Oliver Twist (2007)

A dramatic retelling of a Dickens classic
This gripping and emotionally powerful new adaptation penned by Sarah Phelps (EastEnders) breathes bold, modern life while still remaining faithful to the popular Dickens story. Having endured a miserable childhood of poverty and misfortune, Oliver (William Miller, the talented eleven-year-old who beat out 700 other actors for the part) escapes to the streets of London where he meets the Artful Dodger and Fagin. He is welcomed into the seductive world of pick-pocketing, and before long, Oliver is in deep trouble with both the law and the evil Bill Sykes.

Episode 1 - Having endured a miserable and brutal childhood, Oliver is sold to a local undertaker where his mistreatment forces him to escape to London. Once in the capital, he is welcomed into the seductive world of pick-pocketing by the criminal underworld and, before long, is in deep trouble with the Law.

Episode 2  - Fagin meets Monks and is promised handsome payment if he brings about Oliver's death. Fagin reasons, however, that someone may pay to have him returned safely.

Episode 3 - Sikes escapes back to London with a badly wounded Oliver. Nancy nurses him, determined to save his life. Mr Bumble declares his love for Mrs Corney. Rose continues to search for Oliver, but is discovered by Monks, who tells Brownlow of her secret mission. Nancy overhears Monks telling Fagin he wants Oliver dead.

Episode 4 - Despite Corney and Bumble's attempts to extort money from him, Monks quickly gets the upper hand and leaves with the necklace, letter and a page of the register recording Oliver's birth. Nancy cares for Oliver, promising that she will get him back to the safety of the Brownlows. Dodger, however, is aware of Nancy's betrayal, putting her in grave danger.

Episode 5 - Snatching Oliver as a hostage, Sikes goes on the run - but he finds that Nancy's ghost continues to haunt him. Brownlow and the police raid Fagin's den. There is no sign of Oliver and Fagin is arrested. Monks returns to London, but when he arrives home he finds Brownlow, Rose and the police waiting for him.

Written by Charles Dickens
Screenplay by Sarah Phelps
Directed by Coky Giedroyc
Produced by Sarah Brown
Executive Produced by Rebecca Eaton, Kate Harwood
Original Music by Martin Phipps
Cinematography by Matt Gray
Film Editing by Mark Thornton
Costume Design by Amy Roberts

"Given the strength of the cast, this adaptation of Oliver Twist couldn't possibly go wrong - and it doesn't. A who's who of acting talent captures perfectly Dickens's army of exaggerated grotesques, with an unusual and wholly believable Fagin from Timothy Spall at its heart. Tom Hardy is Bill Sikes and Sophie Okonedo is Nancy, with show-stopping turns from the likes of Rob Brydon, Sarah Lancashire, Anna Massey, Michelle Gomez and Edward Fox among a sensational supporting cast. There are bound to be comparisons with Bleak House, but this is a more straightforward adaptation with the strength of the performances dominating a painterly setting. Having got off to a rip-roaring start, it promises to be essential viewing for the rest of the week." David Chater, The Times

"Sarah Phelps' brilliantly ugly adaptation ... Oozing evil all the way, it was a million miles from the cuddly, Sunday-teatime spirit of former Dickens-based TV series." Matt Baylis, Daily Express

"Oliver Twist was very watchable ... this adaptation looked the business, with lashings of gin and filth and rags, bad complexions, battered hats and poor oral health. The central performances crackled nicely. As Oliver, William Miller squeezed as much as he could into a character doomed to do little more than be dragged by his ear from pillar to post. The irresistible Timothy Spall put in an agreeable Fagin, his yellow-fanged grin hovering between compassion and self-preservation, his Mitteleuropean vowels (‘Good moroning‘) just about staying this side of panto. Sarah Lancashire purred and cackled as the scheming, slatternly Mrs Corney, a sexual magnet for Mr Bumble (a sweating Rab C Nesbitt in a tricorn hat)..." Phil Hogan, Observer

"...tight, lucid plotting (writer Sarah Phelps's EastEnders skill showing through) and some wonderful performances, played against type, Timothy Spall's Fagin being leeringly cuddly, and Tom Hardy's Bill Sikes sexy as well as clearly psychotic. Sophie Okonedo was the most touching Nancy I have ever seen." Hermione Eyre, Independent On Sunday

"...excellent ... It manages to feel modern, yet also faithful - somewhere between melodrama and gritty realism, but funny, too, in a dark and sarky way ... And it all looks wonderful - bad skin, bad teeth, muck, food symbolism all over the place. On my new flat-screen TV (at last!), it's like having my own Hogarth come to life in the living room. You can almost smell the pisspots, the sweat, the farts, the hypocrisy, the social injustice ... The new Oliver Twist is dark, funny and real - please can we have more telly like this?" Sam Wollaston, Guardian

"...with this Dickensian evergreen it is the differences that we look out for. Here there was an entire bucketful. Penned by a former EastEnders scriptwriter in nightly instalments, this was a bold, modern, sleek, dramatic exaggeration of Dickens's story: Nancy became black, Oliver feisty and Fagin exotic like an overweight, Yiddish, Eastern European Boy George. Tom Hardy was magnificent as Bill Sikes and conveyed raw, psychopathic violence." Stephen Pile, Daily Telegraph

"...it is wonderful to see this red-blooded adaptation embracing the ugliness and squalor of 19th-century London and rescuing Dickens's novel from sentimentality ... Instead of loveable old Fagin, here is Timothy Spall as a horribly plausible grotesque meeting his maker at the end of a rope, with Tom Hardy's Sikes snarling like a Soprano with a baseball bat. If the best classic adaptations engineer a controlled collision between the past and the present, this one generates a considerable bang." David Chater, The Times

"...from uniformly strong performances to a script that delights in the book's slang ... there's still been much to admire..." Jonathan Wright, Guardian

"The actor playing Oliver was terribly good..." David Stephenson, Express on Sunday

"...it had an hour-long opener that was fun, gripping and dramatic ... It had some excellent sets and scenery and it was easy to be drawn in to the action." Jon Wise, People

"It's grand to see the BBC doing what it does best for Christmas - classic costume drama with a part for all our national treasures. Sarah Phelps's new adaptation of Dickens's favourite is a world away from the schmaltz of the musical and brings to the fore all the grotesqueries and darkness of the novel. From the brutality of the workhouse under the iron rod of Mr Bumble (Gregor Fisher), aided by the slyly cruel Mrs Corney (Sarah Lancashire), to the uneasy fraternity of Fagin's den, this Oliver Twist is set firmly in a world where poverty is a sin to be punished in the hope of God's forgiveness, where unpredictable violence is taken for granted, children are randomly sentenced to hang and kindness is a rarer commodity than food or money ... Oliver, played here by William Miller with a steely resilience not often brought out in dramatic adaptations ... Timothy Spall is splendid in the role, all manky teeth and squinty-eyed leering, but with an edge of pathos ... Bill Sykes, played by the brilliant Tom Hardy with the unnatural calm and sudden eruptions of violence of the psychopath. Edward Fox was born to be Mr Brownlow ... and Green Wing's Julian Rhind-Tutt is truly chilling as Mr Monks ... Please BBC, we want some more." Stephanie Merritt, Observer

"...excellent..." Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror

"...three hours of terrific TV ... what Phelps lacks in prior knowledge of Oliver Twist, she more than makes up for in enthusiasm. Her adaptation is wonderfully lucid, with a compelling narrative drive. A major rethink has occurred ... the real casting coup is 11-year-old William Miller as an Oliver far removed from the wan child actor who usually inhabits the role. Miller is also probably a far cry from the somewhat soupy Oliver that Dickens created, but the story is better for it, while Fagin (and, to a degree, Bill Sikes) is less out-and-out villain and misunderstood victim." Gerard Gilbert, Independent

"TV joy: Timothy Spall in BBC1's Oliver Twist." Ian Hyland, News of the World

"Ours is a time of contention and care over race and culture: thus Nancy, rendered close to saintliness, was played by the black actress Sophie Okonedo, there were black boys' faces in the workhouse and in Fagin's den - and Fagin himself, a Gothic performance by Timothy Spall, is played as a very Jewish, but not an evil, Jew ... This series gives him a conscience and an explanation: it is tougher on the causes for the criminals than it is on their crimes - except those of the ‘gentleman', Mr Monks, and the parochial officials, Mrs Corney the workhouse boss and Mr Bumble the beadle, both milked to the last drop by Sarah Lancashire and Gregor Fisher." John Lloyd, Financial Times

"The script skips along, as you'd expect from an EastEnders' scribe, the minor characters are lovingly rendered, and the world created is grimy and captivating." Gareth McLean, Guardian

"You may already know the classic tale, but the startling acting means that this exciting adaptation still has plenty of reasons to be watched." Lucy Tobin, Daily Express

"The last episode of this Charles Dickens' classic will leave you wanting more!" Sun

"Here, at last, is a TV version he [Dickens] might have been pleased to watch." Matt Baylis, Daily Express

Oliver Twist, Dickens' second novel, was originally published in installments from 1837 through to 1839 and later published as a book.

Sarah Phelps was working for the Royal Shakespeare Company before she took part in a BBC initiative to find new writers.