[InOne]

Ray Winstone and Douglas Booth star in this three-part dramatisation of the classic Dickens novel about an orphan's rise through high society with the assistance of a mysterious benefactor. Adapted by Sarah Phelps, it forms the centrepiece of the BBC's celebration of Dickens' bicentenary year in 2012. Eleven-year-old Pip's life is changed dramatically by an encounter with escaped convict Abel Magwitch. With David Suchet, Gillian Anderson, Mark Addy and Claire Rushbrook. Continues tomorrow

Looks a good cast too. I remember ITV did a good version of this a few years back so hope this is on par.

[Omah]

I am looking forward to Gillian's appearance (in both senses) .....

[Tom]

I remember getting an A* on my essay on this at GCSE

[InOne]

Originally Posted by Omah

I am looking forward to Gillian's appearance (in both senses) .....

Yeah her take will be interesting on it. She won't be looking lovely aas nomal tonight I thought she'd be a bit young for this role though

[Ammi]

Have been really looking forward to this...hope it meets expectations

[Omah]

All expectations met .....

Well, apart from "old" Pip's lips - they're weird .....

But Gillian Anderson was bloomin' brilliant .....

[joeysteele]

It was good, very well portrayed throughout.

[Ammi]

I recorded it...hope to get time to watch it later....Gillian Anderson looks great....very unhinged..

[InOne]

Yeah that older Pip has got a really annoying face for some reason

[Omah]

http://channelhopping.onthebox.com/2...p-the-younger/

Many people who’ve read the book might agree that Gillian Anderson is still a little young to play the spinster who never recovered from a jilting. Yet she plays the part well and has certainly found her niche in these productions over the last few years, from Bleak House to this January’s The Crimson Petal and the White, it seems the years she spent living in London as a child had a profound affect on her. She captures the ethereal nature of Havisham brilliantly and there are also hints of her menace in this opening episode. At this stage we watch as she trains her adopted daughter Estella to resist the lures of men, but it soon becomes clear that her twisted soul has manifested itself in a far more sinister plan and she attempts to hurt menfolk through her beautiful heir. As such, Pip’s heart is her plaything and we see early evidence of this here when she wrongfoots him with the apprenticeship. After a decade of playing a mainstream American icon, it seems fitting that the self-confessed High School oddball has returned to her roots. And just like any of the Dickensian antiheroes, Miss Havisham must be a joy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...ne-review.html

At 43, Gillian Anderson is the youngest actress to play Miss Havisham and looks it; you’d never guess she’s only a few years younger than Martita Hunt, whose grande dame interpretation of the role in David Lean’s 1946 film (which the BFI is re-releasing in February) is still considered definitive. So it was almost a shock to meet this pale yet still beautiful wraith, mouth in need of lip salve and Baby Jane ringlets slowly unravelling, speaking in insidious singsong instead of the usual dotty dowager tones. This was a Miss Havisham who has never really grown up.

Oscar Kennedy was compelling as young Pip, but when he grew into young adulthood the production took its first misstep. It’s not that Douglas Booth was bad, nor that Vanessa Kirby (who plays Miss Havisham’s ward) is unattractive, it’s just that one can’t imagine Dickens ever intended Pip to be more beautiful than Estella, who, after all, has been brought up to break men’s hearts..

[Ammi]

I think Gillian Anderson's Miss Haversham is very good, as is Ray Winstone's Magwitch and young Pip...not sure about older Pip, a bit too pretty...but, we'll see....am looking forward to the second part

[Lee.]

I really enjoyed part 1.. ill need to record the next two partaking because of work but I'm looking forward to them

[Kerry]

Recording them all to watch back to back

[Omah]

I got through most of Episode 2 but became increasingly irritated by the "stars", Pip (Douglas Booth) and Estella (Vanessa Kirby) - Booth was presumably chosen for his "looks", but even his weird lips cannot detract from his wooden acting - Kirby was obviously NOT chosen for her "looks", which, regrettably, cannot overcome her nondescript demeanour - both of them are acted off the screen by even the most insignificant members of the supporting cast, while Suchet, Anderson and Shaun Dooley are excellent - meanwhile, I no longer care what happens to Pip .....

[InOne]

Estella is far too plain looking and just looks silly cast along the pretty boy Pip. It's like they got it the total wrong way round! Estella is meant to be insanely beautiful and Pip is meant to be plain

[Omah]

Originally Posted by Scrooge

Estella is far too plain looking and just looks silly cast along the pretty boy Pip. It's like they got it the total wrong way round! Estella is meant to be insanely beautiful and Pip is meant to be plain

Yeah, everybody's better-looking than Estella .....

[InOne]

I think the last ep was the best but still seemed rushed. It wasn't really character driven either which was annoying. I never felt the love from Pip and Estella didn't seem cold enough.

[fruit_cake]

I missed this will try to watch it on catch up if it's there

[Omah]

Originally Posted by christmas_cake

I missed this will try to watch it on catch up if it's there

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...ons_Episode_1/

Available until 9:59PM Thu, 5 Jan 2012

[fruit_cake]

Originally Posted by Omah

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...ons_Episode_1/

Available until 9:59PM Thu, 5 Jan 2012

tyvm

[joeysteele]

I thought it was good, really liked it and wasn't sure I would.

[Kerry]

Just watched the first one. Not keen. I have the second on but doubt I'll pay much attention to it

[Omah]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...bbey-ITV1.html

Given Dickens’s taste for the fantastical it may seem unfair to criticise an adaptation for its implausibility, but I rather lost faith in this one the moment it introduced us to the full-grown Pip (Douglas Booth). Having entered the pupa of adolescence as a scowling urchin (Oscar Kennedy), he emerged as an androgynous heart-throb with a boy-band fringe, exquisitely shaped eyebrows, and skin of aftershave-advert purity. For some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on, it was difficult to believe in this pouting beauty as a Victorian blacksmith’s apprentice.

Still, he didn’t linger in so unseemly a milieu for long; thanks to his unexpected expectations, so to speak, he fled to London to become a gentleman, or at any rate a stuck-up little twit. But though he looked a convincing fop, he didn’t look a convincing Pip. Pip is meant to be a plain, unprepossessing boy who yearns for a girl, Estella, in every respect out of his league; if Pip’s is by far the most photogenic face on view, it’s hard to see why he’s so dazzled by her.

Yeah, it's hard to suspend disbelief when the main characters of a "plot" are totally at odds with the author's intentions .....

The defining scene in BBC One’s new version of Great Expectations (Tue-Thu) was the death of Miss Havisham, the jilted bride who lives in her wedding dress. In Dickens’s novel, her dress catches light when she sits too near the fire; she dies weeks later from shock. In the adaptation, however, she solemnly lowered her veil, made a pyre of her ex-fiancé’s love letters, then stepped into the blaze and burnt herself to death.

It can’t be easy to make Great Expectations more melodramatic than it already is, but the BBC managed it.

[fruit_cake]

I've just watched the first two of these and now BBC have taken episode three off their site

[InOne]

Might be on youtube or something