Great Expectations FIRST FULL TRAILER: Olivia Colman leads a star-studded cast in the eerie and twisted teaser as she transforms into Miss Havisham for BBC adaptation

BBC and FX have released the first full trailer for Steven Knight’s forthcoming adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. 

Olivia Colman, 49, leads a star-studded cast in the eerie and twisted two-minute teaser as she transforms into jilted once-bride-to-be Miss Havisham.

Dunkirk actor Fionn Whitehead, 25, plays orphan Pip in the new production opposite Line Of Duty actress Shalom Brune-Franklin, 28, as his love interest Estella.

They star together alongside Top Boy actor Ashley Thomas, 38, as lawyer Jaggers, and The Split star Rudi Dharmalingam, 41, who plays Jagger’s assistant Wemmick, while This Is England’s Johnny Harris, 49, portrays escaped convict Magwitch.

Adult Material actress Hayley Squires, 34, plays Pip’s sister Sara Gargery as Killing Eve actor Owen McDonnell, 49, takes on the role of her husband Joe Gargery, while Trystan Gravelle, 42, plays Miss Havisham’s former fiance Compeyson, comedian Matt Berry, 48, portrays Mr Pumblechook and Laurie Ogden plays Biddy. 

FIRST FULL TRAILER: Olivia Colman, 49, leads a star-studded cast in the eerie and twisted two-minute teaser for Great Expectations as she transforms into Miss Havisham

Leading man: Dunkirk actor Fionn Whitehead, 25, plays orphan Pip in the new production

Love interest: Line Of Duty actress Shalom Brune-Franklin, 28, plays his love interest Estella

Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of an orphan nicknamed Pip. Dickens first released it in a series of weekly chapters beginning in December 1860 before it was subsequently published as a novel. 

The full-length trailer of the upcoming adaptation begins with the vengeful Miss Havisham (Olivia Colman) setting the tone of the tale as she explains: ‘When I was young I was blinded by love. Now look on what remains of me.’

She then asks young Pip (Tom Sweet) ‘May I ask what is your intention?’, to which he responds: ‘I believe once you have made your fortune, love is not so hard to find.’

Ominously, Miss Havisham can be heard saying: ‘And so it begins, a common boy, now handsome man. Innocent, moments before the great corruption,’ as Pip transforms from a boy to a young man (Fionn Whitehead).

The story set-up is told when Jaggers (Ashley Thomas) explains: ‘I’m looking for a boy by the name of Pip Gargery. A secret benefactor gave me instruction to bring him to London and teach him.’

‘Teach me what?’ asks the innocent Pip, to which Jaggers replies: ‘The wicked ways of this wicked city.’

In another heart-racing clip, Estella (Shalom Brune-Franklin) asks Pip: ‘Do you feel love?’ to which he confessed: ‘Yes.’

Terrifying: This Is England’s Johnny Harris, 49, portrays escaped convict Magwitch

Talented: The Split star Rudi Dharmalingam, 41, plays Jagger’s assistant Wemmick

Twisted tale: Young Pip is played by baby-faced actor Tom Sweet, 18

‘Mr Jaggers has insisted that you stay under my protection,’ Wemmick (Rudi Dharmalingam) tells Pip during a meeting.

‘The devil will come,’ states Estella as the trailer turns ever-more sinister, while Miss Havisham gleefully tells the young woman: ‘You can break his heart.’

Estella then confesses of Miss Havisham: ‘What she taught me was how to be her weapon of revenge, to be used against all men.’

A frustrated Pip is seen raging: ‘You can’t think about marrying that idiot,’ before he’s told elsewhere: ‘If you really want to win Estella you’ll need more than love.’

Pip’s stunning love interest can then be heard telling him: ‘Do everything I tell you to do.’

‘Have you brought your waterproofs?’ Pip is asked, with the young man asking in return: ‘Will we be walking through water?’ but the answer he is given is spine-chilling: ‘No, we’ll be walking through rivers of blood.’

‘Estella, what a prize creature we have fished form the river,’ concludes a callus Miss Havisham to bring to a close the first full-length trailer.

On-screen family: Adult Material actress Hayley Squires, 34, plays Pip’s sister Sara Gargery as Killing Eve actor Owen McDonnell, 49, takes on the role of her husband Joe Gargery

Longing for more: Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of Pip, an orphan who lives with his sister and her blacksmith husband Joe, but yearns for a greater lot in life

Vengeful: The full-length trailer begins with Miss Havisham (Olivia Colman) setting the tone of the tale as she says: ‘When I was young I was blinded by love. Now look on what remains of me’

Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of Pip, an orphan who lives with his sister Mrs Joe Gargery and her blacksmith husband Joe, but yearns for a greater lot in life.

The bitter Miss Havisham engineers a meeting between the young Pip and Estella with a view to having him fall in love with her so she can break his heart. 

Under the great expectations placed upon him, Pip must work out the cost of this new dark world of possibilities, and whether it will truly make him the man he wishes to be.

Steven Knight has written and executive produced Great Expectations alongside Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, Kate Crowe and Tommy Bulfin for the BBC – the team behind FX’s A Christmas Carol – with Brady Hood and Samira Radsi as directors.

Earlier this month the BBC released the first trailer for the Charles Dickens classic, which shows Miss Havisham welcoming a young Pip (Tom Sweet) to Satis House for the first time.   

Back in July 2022, Olivia looked unrecognisable in first-look photos from the upcoming production.

There have been many adaptations of the classic Dickens novel over the years, both on the big and small screen.

War and Peace actress Tuppence Middleton, 35, played the character as a younger woman in the BBC’s 2016 serialisation, Dickensian.

Helena Bonham Carter, 56, portrayed Miss Havisham in Mike Newell’s 2012 film adaptation, co-starring Jeremy Irvine as Pip and Ralph Fiennes as Abel Magwitch.

Sinister: ‘Estella, what a prize creature we have fished form the river,’ concludes a callus Miss Havisham to bring to a close the first full-length trailer

Gillian Anderon, 54, was a rather more glamorous and youthful incarnation of the character a year earlier in a BBC mini-series starring Douglas Booth and Vanessa Kirby. 

In 1999 Charlotte Rampling, 77, played the role opposite Ioan Gruffudd’s Pip while Anne Bancroft played a modernised version of the character in Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 film version starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. 

Earlier versions include Jean Simmons’ portrayal in an 1989 mini-series, having previously played Estella in David Lean’s 1946 film opposite Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham.

Miss Marple actress Joan Hickson played the role in 1981 while Margaret Leighton took on the part in 1974, and one of the earliest screen portrayals of Miss Havisham was Florence Reed in the 1934 film.

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