Oliver Twist (TV serial)
Encyclopedia
Oliver Twist is a 2007 British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television adaptation of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

' novel Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to...

, written by Sarah Phelps
Sarah Phelps
Sarah Phelps is a British television, radio, film and freelance playwright who was working for the Royal Shakespeare Company when she took part in a BBC initiative to find new writers...

 and directed by Coky Giedroyc
Coky Giedroyc
-Personal life:The elder sister of actress, presenter and writer Mel Giedroyc, she grew up in Leatherhead, Surrey. Her father is Michal Giedroyc, a historian of Polish-Lithuanian descent who came to England in 1947. She attended Bristol University, where she first began making films...

. It consists of five episodes, broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 from 18 to 22 December 2007. It aired on PBS' Masterpiece Classic
Masterpiece Theatre
Masterpiece is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service on January 10, 1971, making it America's longest-running weekly prime time drama series. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions...

in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on 15 and 22 February 2009, in two ninety-minute installments. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, ABC1
ABC1
ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...

 also opted to air this series as a two-part special each Sunday at 8:30 pm from 20 December 2009.

Differences

The adaptation makes several major alterations to the plot of the source material, which include both alterations of events as well as familial relationships.

Rose Maylie is living with Mr Brownlow, and she addresses him as "uncle", but explains that he is in fact her guardian
Legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...

 who took her and her sister, Agnes, in when her mother died. Her sister has been missing for many years, and the search for her has been ongoing. Mr Brownlow is now a part of the overall family tree
Family tree
A family tree, or pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine, genealogy, and social work are known as genograms.-Family tree representations:...

, since Edward Monks
Monks (Oliver Twist)
Edward "Monks" Leeford is a character in the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. He is actually the criminally-inclined half-brother of Oliver Twist, but he hides his identity. Monks's parents separated when he was a child, and his father had a sexual and romantic relationship with a young...

 is made his grandchild. As in the book, Monks becomes aware that Oliver is his half-brother, born to the missing Agnes who had a relationship with his father, and seeks to end his life so that there is no competition to his inheritance. As a result, Oliver is ultimately revealed to be Mr Brownlow's grandchild, in addition to being Rose's nephew and Monks' half-brother, as in the novel.

Nancy is even more of a mother figure to Oliver than in the original novel, the famous musical version
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....

 or especially, the David Lean film version
Oliver Twist (1948 film)
Oliver Twist is the second of David Lean's two film adaptations of Charles Dickens novels. Following the success of his 1946 version of Great Expectations, Lean re-assembled much of the same team for his adaptation of Dicken's 1838 novel, including producers Ronald Neame and Anthony...

, in which she does not even express any concern at all for him until after she and Sykes bring him back to Fagin's. In the 2007 version, she is seen constantly looking after him and tending to his needs (she even kisses him tenderly at one point, stopping just short of telling the boy that she loves him).

After being shot in the house which Sykes attempts to rob, Oliver is taken back to Fagin's lair to recover, rather than being nursed back to health in the countryside by the Maylie family, as in the novel. It is Nancy's informing Rose, and a highly sceptical Mr Brownlow, of Oliver's whereabouts that results in her demise at the hands of Sykes. Her ghost continues to haunt him when he returns to London with Oliver, resulting in him choosing to hang himself in the sewers as a means of escaping the London crowds who chase him.

Meanwhile, Monks' murderous motive is discovered by Mr Brownlow and Rose; he is disowned and sent to the West Indies, and Oliver, escaping the clutches of the crazed Sykes, returns to the Brownlow household, and is welcomed. It is the Artful Dodger, rather than Oliver, who visits the condemned Fagin in prison, and goes to his public execution. Sykes's dog finds Dodger and the two disappear into the crowds together. Fagin has genuine concern for Oliver in this version.

Cast

  • William Miller
    William Miller (actor)
    William Miller is a British child actor who rose to fame when he was chosen for the part of Oliver Twist in the BBC One Christmas adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic broadcast in December 2007...

     as Oliver Twist
    Oliver Twist (character)
    Oliver Twist is the protagonist of the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. He was the first child protagonist in an English language novel.-Background:...

