Great Expectations Charles Dickens

Like many other Dickens novels, Great Expectations has been filmed for the cinema or television and adapted for the stage numerous times. The film adaptation in 1946 gained the greatest acclaim.[171] The story is often staged, and less often produced as a musical. The 1939 stage play and the 1946 film that followed from that stage production did not include the character Orlick and ends the story when the characters are still young adults.[172] That character has been excluded in many televised adaptations made since the 1946 movie by David Lean.[172] Following are highlights of the adaptations for film and television, and for the stage, since the early 20th century.

Film and television

• 1917 – Great Expectations, a silent film, starring Jack Pickford, directed by Robert G. Vignola. This is a lost film.[173]
• 1922 – Silent film, and the first adaptation not in English, made in Denmark, starring Martin Herzberg, directed by A. W. Sandberg.[174]
• 1934 – Great Expectations film starring Phillips Holmes and Jane Wyatt, directed by Stuart Walker.
• 1946 – Great Expectations, the most celebrated film version,[171] starring John Mills as Pip, Bernard Miles as Joe, Alec Guinness as Herbert, Finlay Currie as Magwitch, Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Anthony Wager as Young Pip, Jean Simmons as Young Estella and Valerie Hobson as the adult Estella, directed by David Lean. It came fifth in a 1999 BFI poll of the top 100 British films.
• 1954 – the first television adaptation shown as two-part television version starring Roddy McDowall as Pip and Estelle Winwood as Miss Havisham. It aired as an episode of the show Robert Montgomery Presents.[175]
• 1959 – BBC television version aired in 13 parts, starring Dinsdale Landen as Pip, Helen Lindsay as Estella, Colin Jeavons as Herbert Pocket, Marjorie Hawtrey as Miss Havisham and Derek Benfield as Landlord.[172] It was rebroadcast in 1960, but has not been seen since, as Part 8 is missing.
• 1967 – Great Expectations – a BBC television serial starring Gary Bond as Pip and Francesca Annis. BBC issued the series on DVD in 2017.[176]
• 1974 – Great Expectations – a film starring Michael York as Pip and Simon Gipps-Kent as Young Pip, Sarah Miles and James Mason, directed by Joseph Hardy.
• 1981 – Great Expectations – a BBC serial starring Stratford Johns, Gerry Sundquist, Joan Hickson, Patsy Kensit and Sarah-Jane Varley. Produced by Barry Letts, and directed by Julian Amyes.
• 1983 – an animated version, starring Phillip Hinton, Liz Horne, Robin Stewart and Bill Kerr, adapted by Alexander Buzo.[177]
• 1987 – Great Expectations: The Untold Story
• 1989 – Great Expectations, a Disney Channel two-part film starring Anthony Hopkins as Magwitch, John Rhys-Davies as Joe Gargery, and Jean Simmons as Miss Havisham, directed by Kevin Connor.
• 1998 – Great Expectations, a film starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert De Niro, and Anne Bancroft, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. This adaptation is set in contemporary New York City, and renames Pip to Finn and Miss Havisham to Nora Dinsmoor. The film's score was composed by Patrick Doyle.
• 1999 – Great Expectations, a film starring Ioan Gruffudd as Pip, Justine Waddell as Estella, and Charlotte Rampling as Miss Havisham (Masterpiece Theatre—TV)
• 2000 – Pip, an episode of the television show South Park, starring Matt Stone as Pip, Eliza Schneider as Estella, and Trey Parker as Miss Havisham.
• 2011 – Great Expectations, a three-part BBC serial. Starring Ray Winstone as Magwitch, Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham and Douglas Booth as Pip.
• 2012 – Great Expectations, a film directed by Mike Newell, starring Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch, Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham and Jeremy Irvine as Pip.
• 2012 – Magwitch, a film written and directed by Samuel Supple, starring Samuel Edward Cook as Magwitch, Candis Nergaard as Molly and David Verrey as Jaggers. The film is a prequel to Great Expectations made for the Dickens bicentenary. It was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Morelia International Festival.
• 2016 – Fitoor is an Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Abhishek Kapoor, starring Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Tabu and Ajay Devgn. The film is set and filmed in Kashmir.[178][179]
• 2023 – Great Expectations, a six-part BBC and FX co-production, scripted and executive produced by Steven Knight, and starring Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham, Fionn Whitehead as Pip, Johnny Harris as Magwitch, Bashy as Jaggers, Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella.[180]

Stage

• 1871 – Great Expectations by W.S. Gilbert, playwright of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas. The play opened at the Royal Court Theatre on 29 May 1871 and ran for around 48 performances. Pip was played at various ages by Jessie Powell and Miss M Brennan, with Edward Righton as Joe, JC Cowper as Magwitch, John Clayton as Jaggers and Eleanor Bufton as Estella. Miss Havisham did not appear as a character in the play, which was revived on 17 March 1877 at the Royal Aquarium Theatre, where it ran for just a month.[181][182]
• 1939 – adaptation made by Alec Guinness and staged at Rudolf Steiner Hall, which was to influence David Lean's 1946 film, in which both Guinness and Martita Hunt reprised their stage roles.[183][184]
• 1975 – Stage Musical (London West End). Music by Cyril Ornadel, lyrics by Hal Shaper, starring Sir John Mills. Ivor Novello Award for Best British Musical.[185]
• 1988 – Glasgow Mayfest, stage version by the Tag Theatre Company in association with the Gregory Nash group, adapted by John Clifford; the cast included a young Alan Cumming and the staging included dance, and it was a success.[186][187]
• 1995 – Stage adaptation of Great Expectations at Dublin's Gate Theatre by Hugh Leonard.[188]
• 2002 – Melbourne Theatre Company four-hour re-telling, in an adaptation by company director Simon Phillips.[189]
• 2005 – Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation by the Cheek by Jowl founders Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, with Sian Phillips as Miss Havisham.[190][191]
• 2011 – English Touring Theatre and Watford Palace Theatre production of adaptation by Tanika Gupta.[192]
• 2013 – West End adaptation written by Jo Clifford[193] and directed by Graham McLaren. Paula Wilcox as Miss Havisham, Chris Ellison as Magwitch.[194] This was a revival of the 1988 adaptation, without dance.[195] This play was filmed in 2013.[196]
• 2015 – Dundee Repertory Theatre adaptation written by Jo Clifford and directed by Jemima Levick.[197]
• 2016 – West Yorkshire Playhouse adaptation written by Michael Eaton and directed by Lucy Bailey. Starring Jane Asher as Miss Havisham.[198][199]
• 2022 – A one-woman adapted show of Great Expectations performed by Eddie Izzard in New York City at the Greenwich House Theater between 2022 and 2023, featuring Izzard performing over 20 characters.[200]
• 2023 - Eddie Izzard transferred her one-woman show to London at the Garrick Theatre on 26 May for a limited 6 week engagement.[201]