"Great Expectations" (BBC1, 2011)
I have just finished watching the first of the three parts of this new adaptation by Sarah Phelps. In general terms I found it a fascinating and utterly gripping version of the story... especially when one was actually watching it, thanks to the wonderful look of the production and camera-work.
On reflection afterwards, I became aware of some things missing (apart from the inevitable compression of the cast of smaller characters in Dickens's novel). Prime among the elements missing, for me, was the alleviation of humour which is so intrinsic to the Dickensian experience. One scene which is funny in the book (and the Lean film) is the first encounter between Pip and Herbert. Instead of a funny, pugnacious stripling, Herbert was a rather bizarre sneering Fauntleroy... and the scene was humourless and rather went for naught.
I suspect it is a conscious decision to make the whole thing dark (evidenced by the ominous black butterfly at the end of the handsome opening titles): even the Mrs Gargery of the book isn't as odious and violent as the character we see in this production.
So whilst gripping at the time, an element of complexity is missing. Likewise when Pip leaves at the end of part one: in the book, one senses he is deeply torn at leaving Joe and the forge. The leave-taking is much more touching and complex ("in a moment with a strong heave and sob I broke into tears. It was by the finger-post at the end of the village, and I laid my hand upon it, and said, 'Goodbye, O my dear, dear friend!' ") than in the adaptation, in which one senses that Pip has already left, mentally... a brief embrace of Joe, and he's off in his coach. It's odd, since the emotional bond between Pip and Joe was very well done early on.
I was totally convinced by the Gillian Anderson 'Havisham'.... less so by the casting of the older Pip and Estella, so far at least: as the Telegraph reviewer says, it's hard to believe that Dickens intended Pip to be prettier than Estella. As Anna has said elsewhere herein, the lantern-jawed, pouting 'model' look of Pip is a bit o.t.t. I think. The Telegraph reviewer (Anne Billson) is funny about it: "if I were a Miss Havisham as young as Anderson I would have thought to hell with his background and married him on the spot, just so I could gaze at him over the breakfast table."
However, these reservations are minimal compared with the visual and visceral enjoyment of the adaptation as a piece of dramatic interpretation, making well nigh the most of the possibilities and limitations of its medium.
(PS: Great turn as Jaggers by D Suchet
- I like a good gravelly mysterious lawyer - but I regret the apparent absence from this adaptation of the Agèd P - a watchword in our house since I were a lad a-growin' by the forge.... 
)
On reflection afterwards, I became aware of some things missing (apart from the inevitable compression of the cast of smaller characters in Dickens's novel). Prime among the elements missing, for me, was the alleviation of humour which is so intrinsic to the Dickensian experience. One scene which is funny in the book (and the Lean film) is the first encounter between Pip and Herbert. Instead of a funny, pugnacious stripling, Herbert was a rather bizarre sneering Fauntleroy... and the scene was humourless and rather went for naught.
I suspect it is a conscious decision to make the whole thing dark (evidenced by the ominous black butterfly at the end of the handsome opening titles): even the Mrs Gargery of the book isn't as odious and violent as the character we see in this production.
So whilst gripping at the time, an element of complexity is missing. Likewise when Pip leaves at the end of part one: in the book, one senses he is deeply torn at leaving Joe and the forge. The leave-taking is much more touching and complex ("in a moment with a strong heave and sob I broke into tears. It was by the finger-post at the end of the village, and I laid my hand upon it, and said, 'Goodbye, O my dear, dear friend!' ") than in the adaptation, in which one senses that Pip has already left, mentally... a brief embrace of Joe, and he's off in his coach. It's odd, since the emotional bond between Pip and Joe was very well done early on.
I was totally convinced by the Gillian Anderson 'Havisham'.... less so by the casting of the older Pip and Estella, so far at least: as the Telegraph reviewer says, it's hard to believe that Dickens intended Pip to be prettier than Estella. As Anna has said elsewhere herein, the lantern-jawed, pouting 'model' look of Pip is a bit o.t.t. I think. The Telegraph reviewer (Anne Billson) is funny about it: "if I were a Miss Havisham as young as Anderson I would have thought to hell with his background and married him on the spot, just so I could gaze at him over the breakfast table."
However, these reservations are minimal compared with the visual and visceral enjoyment of the adaptation as a piece of dramatic interpretation, making well nigh the most of the possibilities and limitations of its medium.
(PS: Great turn as Jaggers by D Suchet
- I like a good gravelly mysterious lawyer - but I regret the apparent absence from this adaptation of the Agèd P - a watchword in our house since I were a lad a-growin' by the forge.... )
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