What the Dickens! Spanking sessions, lectures on Empire and Miss Havisham’s an opium addict.. it’s BBC1’s new Great Expectations as you've never seen it before

UK Daily Mail ^ | March 20, 2023 | Emma Powell and Owen Tonks

[C19fan]

His adaptation of A Christmas Carol portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge as a molested schoolboy who grew up to force Tiny Tim’s mother into prostitution.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that Steven Knight’s BBC1 version of Great Expectations turns Miss Havisham, played by Olivia Colman, into an opium addict and shows an ecstatic Mr Pumblechook being spanked in a dingy bedroom.

He has also included references to the British Empire’s connections to the slave trade, with several characters hammering home an anti-colonial message.

[C19fan]

Am I surprised the cultural vandals have started to tear down Austen and Dickens no, feeling rage inside yes. What can I do but refuse to watch and inform people what is happening.

[nopardons]

BTTT

[Smokin' Joe]

This will not last forever. Preserve older copies of the works, so that future generations can compare them.

[Gratia]

Dreary, boring, cultural destruction. What a waste of time.

[gundog]

Meh. There’s an episode of “Wagon Train” that’s based on “Great Expectations. Easier than writing something original, I suppose.

[Sirius Lee]

Is the cast all black and/or lesbian/ghey?

[C19fan]

So far, blacks play Miss Estrella and Jaggers. An East Indian plays Wemmick.

[gattaca]

I’ll pass. I watch period pieces to escape modern life, not to be lectured.

[Chickensoup]

Brit box has all the classics

Watch those.

Let people know what the real ones are like.

Probably would not be a bad idea to copy them off if that can be done.

[Demiurge2]

Miss Havisham as a hophead would actually explain a lot. The rest sounds like nonsense.

[mware]

Fair game. A Man Called Horse was first featured in a Wagon Train episode before Richard Harris starred in the film of the same name.

[Red Badger]

Is this the one where Miss Havisham is black?...............

[Red Badger]

I saw a preview where Miss Havisham is black, but I don’t know if this is it...............

[Red Badger]

Okay, I looked up Olivia Colman and she’s white, so this isn’t the one being advertised on TV.

That, apparently, is another abomination.................

[JoJo354]

That all sounds disgusting. Leave it to the perverts to take masterpieces and turn them into crap.

[C19fan]

Yes Miss Estella Havisham not the crazy Miss Havisham.

[Red Badger]

I meant that the old Miss Havisham is black in the new production I see advertised on TV. .................

[Savage Beast]

Remember when Hollywood would cast, say, Doris Day as Estella and Rock Hudson as Pip, and change the story around so Miss Havisham was just kidding and was really Ann Miller doing tap dance numbers?

Times haven't changed.