Great Expectations BBC One 9pm Sunday

[CrossPurposes]

Yet another version begins tonight: https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/articles/2023/great-expectations-steven-knight

One thing that really didn't add up was if Pips sister is 20 years older than him so 34ish? How could his parents died aged 33?! I'm sure when he was at the graves that's the age of death they put his dad at 🤔

In the book Pip is a small boy, not a teenager.

Pip is supposed to be seven, and his sister is “more than 20 years” older than him. In the book, he was orphaned as a tiny baby. If his parents were 33 when they died (though I don’t think the book specifies), so assuming they’d be 40 if still alive, it only works if they had his sister when they were about 13 which seems unlikely.
(It doesn’t work at all if Pip is a strapping teenager of course).

Does the book specify? I can't remember. I know that he looks at his parents names and deduces their character from the writing of the inscriptions.

I don’t think it does.

It said age of death 33 on the gravestone Pip was at. I might have to watch it again to check but I'm sure I'm right because I thought bloody hell that's no age 😳

The father died before the mother, so he could have been 33, and Mrs Joe only 13, say. Then the mother died at an older age?.

Also, I wonder why they changed Mrs Joe's first name from Georgiana to Sarah?.

It was Pip 's mother who was called Georgiana. I don't think the parent's ages were given, but they were buried alongside five children who had died. Harsh times indeed 😞

Pip’s sister is also called Georgiana (in the book). I think it’s only mentioned once or twice, by people visiting their house. (And otherwise she’s Mrs Joe). Definitely not Sarah.

they were buried alongside five children who had died. Harsh times indeed

In Cooling churchyard, which is thought to have inspired Dickens, there are thirteen little graves.

I really liked it!

The astounding fucking cheek of someone thinking they can improve on Dickens. Watch the black and white 1940s version with John Mills, it's fantastic, and give this modern crap a miss.

Didn’t the bbc only do a version say 7-8 years ago with Gillian Anderson as Miss Haversham? Or did I dream that? If I recall she was much better than OC.

And TBH I think this adaptation is just fudging a lot of the detail. For example, the father’s gravestone in Sunday’s episode also says he died in 1822, but the opening scenes of the book where Pip encounters Magwitch are supposed to be Xmas 1812 (with the book covering the period up to about 1840, so age 7 to mid 30’s for Pip). So I guess they’ve decided to move the timeline forward, and age up Pip at the same time. There will be a reason for this, I suppose.

That is so sad. And it is exactly as described in the novel (“little stone lozenges” next to the grave), except there were only 5 next to Pip’s parents’ grave.

Im enjoying seeing the amazing Essex Marshes though.

I think that was 2011, believe it if not. I wasn’t keen on that adaptation in some ways (I thought Pip and Estella weren’t right), but I did like Gillian Anderson and also David Suchet as Jaggers (very creepy).

Twelve years ago @JemimaTab ? I feel very old now! 😱

I have a massive crush on Gillian Anderson so I love her in anything!

This version is on iPlayer along with Little Dorrit, Oliver Twist, and the superb Bleak House (Carey Mulligan, Anna Maxwell Martin, and Gillian Anderson).

I know we can debate whether or not it’s important to stick to the details when adapting a novel - but I do think there’s a point at which, if you change certain things, then it’s no longer true to the original.
For example, I’m not bothered by colourblind casting, and the odd swear word etc. But I do get annoyed when things are changed that fundamentally alter the themes and how they play out.
The main thing for me with this adaptation (I’ve mentioned it before, I promise I’ll shut up about it after this!) is Pip’s age. He’s too old. In the book, he starts off as a little boy. He’s only seven. Not only that, he’s rather vulnerable - he’s an orphan who is beaten by his resentful sister, he is described as sensitive, and small for his age. In the encounter with Magwitch at the start of the book, Magwitch actually hangs Pip upside down to shake his pockets out, which is terrifying. He is far too small and weak to stand up to Magwitch, or his sister, at all.
This is also key to his susceptibility when it comes to Miss Haversham and Estella.
None of this works the same with a teenager, as in the latest adaptation. And not only that, as a teenager he would already be of apprentice age and would likely have already started this with Joe. Which undermines the whole premise of his visiting Miss Haversham and getting “expectations”.
I agree with the previous poster that the 1940’s film is the best version. They do omit certain sub-plots from the book, and John Mills may be a bit old to play adult Pip, but it captures the book so well IMO.

I think that was 2011

2012, I think, for the Dickens bicentenary. I like the opening of that one, with Pip as a little boy - except they used Fairfield church, not Cooling! But I remember thinking adult Pip was wooden, and neither young Estella nor grown up Estella were attractive enough. I know looks shouldn't be everything, but it does have to be believable that Pip was fascinated by Estella, even though she didn't treat him well.

Agree with everyone else, that the John Mills version is still the best.

Im enjoying seeing the amazing Essex Marshes though.

But it should be the Kent marshes! One thing about Great Expectations is that the locations are real, and still there to be seen today

Young Estella is just perfect in the 1940’s film - so beautiful and haughty. You can see immediately why Pip is captured by her.

I think earlier film versions of Dickens are more true to the period and the books because there was living memory of Victorian times and the books were read differently. My education in the 1950s was essentially a pre-war one, and the previous century recent in the memory of people of my grandparents’ age. I had read all the more accessible works of Dickens (GE, DC, BH, TOCS) by the age of 10.

I'm going to be very pedantic and say that the character is called Miss Havisham.