See Olivia Colman’s Miss Havisham in ‘Great Expectations’ Teaser (VIDEO)
The BBC has released the first teaser for Great Expectations, the new Charles Dickens adaptation from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, starring Oscar winner Olivia Colman as the eccentric Miss Havisham.
“What a prized creature we have fished from the river,” Colman’s Miss Havisham says in the clip (watch below) as she meets young Pip (Tom Sweet) for the first time. Pip looks surprised and even fearful of the reclusive woman as she emerges from the dark, with her yellowing teeth and tattered old wedding dress.
The six-part series is set to debut in the spring on the BBC and will stream on Hulu in the United States. It will also be available on Star+ in Latin America and on Disney+ under the Star banner at a future date.
Great Expectations is an adaptation of one of Dickens’ most highly regarded novels, which tells the coming-of-age of Pip, an orphan who is introduced to the mysterious spinster Miss Havisham and Estella (Shalom Brune-Franklin). Pip is soon shown a dark world of possibilities and, under the great expectations thrust upon him, he must work out the cost of this new world and whether it will truly make him the man he desires to be.
In addition to Colman, the series also stars Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) as the older Pip. Other cast members include Ashley Thomas (Top Boy), Johnny Harris (The Salisbury Poisonings), Hayley Squires (Call the Midwife), Owen McDonnell (Killing Eve), Laurie Ogden (The Colour Room), Matt Berry (What We Do In the Shadows), Trystan Gravelle (Baptiste) and Rudi Dharmalingam (The Split).
This marks the second major Dickens adaptation from Knight, who previously produced A Christmas Carol for the BBC and FX. He 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, and Mona Qureshi. Lucy Forbes (This Is Going To Hurt) will serve as lead director, with Mark Kinsella (White Lines) as producer.
Great Expectations, TBA, Hulu