Great Expectations on the BBC

Great Expectations on the BBC

This is not a faithful reproduction of Dickens' classic. It is a wickedly unfaithful version, a parody or re-imagining. The characters are all in the novel but many of the events are quite different. It does, however, reflect aspects of Victorian society which Dickens only hinted at.

Pip (Fionn Whitehead) has the ambition to become a gentleman. Jaggers (Ashley Thomas) teaches him that becoming a gentleman involves fine clothes, a sense of entitlement and the ability to rob and swindle other gentlemen.

No wonder the fascist Daily Mail denounced it as a "woke adaptation".

The enigmatic Miss Havisham completes Pip's education as a gentleman by introducing him to a prostitute and to opium. Prostitution was something Dickens' readers did not want to know about. Opium was not illegal and indeed the British Empire fought against China when the Chinese government refused to allow opium imports.

The cast is multicultural, another reason for the Daily Mail's fury. This is a bit rich considering that in the past the role of black characters like Othello were repeatedly played by white actors. It is more like justice.

Magwitch (Johnny Harris) sums things up in the final episode. "Gentlemen can do whatever suits them. They built an empire on it."

In a very clever moment, Biddy (Laurie Ogden) declares that she is a Chartist. The Chartists respect women and she won't have time to slave in Pip's kitchen!

The fraught relationship with Estella (Shalom Brune-Franklin) is resolved as Dickens originally intended. Pip opts not to marry Estella. In this version, he actually marries the Chartist Biddy.

This BBC adaptation is well worth a watch. Being hated by the Daily Mail is always a badge of honour.

Derek McMillan