Olivia Colman to star in BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations

Olivia Colman is to star in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic novel Great Expectations.

The Oscar-winning actress, 48, will play wealthy spinster Miss Havisham in the coming-of-age story about an orphan nicknamed Pip.

The six-part series will be created by Bafta-winning writer Steven Knight and is based on Dickens’ tale, which was first released as a series of weekly chapters beginning in 1860 before it was later published as a novel.

The cast will also feature Fionn Whitehead as Pip, alongside Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle and Matt Berry.

The series will also be executive produced by the team which was behind the BBC’s 2019 adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – Knight, actor Tom Hardy, Sir Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W Zucker, Kate Crowe and Mona Qureshi.

Lucy Forbes, who has previously worked on This Is Going To Hurt, will act as lead director, with Mark Kinsella as producer.

Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol are the first two in a series of adaptations of Dickens’ novels that have been commissioned by the BBC and FX Productions.