Back in 2017, it was announced Steven Knight and Tom Hardy (‘Taboo’) were teaming up with BBC One for a three-part adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol.’ Now there is finally an update.
In an interview with Collider, Knight has this to say:
“It’s gonna be three one-hours, it’s largely done in terms of the script. We’re planning to shoot this year and hopefully get it on the screen for Christmas… It’s BBC plus an American element which has not been announced yet.”
Knight confirmed that Hardy will have a “pivotal” role in the miniseries, as well as being an executive producer.
There will also be more Dickens adaptations, as Knight explains:
“What I’m planning to do is adapt five Dickens books—’A Christmas Carol’ plus four novels—and do it over a period of six or seven years and have a repertory of actors, and I think we’ll get the best actors in the world, hopefully, to take part because the Dickens characters are so great. And just do like ‘[David] Copperfield’ and ‘Oliver Twist’ and ‘Great Expectations’ and do them in a modern way. Not really in a ‘Taboo’ way, but sort of like that.”
Knight hopes to make ‘David Copperfield’ next, however, there is no official greenlight or confirmation on these other adaptations.
To reiterate, three one-hour installments will be the format for ‘A Christmas Carol.’ Meanwhile, Knight says the other, longer Dickens novels would be about eight hours in length each. Hopefully we get those adaptations in the coming years, barring the quality of ‘A Christmas Carol.’
If all goes well, the miniseries will premiere this Christmas, on BBC One.
Source: Collider