The first instalment of a fresh take on Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations aired on BBC One tonight, with fans left unimpressed by one major aspect of the new series. The 18th retelling of the Victorian novel sees Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman play the role of jilted bride Miss Havisham and adds a darker tinge that's laced with sex, violence and swearing.
Viewers across the country tuned in to see Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight's version of events unfold, although not everyone was thrilled about the Wiltshire-filmed series finally landing on screens tonight, March 26. Whilst some were excited to see Great Expectations through a different lens, others slammed the BBC for adapting the novel for television a second time within a decade.
Prior to tonight's first episode, a trailer had been released by the BBC, depicting the darker, sexier themes of the new series, with Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) starring as lovesick Pip with Shalom Brune-Franklin (War of the Worlds) as his Estella. But some viewers criticised the new retelling shortly after it began airing, due to one seemingly fatal flaw.
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BBC film crews descended upon Wiltshire last March to film scenes for the adaptation, with some Salisbury residents catching a glimpse of the action near the cathedral. Catherine Sample took a photo of the crew in action last year, telling WiltshireLive at the time : "I was aware that filming of Great Expectations was going to take place but I was not prepared for the excitement of actually seeing it happen.
"As I arrived at the far end of The Close, smoke was billowing providing a foggy backdrop for a horse and cart and a lone horseman. There were masses of film crew but it was possible to see the young Pip dismount from the cart and enter the overgrown garden of Miss Havisham's house. Myles Place had been transformed into a eerie, overgrown house very much suited to Miss Havisham."
External shots of the elusive Miss Havisham's house, in all of its crumbling and ruined glory, were filmed in Wiltshire. Myles Place on West Walk, close to Salisbury Cathedral, served as the exterior and gated courtyard of the grand house, while the interior was created in studios and Shirburn Castle, near Watlington in Oxfordshire.
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