Great Expectations Olivia Colman loved kiss with terrified star

Watch Great Expectations Extended Trailer

Charles Dickens adaptation Great Expectations continues this evening (April 2) on BBC One at 9pm. Viewers will be served up a second instalment of Steve Knight’s gritty version of the classic social mobility story. The show has already marked itself out from previous adaptations with the use of foul-language, sex and drug use, which continues tonight.

The second episode will also feature a moment between Pip Whitehead (played by Fionn Whitehead) locking lips with Miss Havisham (Olivia Colman).

Last week’s opening instalment set the scene with Pip hoping Miss Havisham and her ward Estella (Chloe Lea) would help him climb up the social ladder and escape his working class roots for a better life.

Miss Havisham and Estella’s cruel lessons continue as the jilted bride presses forward with her “sick fantasy” upon Pip to punish him and all men-kind for being left at the altar by her fiancé.

Speaking to media including Express.co.uk at a recent screening, Olivia said her co-star Fionn was “terrified”.

“She went on to say: “It’s going to sound weird but that was lovely, lovely to do.

“It was totally not what I’d imagined and that’s partly why when I read everything I was so drawn to it.

“I always imagined she was so much older but when you work it out, she was jilted in her early 20s and 18 or 20 years later she hasn’t age well but she’s still watching sexual tension playing out.”

Olivia added: “And I loved that Steven goes there with that stuff. I love the fact that she’s so mortified when he looks so horrified.

“On the cheek. I loved it You gave us so many things to play with,” she told Steven.

Fionn also reflected on the moment, which saw Miss Havisham give Pip opium to sell for money after the kiss.

He said: “I think it was so grimy that she gives him a form of currency after this, kind of kisses him and then here you go and sends him on his way.”

The Dunkirk and Black Mirror star said this moment was “indicative of the whole relationship” and praised the creepy moment as “interesting”.

Fionn also admitted he scared himself s***less after landing the role and watching some other adaptations of Great Expectations.

Addressing how he gave Great Expectations a new lease of life, Peaky Blinders creator Steven said he hadn’t gone out of his way to change the source material.

Instead, he wanted to tell the tale without the prudish Victorian strait-laced, buttoned-up morality code Dickens had to contend with in his own time,

The writer said: “The way I write – the best way I can explain it: if you read a book during the day and then you go to sleep and dream about the book at night.

“Then the way that I’ve tried to do anything is like the dream you have about the book. It’s informed by everything, the characters and the journeys but it’s a dream.”

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While the show has attracted criticism, Steven researched the time period and tried to give his version of Great Expectations more gritty realism.

The tale really digs into poverty and escaping the rigid class system, asking whether it was possible to break out of the cycle or whether an individual was trapped forever on this pre-destined path simply by virtue of birth.

Those familiar with the novel may be surprised to find Steven has made some big changes to the story which audiences will continue to see playing out.

Great Expectations airs on BBC One on Sundays at 9pm

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