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Great Expectations. BBC1. 9pm.

175 replies

tiredemma · 27/12/2011 20:16

Cant wait!

Trailer looks fab.

Smile
OP posts:
wintera · 27/12/2011 22:31

I thought everyone was fab actually. I even liked what they did with miss haversham, I thought it was interesting it was like she was an ethereal creature moving round the house. The only cast problem for me was with the older Estella. I'm sorry but she just wasn't beautiful enough. That might sound bitchy but I found her plain looking. Estella is supposed to be stunningly beautiful. She just didn't work for me at all. But I loved everything else.

lilibet · 27/12/2011 22:39

I was a bit Hmm that Joe didn't say 'What Larks' - not once!

And that he was too pretty, she wasn't pretty enough.

But on the whole it was very good.

I hope they don't cut the Aged P

CroissantNeuf · 27/12/2011 22:46

I enjoyed it but agree that:

-Miss Haversham was too young
-older Pip was too pretty

wintera · 27/12/2011 22:48

Apparently there is also a new film in the pipeline, starring Helena Bonham Carter as Miss haversham and Ralph Fiennes as magwitch. Love both of them so it sounds perfect to me!

Bunbaker · 27/12/2011 22:59

"I've just read (most of) the GE wiki page so I've got my bearings now."

So have I as I haven't read the book. These days Gillian Anderson seems to be getting somewhat typecast as a decrepid old lady in period pieces - Bleak House, The Crimson Petal and the White and now Great Expectations.

alemci · 27/12/2011 23:00

I did think at first GA was too young but I suppose she was only young when she was meant to get married so 15 years' on would work.

who played Biddie. I recognised her.

Did read bits of this at school but found it boring but I was 11 and pretended I knew what the teacher was on about when she questioned us.

wintera · 28/12/2011 07:57

Did I miss a bit? I didn't see biddie at all. I was wondering what they had done with the character as she is very important in the book too.

RaPaPaPumPumBootyMum · 28/12/2011 11:04

Oh, I loved GA as Miss Haversham. She was quite eerie the way she appeared to slowly levitate down those stairs and spoke in that spooky way.

Agree that older Pip was too pretty and posh looking whilst older Estella was relatively plain.

Really liked young Pip, the actor who played him had such an expressive face.

wintera · 28/12/2011 11:45

I do think Douglas Booth is a star of the future though. I thought it when he appeared as Boy George in Worried about the boy, he's got star quality all over him. He may get typecast because of his beautiful face but so far he has been in mostly edgey dramas. He was also in Christopher and his kind with Matt Smith as his gay lover. Apparently he is soon going to be starring as Romeo in a new version of Romeo and Juliet too.

I liked this new adaptation and am excited about the next episode. I liked most of the changes, let's face it, there have been so many versions of Great Expectations that they need to reinvent it to make it different and stand out from the others.

LeBOF · 28/12/2011 13:10

I didn't notice Biddie either Confused

miaowmix · 28/12/2011 13:20

I loved it, thought it was beautifully atmospheric and GA was surprisingly excellent as Miss H - she surely could be around 45 which isn't that young?
Only lt down for me I'm afraid was the older Estella, who just wasn't beautiful enough and looked too modern somehow?
Child Pip and Estellas were outstanding.

suburbandream · 28/12/2011 13:25

I loved it, I thought GA was excellent, and also the brilliant Ray Winstone.
Young Pip and Estella were fantastic, but older Pip too boy-band pretty and I agree the older Estella was not beautiful enough.

LeBOF · 28/12/2011 13:25

I thought older Estella and older Pip both looked too modern. He looked like a reject from the X Factor auditions or something.

miaowmix · 28/12/2011 13:31

Older Pip is ridiculously handsome, I thought his face actually fit but the hair was a bit boy-band maybe.
But overall superb adaptation. I just worry about Estella's plucked eyebrows or something... she vaguely reminded me of Alex from Strictly who I irrationally hated. Just not refined enough for Estella.

alemci · 28/12/2011 13:34

I think i meant Mrs Pip, Joe's wife. Maybe Biddy is in another book or later on.

LeBOF · 28/12/2011 13:44

Biddie is in GE, and earlyish, so it must be the next episode.

ElfOnTheShelf · 28/12/2011 13:47

Miss Haversham looks far too young and i also though Estella wasn't beautiful enough - loved the young Estella, all haughty etc Xmas Smile

Thought Joe's wife was supposed to die hence why Biddie appeared (in the other GA movie i saw anyway) and i don't remeber another apprentice either.

Looking forward to tonight's episode.

ElfOnTheShelf · 28/12/2011 13:47

(GE i mean - gah)

2BoysTooLoud · 28/12/2011 13:58

I hope the actress who plays Estella doesn't read this - she would get a right complex- hardly the back end of a bus poor girl!!

AitchTwoOHoHoHo · 28/12/2011 14:06

see i think you are all totally wrong re estella, that woman IS utterly beautiful but we won't see it immediately. we will grow to see it, i'll bet. it would be far too obvious if E was just pretty on first glance, that's hardly captivating.

MercyDulbottle · 28/12/2011 14:19

Ha ha, everyone here has said exactly what I thought. When adult estella came downstairs, Miss H said, 'isn't she beautiful' and me and DH went in unison... 'er..no'.

I thought at the time that there would be people up and down the land saying exactly the same thing! poor girl, what a line to live up to, she is considerably prettier than I am, anyway but I'm sure they could have cast a real, luminous beauty.

And adult Pip just looked ridiculous in the forgery, I don't really like the kind of good looks that seem to rely on having big puffy lips. Was watching the lion the witch and the wardrobe christmas eve, and all the pevensie kids had the puffy lip thing going on especially peter and Susan, they looked a bit odd.

wintera · 28/12/2011 15:25

I don't wish to be unkind about the poor girl of course I don't. She's a pretty girl after all but like someone else said Estella is supposed to be luminous and I'm sorry but she just wasn't. I've got a feeling they have cut biddy out of it. She would have been in it by now. She is friends with pip early on and then nurses Mrs Joe after she is attacked and left brain damaged.

AitchTwoOHoHoHo · 28/12/2011 21:28

i'm kind of surprised at how limited the thinking is re casting... guess that's what you get when you do 'the classics'. i bet you that you are all thinking of the way that the BBC adapted it when you were all 12 and you are stuck with the images from then as being the 'correct' ones. gwyneth paltrow, for example, has played E and i don't think she's luminous either but her casting didn't cause me any heart failure.

the writer will have pored over the book and the director over the script before casting that actress, if they chose her, i am guessing she will have some chops, just as GA does.

LeBOF · 28/12/2011 21:34

I'm not so disquieted by Estella, but I find the actor playing Pip quite implausible. Would a poor blacksmith's child really look quite so well-nourished and flawless of skin and teeth in Victorian times? He's of much the same background as Orlick, yet could model for Calvin Klein.

MollieO · 28/12/2011 21:36

I don't think it helps Estella that Pip is just so pretty. Most women standing next to him would be considered plain. The actress playing Estella is attractive but not beautiful.