Olivia Colman is Miss Havisham in FX's Great Expectations limited series
Matt Berry will also be there; we really can't be more excited
FX has announced the cast for its upcoming limited series adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, including news that Oscar-winner Olivia Colman will be taking on the role of Miss Havisham.
Miss H is, of course, the plum female role in Dickens’ oeuvre, allowing performers to go high as the rafters whenever they feel like it, running around a disheveled mansion full of stopped clocks and old wedding cakes in a tattered dress and a single shoe. There are more dangerous villains in Great Expectations, certainly, but none as memorable, or as perfectly placed for a talented actor to make as big or small as they like.
Colman joins a long tradition of performers slipping into that particular, presumably very pungent dress: Among many others, two of her The Crown compatriots, Helena Bonham Carter and Gillian Anderson, have assayed their version of the character before on film. Colman feels like an even easier fit, though; it’s not hard to imagine her nailing either the coldness, or the eccentricities, of Dickens’ famous jilted bride.
Not that Colman is the only cast member announced today. (She’s just the most Oscar-ish.) The series (which is being written by dedicated oddball Steven Knight) announced its full cast list today, including Fionn Whitehead as Dickens’ prototypical hero Pip, Ashley Thomas as the lawyer Jaggers, Johnny Harris as mysterious convict Magwitch, Shalom Brune-Franklin as Pip’s beloved Estella, Hayley Squires as Sara, Owen McDonnell as Pip’s brother-in-law Joe, Trystan Gravelle as the faithless Compeyson, and Matt Berry as Mr. Pumblechuck.
That’s right: SURPRISE MATT BERRY PUMBLECHUCK REVEAL. (The character is named Mr. Pumblechook in the original novel, but either way, he’s a loud-mouthed blowhard of the sort Berry can play in what we’re guessing is his extremely loud sleep.)
Great Expectations is a joint production between FX and the BBC; it’ll run in six installments at some future date, unless someone figures out how to extend a limited series from Dickens, which we would not put past Hollywood at this point.