Olivia Colman jokes Fionn Whitehead was "terrified" by their 'Great Expectations' kiss.
Olivia Colman says Fionn Whitehead looked terrified when they kissed on Great Expectations
The 49-year-old actress is playing dishevelled spinster Miss Havisham in BBC1’s new adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic - which features a dark twist on the tale with her character depicted as an opium addict - and she has reflected on changes 'Peaky Blinder' made to the story, such as seeing Miss Havisham lock lips with Pip.
She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “He was so terrified! No acting involved for him. I love that she’s mortified when he looks so horrified.
“Anything in Steven’s hands is heightened and makes it better.
“It was totally not what I’d imagined. And that’s partly why, when I read everything I was so drawn to it.”
Knight had defended giving BBC’s adaptation a racier treatment by including sex scenes and an alternate ending as he argued that Dickens was restricted by what he could write at the time.
He said: “Dickens was asking the question ‘Can you get out of your class?’ In the book the conclusion is that he doesn’t get out and that’s ok. Without giving it away, in the adaptation I’ve done, you can’t get out and that’s not OK.”
On adding steamy bedroom scenes, such as Pip losing his virginity, Knight said it was hidden in code with the book itself.
He added: “I think if you take a microscope to the text – for example Pumblechook and Mrs Gargery – there are a couple of lines in there where they disappear together. I think the Victorian readership were a bit more forensic about what was going on than we are.
“If Dickens were around now and had the liberty to go down some of those dark alleys, this is what he would have done.”
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