Watch Great Expectations Extended Trailer
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Great Expectations will be hitting screens tonight (March 26) on BBC One at 9pm. Consisting of six episodes, the new series has been conceived by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and delivers a much darker and grittier version of the Charles Dickens favourite. Leading the cast is Oscar winner Olivia Colman as the twisted Miss Havisham and Dunkirk and Black Mirror actor Fionn Whitehead as Pip Gargery.
Speaking to media including Express.co.uk, the 25-year-old actor opened up about preparing for the role and whether he’d watched any other adaptations of Great Expectations.
The star from Richmond said: “I tried to avoid any adaptations and then I caved and scared the s*** out of myself.
“So yeah, I watched a couple. The same with [Jaggers actor] Ashley [Thomas], I’ve not read the book, so I listened to Eddie Izzard reading it.” Adding: “That is definitely worth a listen.”
Great Expectations marks one of Whitehead’s biggest roles to date after appearing in Emily, The Picture of Dorian Grey and ITV’s Him.
Addressing Pip’s character growth over the course of the series, Whitehead said: “The thing that I really wanted try and play as much as possible in our version of Great Expectations is the code-switching thing and the fact that the gentleman persona is much more of an act than the other thing, than him being a blacksmith’s boy.”
Knight’s version of Great Expectations takes a very different approach, adding a gritty realism to the story like never before with the inclusion of sex, swearing and drugs.
Additionally, the grime and filth of London are part of the aesthetic, along with the gothic elements like the more traditional adaptations audiences have previously seen.
Some have been decrying the new series as woke and “drivel”, which has led Knight to take a stand and address his fresh take on Dickens.
But this evening, viewers will be able to make up their own minds when the drama starts.
The most recent adaptations of Great Expectations have included a 2011 BBC production starring Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham and a big-screen version with Helena Bonham Carter taking on the duty of the haunted jilted lady.
Both Anderson and Bonham Carter starred opposite Colman in The Crown, who is the latest actress to assume the mantle of Miss Havisham.
In fact, the prospect of playing Miss Havisham proved so daunting for Colman she initially turned it down before later reconsidering.
Colman said: “No, I hadn’t seen either of them play it. I can remember a black-and-white one that I’d seen as a kid with my family.”
She continued: “I would have liked to have seen them but you try not to watch it when you hear you might be up for the job. I don’t want to know.
“It’s much better, I think, our job is to commit to the script we’ve been given and that suggests you can be lazy but I think otherwise you go, ‘What about that bit? What about that bit?’
“And actually you’ve been employed to do that script and don’t want to be influenced and feel a bit nervous.”
Great Expectations writer Knight also weighed in about other versions of the classic rags to riches tale.
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He said: “I personally stayed away from any. I remember as a kid watching the BBC’s Sunday afternoon Dickens.
“Brilliant actors with really cheap and terrible things. It was done really good.
“The thing that struck me was working-class people being depicted not as comedic [figures] and it just made me think about Dickens.”
Adding: “But I didn’t re-watch any adaptations at all. I think that takes you another step away from the original.”
Great Expectations airs tonight on BBC One at 9pm
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