Olivia Colman, Fionn Whitehead & Matt Berry Among Cast Of FX/BBC’s ‘Great Expectations’
Great Expectations has cast its Miss Havisham. Oscar winner Olivia Colman will star as the wealthy, wedding dress-wearing spinster in the FX and BBC limited series adaptation of the Charles Dickens’ novel, which comes from Steven Knight.
Colman most recently starred in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter for Netflix, for which she received an Oscar nomination. Next up for the Broadchurch and The Crown stars in Emer Reynolds’ comedy Joyride, Paul King’s Wonka alongside Timothée Chalamet and Sally Hawkins, and Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light.
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Fionn Whitehead, who has starred in Dunkirk and Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch will play Pip, the orphan at the center of the coming-of-age story. The cast also includes Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle and Matt Berry.
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Them star Thomas plays Pip’s guardian Jaggers, This Is England ‘86’s Harris plays escaped convict Magwitch, Roadkill’s Brune-Franklin plays Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter Estella, I, Daniel Blake star Squires plays Miss Havisham’s relative Sara, Killing Eve’s McDonnell plays village blacksmith Joe, Lord of the Rings’ Gravelle plays criminal Compeyson who left Miss Havisham at the altar, and Toast of London’s Berry plays Joe’s uncle Mr. Pumblechuck.
Peaky Blinders creator Knight will write and executive produce the six-part series, which will also be executive produced by Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, Kate Crowe and Mona Qureshi.
Knight is an avowed Dickens fan who told me a couple years back that part of what sets Peaky Blinders apart from other period drama owes something to the author. At the time, he said, “If one were to hope to aspire to do what Dickens did it would be to take working-class life and make it relative to fiction.”
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Great Expectations marks Knight’s second adaptation of the writer’s works following A Christmas Carol, and these two limited series are the first two in a number of Dickens adaptations ordered by the BBC and FX.
The series is produced by FX Productions in association with the BBC, Scott Free and Hardy Son & Baker. Lucy Forbes (The End of the F***ing World) will serve as lead director.
Colman is represented by ICM Partners in the U.S. and United Agents in the U.K. Whitehead is represented by Curtis Brown Group, UTA and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.
Thomas is represented by ICM Partners and Independent Talent (UK). Harris is represented by Samira Higham. Brune-Franklin is represented by Hamilton Hodell and Morrissey Management. Squires is represented by Management 360 and B-Side Management. McDonnell is represented by Lisa Richards Agency, London. Berry is represented by CAA, MGMT Entertainment and B-Side Management.
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