certain that Shakespeare actually wrote that particular scene.

SueDoku Wed 29-Mar-23 10:45:27

If you want to really immerse yourself in an absolutely wonderful Dickens adaptation, may I recommend the BBC's 'Our Mutual Friend'? I'd never read the book, but was completely captured by this - and it's now my favourite Dickens novel.
It's also a throwback to the days when the BBC could actually give time to adaptations, so that the whole story is here - acted quite wonderfully by a stellar cast 🙂
Our Mutual Friend [DVD] amzn.eu/d/ixyqevv

Granmarderby10 Wed 29-Mar-23 11:48:44

Oh yes SueDoku I really really loved that adaptation and you’re right about the BBC, having time and money then to tell the full story.
I also got very immersed in Middlemarch also by the BBC

LadyHonoriaDedlock Wed 29-Mar-23 22:17:25

Now we see why a new Great Expectations is particularly topical.

The government is reintroducing prison hulks for people desperately fleeing war and persecution.

Callistemon21 Wed 29-Mar-23 22:53:50

Surely it would be better to produce a new adaptation of a classic rather than remake those which have been made before, sometimes more than once?

If a classic book has been made into a film or series on television and was done so well that it remains the definitive version, then anything else is going to have to be very good indeed to stand any comparison.