FILMHOUNDS Magazine

All things film – In print and online

An Exclusive First Look At Olivia Colman in Stephen Knight’s ‘Great Expectations’

Great Expectations (2022)

Can we have too many adaptations of ? Apparently not.

First look images have released today of Stephen Knight's take on the Dickens classic. stars as Miss Havisham alongside as Pip and Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella in the series for the BBC and FX.

Great Expectations (2022)
Courtesy of the BBC.

They will appear in the six-part limited series alongside a stellar cast including Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle, Rudi Dharmalingam and Matt Berry.

Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of an orphan nicknamed Pip. Dickens first released it in a series of weekly chapters beginning in December 1860 before it was subsequently published as a novel.

Knight will write and executive produce Great Expectations, which will also be executive produced by Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, Kate Crowe – the team behind 2019's A Christmas Carol – and Tommy Bulfin for the BBC. Great Expectations will be produced by FX Productions in association with the BBC, Scott Free and Hardy Son & Baker.

Great Expectations (2022)
Courtesy of the BBC

Great Expectations is the second Dickens adaptation penned by Knight, following the hit limited series A Christmas Carol. Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol are the first two in a series of adaptations of Dickens' novels commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Chief Content Officer, and Piers Wenger, former Director of Drama at the BBC, and FX. The BBC and FX also produced the acclaimed drama series Taboo, starring Tom Hardy, written by Steven Knight and produced by Knight, Hardy, Chips Hardy, Scott, Baker and Crowe.

Filming on Great Expectations continues in the South of England. The series will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK.