‘Great Expectations’ creator Steven Knight responds to criticism he strayed from Charles Dickens’ novel: ‘What’s the point?’

Denton Davidson
·4 min read
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Steven Knight, the creator of the FX on Hulu limited series “Great Expectations,” was hit with sharp criticism when the show premiered March 26. Critics blasted the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of “Dirty Pretty Things” (2002) for taking liberties with Charles Dickens‘ classic, and he responded in a recent interview Radio Times.

“I would say it’s like there’s this beautiful mountain, which is the novel, it’s a beautiful thing, it’s fantastic,” Knight said. “It will endure long after we’re all gone. Then someone sets up an easel and does an impressionistic painting of the mountain. It’s not saying ‘This is the mountain,’ it’s saying ‘This is my version. This is my impression of what this mountain is.’ I think that’s exactly what this process is. And I think if you sat down and said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna paint the mountain’ and at the end it looks exactly like the mountain, everybody will go ‘Yep, there it is. That’s the mountain.’ But why? What’s the point?”

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Nandini Balial (RogerEbert.com) wrote, “Knight’s writing constantly hits the audience over the head, as if to cement the idea that adding sex and violence makes something edgier and cooler, and therefore better than what came before.” For that, the executive producer and writer is also prepared to defend himself.

SEE ‘Great Expectations’: Olivia Colman’s chilling performance is red-hot Emmy contender

“Having read lots of factual stuff about 19th century London, particularly Mayhew’s London, knowing what was really going on in London at the time, knowing that Charles Dickens was a great observer so therefore knew exactly what was going on in London at the time, the only reason that he didn’t deal with those things is because he couldn’t, he wasn’t allowed to,” Knight explained.

“Not because of censorship, you just didn’t go there. And so, as I go on the journey with the characters I also am aware that if Dickens had the liberty to write about certain things, he probably would have done. Because that’s where he lived, that’s where he existed in that sort of underworld of London, in the streets. So if he could have done, he would have done, I think.”

SEE Olivia Colman (‘Great Expectations’) is pleased to be neither a secretary nor a waitress: ‘I was terrible at both’

Even with his detractors, Knight’s “Great Expectations” did strike a chord with some critics. Ricky Valero (Ready Steady Cut) said, “Steven Knight is a master at creating these worlds you won’t forget, and he did so again with ‘Great Expectations.'” Victoria Segal (Sunday Times UK) wrote, “While questions could be asked about whether another version of Dickens’s coming-of-age epic is really the most creative use of time and money… Knight has once again fashioned vibrant, immediate TV drama out of a well-known story.”

The six-part adaptation stars Fionn Whitehead as Pip, Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella and Oscar and Emmy winner Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham. It ranks 14th in our current Emmy odds for Best Limited Series, 20th for Best Movie/Limited Series Actress (Brune-Franklin), 16th for Best Movie/Limited Series Actor (Whitehead) and fifth for Best Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actress (Colman).

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