Another Great Expectations. Why?

For me it's no no and no.
An article by Christopher Stevens says it all:
Pip (Tom Sweet) is no longer a quick-thinking innocent with an over-active imagination, but a morose, insolent adolescent with a foul mouth.

Aldom

Grandma70 I pronounce Shrewsbury as Shrowsbury.

So do I, but I know someone from there who says Shroosbury. Apparently even the locals differ.

Back to the point. GE was better than I expected. I quite enjoyed it, but I see Dickens as a superior journalist rather than a great novelist, so I see no need to treat him with any great reverence.

If I watched it purely as a play then I enjoyed it. If I compared it with other versions or the book then it differed a lot. I hope anyone doing it for A level does not use it like they did Brave Heart and get it all wrong.
Also, Olvia Colman rolled out in another "Big Frock", I can't stand her as it is and this was just what I was expecting but hoping for something different from her, to prove she is the excellent actress others say she is.

And imo Muppet Christmas Carol is the definitive version; and definitely Michael Caine’s finest hour

I could not face yet another interpretation of Great Expectations, the photographs and the publicity blurb were enough, and I see that it has not gone down well with the critics.

Aldom I’m with you it will always be Shrowsbury to me My family on both sides were Salopians going back generations. That’s the way they pronounced it and I see no reason to change, despite the comments from one of my children and the fact that autocorrect seems determined to change my mind!

I liked the 2011 series with Gillian Anderson and Ray Winstone.

Eddie Izzard will soon be doing a ‘one woman’ show of GE.

I haven’t seen any of the new one yet. Not sure if I will - I’ll leave it up to MrC who is a bigger fan of Dickens than I am.

I agree with everything that Chestnut said yesterday.
I’m a bit fed up with seeing OC in everything to be honest.
She wasn’t very good in The Crown

Nothing annoys me more than currently fashionable writers taking a classic novel or play and re-inventing it to gain themselves notoriety. Peaky blinders didn't engage me but it was original and the author's own work; altering a brilliant story and its characters to fit in with modern mores is cheap. I saw the opening scenes and they were a travesty.

I stuck with it, but found it overly dark which I'm not sure Dickens himself intended.
Olivia Coleman was good.

I think if you're watching it fresh, knowing nothing of the book or previous versions, it would be enjoyable. Especially for those who liked Peaky Blinders and similar.
Did it suffer from the usual bad sound/mumbling or was it my ears?

It's had dire reviews. I'll watch it this afternoon and see for myself.

The 1946 John Mills version is amazing.
The fact that John Mills was approaching forty when he played the role of Pip as a young man.
I just still relish this film, the characters so mememorable.
It’s always takes me to a happy place somehow😍

Nothing on the 1946 John Mills film - that was brilliant.
I was very disappointed with last night’s adaptation.

I've always liked the actor who plays Pumblechook grumppa but I did feel that the character was a bit underplayed. I'm presuming this was the director's idea. I find a lot of the small details irritating, Biddy calling Pip Pip when he was Pip Pirrip. Gargery was his sister's married name. Miss Haversham wanting the cleverest boy in the village when there's no suggestion in the book that Pip was outstandingly clever. In fact Estella makes fun of his ignorance at every opportunity.

Withholding judgement, but disappointed by Pumblechook - not nearly pompous enough. And I doubt whether Jaggers was a KC.

Sorry I just started another thread on this.
I thoroughly enjoyed this first episode.
Brilliant acting and atmospheric setting.
Looking forward to next Sunday.

Grandma70 I pronounce Shrewsbury as Shrowsbury.

Pittcity

I enjoyed the first episode even though it departed from the original right from the beginning.
I have read that it departs further from Dickens in the next episode.

So our expectations should not be too great, then!

I enjoyed the first episode even though it departed from the original right from the beginning.
I have read that it departs further from Dickens in the next episode.

Good so far.

NanaDana

Why not another one? With its Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) credentials it should certainly be a different take on the tale. Mind you, it'll have to go some to come anywhere near to the standard of the David Lean directed 1946 version, with John Mills and Jean Simmons. As for other Dickens offerings, I've lost count of the versions of A Christmas Carol that I've seen. None of them a patch on the Alec Guinness version, but all worth a watch nevertheless... even The Muppets one!

I haven’t seen any old versions of this so will def watch it to see what it’s like.
I have seen the Muppets Christmas Carol tho😂 very funny and also the Goes Wrong Show version.

I’m enjoying it, but I enjoy (some of) the AC modernisations too.

When you know the story well, having extra twists adds to the enjoyment and if you don’t know the original you won’t notice. Modern language makes things more relevant- the characters were modern when they were written- so I doubt that Dickens would care either way .

OK I'm 15 minutes into it and hating it already. It's right up there with the recent Agatha Christie adaptations, keep the title and the names of the characters and write a whole new story with modern language, modern attitudes and things that never happened in the original. If you loved David Lean's version I don't think this one is for you.

It is true that there are always the same Dickens books chosen for tv adaptations, but maybe this is because they are popular and can also be sold to the US market who are reported to have an insatiable demand for British historical drama? I find it is often the case that there is nothing we want to watch, or several programmes which clash, what annoys me the most is when one of the main channels has a major football match on and the other channels seem to me to not bother with any decent alternative because they assume everyone will be watching the football!

Sorry if it sounded like grumbling Houseplantqueen. I guess I'm just nostalgic for my youth when there was such
a wide variety of good quality drama on the Tele. I expect it's all down to budget and what producers consider most commercial. I still think there would be an appetite for less well known stories - if people were given the chance to hear them

I do pat the fee, HPQ, but that doesn’t help me tonight as I can’t access ITVx without wifi. I could watch one or the other on my laptop or iPad, but was just saying that after Saturday night’s dearth of decent programmes it is ironic that there is a clash of decent watching tonight.