Smallscreen News

'Great Expectations' and Charles Dickens celebrated on PBS Masterpiece

By April MacIntyre Feb 7, 2012, 6:30 GMT

"Great Expectations"- Douglas Booth - you\'re welcome. London, UK © Landmark / PR Photos

February 7 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, one of PBS Masterpiece's favorite authors.

The series is celebrating his bicentennial with two new adaptations, bringing the total to 16 Dickens titles to PBS.

Great Expectations
Sundays, April 1 and 8 at 9pm on PBS
Gillian Anderson (Bleak House) appears as one of Dickens' most haunting creations, Miss Havisham. David Suchet, Ray Winstone, and Douglas Booth also star in this gorgeous new adaptation that won raves when it premiered in the UK.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Sunday, April 15 at 9pm on PBS
Dickens died before he completed this tale of illicit lust, betrayal and murder. Acclaimed screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes imagines how the story might have ended. Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters) stars.

About Great Expectations

An orphan boy meets an escaped convict, a crazed rich woman, a bewitching girl, and grows up to have great expectations of wealth from a mysterious patron, on Great Expectations, Charles Dickens' remarkable tale of rags to riches to self-knowledge, starring Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, Bleak House), David Suchet (Hercule Poirot), Ray Winstone, and Douglas Booth.

Anderson appears as one of Dickens' most haunting creations: Miss Havisham, a bride-to-be who was jilted at the altar years before. Newcomer Booth stars as Pip, the promising young man who is snared in Miss Havisham's lair.

Great Expectations airs during the bicentennial of Dickens' birth and marks the fifteenth Masterpiece adaptation of the great novelist's works.

Watch Great Expectations Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.