Olivia Colman and Steven Knight discuss the “gripping” adaptation of ‘Great Expectations’
Steven Knight and Olivia Colman, writer and star of the upcoming FX and BBC series Great Expectations, have discussed the show ahead of its premiere. Based on the 1861 Charles Dickens novel of the same name, it follows the orphan Pip who meets the eccentric Miss Havisham and changes the trajectory of his life forever.
As well as serving as a writer, Knight will also executive produce alongside Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker and Kate Crowe. Directing is Brady Hoody and Samira Radsi. Great Expectations is produced by FX Productions in association with the BBC, Scott Free and Hardy Son & Baker.
“I think that with any great writer like Dickens, the issues and the subjects that he deals with will always be timeless,” Knight told the BBC. “They won’t be just of the time, they will be about the human condition. What I didn’t want to do – and I think Dickens never tried to do – was make something specifically political”.
He continued: “He was never banging the drum, he was just saying ‘this is what’s going on’ and people could draw their own conclusions. You couldn’t write about certain things in Dickens’ time: certain elements of sexuality, crime, disobedience against the crown and state. What I tried to do was imagine if Dickens was writing the story now and had the freedom to go to those darker places, what would he do? If he had been liberated to write the things that were going on that he wasn’t allowed to write about.”
Colman added: “The first time I read Steven Knight’s script, I thought it was much darker than what I had remembered from school. Quite a few bottom slapping moments, which I did not recall from the original Dickens. There were quite a few changes and I found it quite gripping.”
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