Jim Neilson

If you feel compelled to write a Victorian tale of drug addiction, sado masochism, prostitution, blackmailing lawyers, then create one, pitch it to the BBC and write it. There's no doubt these things and worse went on in London in that time, but I don't see the need to force feed them into Dickens Great Expectations. The passions, the motivation, complexity of the original story all remain strong and hold their own today. It's lazy and cheap to latch on to the author's name, title, the plot outline, the characters' names and parachute in all the sensationalism in an effort to look new and edgy. I'm not an out and out purist. I thoroughly enjoyed Armando Ianucci's stylised take on David Copperfield, which managed to be fresh and different but stayed faithful to the spirit of the at the heart of the story