Tuesday. 10.50 a.m. I haven't been to Camphill today. As I mentioned in another post on here, the usual theatre workshop is not on, but the group have gone to Stony Stratford. I was going, but the idea of having to walk about all day and possibly nowhere to sit down, I thought I would avoid it and had emailed to say so. With my underlying health issues, perhaps it was a wise choice. It looks as if there will be rain later, so goodness knows how they will manage.
I am doing some baking this morning. I have a recipe for caramel brownies, which came from Sainsbury's. I had it filed for quite a while and had been meaning to give it a go. My kitchen at Dexter House is minuscule, so it's quite a juggling act to make space. The thing is finished and is now baking. It should take around 35 minutes and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
3.15 p.m. The brownies are out of the oven. They are far better than I had expected. Soft and soggy in the centre and slightly crisp on top. There is a layer of caramel inside, sort of marbled on the top. This is from Carnation and came in a tin. I will have to make more.
9.20 p.m. The wind continues to blow, and I can hear it rampaging around outside.
Wednesday. 6.55 a.m. Alfie and I have been out, as usual. He was fast asleep at the point I wanted to go out, and we found it quite pleasant on the weather front. The wind has dropped, and as I write this, it's sunny. We did a circuit of Oldbrook Green. Some of the daffodils are finished. I don't think some of the flowers are actually daffodils. I think they may be narcissi, but I can't be sure. I will have to do a Google search.
Thursday. 6.30 a.m. A bright but chilly morning. Streaks of red across the sky as I took out Alfie onto the grass along Strudwick Drive at around 6 o'clock.
I'm currently watching the new BBC adaptation of 'Great Expectations.' I know the novel well and have read it several times. I have read a handful of other Dickens novels. I'm not sure what to make of this version. It's been scripted by Stephen Knight, scriptwriter of 'Peaky Blinders.' He has taken quite a few liberties with what is essentially one of the mainstays of British literature. It is quite violent in places, and the strong language means that it is not what I would call 'family-friendly.' In the past, the BBC 'classic serials' were shown on television at Sunday teatime. We get more backstory about Magwitch, who is the convict who meets Pip on the Kent marches at the beginning of the novel and around which most of the plot revolves. He is the (spoiler alert.) secret benefactor who allows Pip to become a 'gentleman.' Olivia Colman is cast as the jilted spinster, Miss Haversham. We discover her at one point smoking opium, which is presumably how her family made their money.
There is 'colour-blind' casting. For example, Miss Haversham's protégée (for want of a better term to describe her.) Estella, is played by an actress 'of colour' and so is Mr Jaggers. The only problem I have with Mr Jaggers being 'of colour' is that, historically, he wouldn't be in that position, that of a lawyer, at the time 'Great Expectations is set. It begins around 1812, but the main action is set in 1839. The novel is narrated by Pip, looking back to his time as a child, living in the Kent marshes. We don't seem to get that element in this production. Pip, in this version, seems very miserable, but the 'happy-go-lucky' child he is written as in the original novel. He is several years older than in the original, around 13-14 here, but around 8-9 in the novel. He also has more of a relationship with Joe Gargery, the blacksmith, who is married to his sister, who is always referred to as 'Mrs Joe.' I'm not sure whether we ever hear her Christian name mentioned.
If I have a fault with this adaptation, it is that the pace is really slow. There really is no need for it to drag so. As a viewer, I want things to move along faster. It just seems they have to drag it along at this sort of pace merely to show more mud, dirt, and degradation, just to try and explain the conditions of life in Victorian England. It just slows the whole production down and doesn't serve any other purpose. I think this would put off a lot of viewers. As for the swearing, that really is unnecessary. I realize that people would have used such language at that time, but it really adds nothing to the whole.
Then, why has the BBC decided that we need yet another version of 'Great Expectations'? There was a production done in 2011 and, of course, there is the film adaptation which has John Mills as Pip. Why not find a lesser Dickens novel to adapt, such as 'Hard Times', which surely deserves a new adaptation. If not Dickens, then why not other novels, written by, for example, H.G. Wells, ('Kipps', 'History of Mr Polly' etc etc.)
As for this current version of 'Great Expectations', I will have to watch the remaining episodes and comment once it is complete. It is certainly not the usual somewhat sentimental rendering of the novel we usually come to expect from a Dickens novel. This shows mid-19th Century England in all its grotesqueness, the underclass, the grime and unpleasantness. In that respect, it's more realistic, because, as I've said, usually that period which Dickens writes, is glossed over. Which it shouldn't be and is what he intended to portray.
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