Trivia / Great Expectations

• Creator's Favorite Episode: Charles Dickens named this as one of his own favourite novels.
• Dawson Casting:
  • The 1974 film has thirty-three-year-old Sarah Miles as Estella, who's a teenager in her first appearance.
  • The 1989 miniseries also has the same actress (Kim Thomson, who was in her late twenties at the time) play Estella throughout, including as a teenager.
• Deleted Scene: Modern printings of the novel usually include the original ending as an appendix.
• Missing Episode:
  • The 1917 film is lost.
  • One episode of the 1959 miniseries is lost.
• Money, Dear Boy: The novel was only written because Dickens's magazine All the Year Round was doing poorly and the only thing that would revive it was a serialized Dickens novel.
• Remake Cameo: Jean Simmons, who played Estella in the 1946 film, went on to play Miss Havisham in the 1989 miniseries.
• Role Reprise:
  • Francis L. Sullivan played Mr. Jaggers in both the 1934 and 1946 films.
  • Alec Guinness and Martita Hunt played Herbert Pocket and Miss Havisham in both the 1939 stage version and the 1946 film.
• Setting Update:
  • An Orphan's Tragedy (1955) changes the setting from Victorian England to 1950s Hong Kong.
  • Fitoor (2016) changes the setting to India.
• What Could Have Been: The original ending has Pip, who is still single, briefly see Estella in London; after becoming Bentley Drummle's widow, she has remarried. This was changed following comments by Edward Bulwer-Lytton that the ending was too sad.
• Write Who You Know:
  • It is documented that Charles Dickens encountered a wealthy recluse called Elizabeth Parker on whom it is widely believed he based the character, whilst staying in Newport, Shropshire, at the aptly named Havisham Court.
  • It has been suggested that the icy teasing of the character Estella is based on Ellen Ternan's reluctance to become Dickens' mistress.
  • It is believed that Dickens revised Herbert Pocket's appearance to resemble his son Charley.

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