  • Julian Rhind-Tutt
    Julian Rhind-Tutt
    Julian Alistair Rhind-Tutt is an English actor. He is best known for his starring role as "Mac" McCartney in the comedy television series Green Wing, the second series of which finished on Channel 4 in May 2006...

     as Monks
  • Edward Fox
    Edward Fox (actor)
    Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...

     as Mr Brownlow
  • Adam Arnold as The Artful Dodger
    The Artful Dodger
    Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. Dodger is a pickpocket, so called for his skill and cunning in that respect. As a result he has become the leader of the gang of child criminals, trained by the elderly Fagin...

  • Tom Hardy
    Tom Hardy
    Edward Thomas "Tom" Hardy is an English actor. He is best known for playing the title character in the 2008 British film Bronson, the character of Eames in Inception, and the villain Praetor Shinzon in Star Trek Nemesis...

     as Bill Sikes
  • Sophie Okonedo
    Sophie Okonedo
    Sophie Okonedo, OBE is a British actress, who has starred both in successful British and American productions. In 1991, she made her acting debut in the British critically acclaimed coming-of-age drama, Young Soul Rebels...

     as Nancy
  • Morven Christie
    Morven Christie
    -Life and career:Morven Christie grew up in Glasgow and Aviemore. She studied acting at the Drama Centre London, under Reuven Adiv, an associate of Lee Strasberg. She graduated in 2003. Christie has worked on stage, film and television drama since...

     as Rose Maylie
    Rose Maylie
    Rose Fleming Maylie is a character in Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist. She is Oliver's maternal aunt.-Biography:Rose is an orphan raised from young childhood by Mrs. Maylie. Bill Sikes and Toby Crackit, two thieves, break into the Maylies' house, accompanied by Oliver. Oliver is shot by the...

  • Timothy Spall
    Timothy Spall
    Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...

     as Fagin
    Fagin
    Fagin is a fictional character who appears as an antagonist of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, referred to in the preface of the novel as a "receiver of stolen goods", but referred to more frequently within the actual story as the "merry old gentleman" or simply the "Jew".-Character:Born...

  • Gregor Fisher
    Gregor Fisher
    Gregor Fisher is a Scottish comedian and actor.-Early life:Fisher was born in Glasgow and following the death of his parents was brought up in Edinburgh, Langholm and Neilston and attended Barrhead High School...

     as Mr Bumble
  • Sarah Lancashire
    Sarah Lancashire
    Sarah Lancashire is an English actress, probably best recognised for her role as Raquel Watts in Coronation Street. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986.-Television:...

     as Mrs Corney
  • Anna Massey
    Anna Massey
    Anna Raymond Massey, CBE was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner’s novel Hotel du Lac.-Early life:...

     as Mrs Bedwin
  • Nicola Walker
    Nicola Walker
    Nicola Walker is an English actress, best known for her starring roles in various British television programmes from the 1990s onwards, particularly as Ruth Evershed in the spy drama Spooks. She has also worked in theatre, radio and film....

     as Sally
  • Rob Brydon
    Rob Brydon
    Rob Brydon is a BAFTA-nominated Welsh actor, comedian, radio and television presenter, singer and impressionist...

     as Mr Fang
  • John Sessions
    John Sessions
    John Gibb Marshall , better known by the stage name John Sessions, is a Scottish actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?; as a panellist on QI; and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and in Hollywood.-Early...

     as Mr Sowerberry
  • Michelle Gomez
    Michelle Gomez
    Michelle Gomez is a Scottish actress best known for her comedy roles in Green Wing and The Book Group.-Early life:Her father, originally from Montserrat, was a photographer, while her mother ran a modeling agency...

     as Mrs Sowerberry
  • Connor Catchpole as Pearly

Episodes

No Title Length Writer Director Airdate
1 "Episode 1" 60 minutes Sarah Phelps
Sarah Phelps
Sarah Phelps is a British television, radio, film and freelance playwright who was working for the Royal Shakespeare Company when she took part in a BBC initiative to find new writers...

Coky Giedroyc
Coky Giedroyc
-Personal life:The elder sister of actress, presenter and writer Mel Giedroyc, she grew up in Leatherhead, Surrey. Her father is Michal Giedroyc, a historian of Polish-Lithuanian descent who came to England in 1947. She attended Bristol University, where she first began making films...

18 December 2007
2 "Episode 2" 20 December 2007
4 "Episode 4" 21 December 2007
5 "Episode 5" 22 December 2007

Ratings

Episode Viewers (millions)
1 7.82
2 5.67
3 6.10
4 6.34
5 8.17

External links

  • Oliver Twist at the Internet Movie Database
    Internet Movie Database
    Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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