This little piece of casting news will certainly help me have greater expectations for the upcoming BBC-PBS Masterpiece co-production of the Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations. It seems like one of the hardest men on the planet, Ray Winstone, has been added to the three part adaptation of the celebrated work coming to television this Christmas.
Variety announced that the tough Brit (having just watched Sexy Beast last night, his toughness could never be questioned) will play a tough Brit, escaped convict Magwitch in the miniseries. Already on board for the co-production is Douglas Booth (Pillars of the Earth) in the role of Pip with more casting announcements on the way. The show was written by BBC's Oliver Twist adapter Sarah Phelps and will be directed by Brian Kirk (of Boardwalk Empire fame... well, maybe not fame).
This news came at an interesting moment because PBS just announced that they plan to restructure their advertising model to be more inline with, well, almost every other network out there. The Hollywood Reporter notes that, "Public broadcast execs explain the decision by pointing to the steep drop-off in ratings when traditional messages were aired between shows. PBS is breaking from its long-term model and adding commercials." So instead of those ten minute breaks between uninterrupted shows, we'll see PBS implement the more traditional 'commercial every 15 minutes' model. This restructuring should appear as earlier as this fall with their signature programs Nature and Nova (I love Nova).
