The plot

Great Expectations tells the tale of Pip, who leads a humble existence in the marshes of Kent before he's given money from a mysterious benefactor. This allows him to escape his humble background and become a London gentleman, but he's still haunted by his past – particularly Estella, the cold-hearted girl he's always been helplessly in love with. And then there's Miss Havisham, Estella's cruel and bitter mother who may or may not be manipulating Pip behind the scenes...

The adaptations

Great Expectations has been filmed again and again over the past hundred years. There was even a silent version made in 1917, while in 1998 a modern, American retelling was made starring Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow.

But there are two versions that really stand out from the crowd. The first is the 1946 version directed by David Lean and starring John Mills and Alec Guinness. In stark black and white, it has to condense the plot down but is thickly atmospheric and almost like a gothic horror film in parts. Its brilliance is all the more remarkable given that Lean hadn't actually read the book.

Then there's the 1999 TV adaptation, which we're showing on UKTV Drama. As it's longer, it has the time to tell the story as Dickens wrote it. It also features perhaps the greatest Miss Havisham in the form of Charlotte Rampling, who does the whole "icy, faded beauty" thing like noone else. And Ioan Gruffudd, who's since become a Hollywood star in films like Fantastic Four, is a very modern Pip. As the producer says: "We wanted it historically correct but with the modernity of the characters highlighted. After all, there are people like this in the world today. There are lots of Pips – uncertain young men who don't quite know what their lives are about."

A cover version?

Great Expectations could almost be seen as a more complex "remake" of David Copperfield, which was written many years before. Copperfield also tells the story of a boy's development into complex adulthood, but it's a more light-hearted and straightforward story. Dickens re-read it before starting Great Expectations, which takes the same basic skeleton and builds a more gothic, mysterious story around it.

A couple of climaxes

Dickens wrote two endings for Great Expectations. The original conclusion was basically an unhappy (or at least very unsentimental) one, in which Pip and his sweetheart Estella go their separate ways. But his friends suggested the public would prefer something more upbeat, so, being a man who liked to please his fans, Dickens wrote a more optimistic conclusion for the two lovers, and this was the one ultimately published (although special editions of the novel featuring the original ending can be bought).

Slender story

Great Expectations is much leaner than his Dickens' usual doorstop novels. This was simply because he chose to publish it in weekly rather than monthly instalments, and boost the sales of the magazine it appeared in. The result was an unusually tightly plotted novel by his standards – which shows that sometimes commercial decisions can make the art better!