BBC sparks outrage with ‘drivel’ Great Expectations adaptation as critics fume ‘what a joke!’

THE BBC has sparked outrage with its ‘drivel’ Great Expectations adaptation – and the critics are fuming.

The latest version of the Charles Dickens classic – adapted by Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight – begins on BBC One this Sunday.

But before the first episode has even had chance to air, critics have slammed it for the addition of foul language and anti-colonial messaging regarding the British Empire.

Steven said he wanted to move away from the romanticised sensibilities of previous adaptations and include more of the grimier aspects of Victorian life.

He said: “It’s everyone’s right to react in the way they want to react. But I would say that the book exists, it is still there.

“This is not an attempt to say the book is wrong or this is better.”

Opium, violence and the maggot-infested streets of London all feature in the new series, while in one scene, lead character Pip (Fionn Whitehead) says: “Take your f***ing hands off me.”

Meanwhile the criminal Magwitch (Johnny Harris) says the British Empire was “built on the lies of privileged white men” in another scene.

It’s prompted Sky News host Rowan Dean to say: “What a joke” about such changes, while Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense Group of MPs said: “The trend amongst clueless politically correct zealots is to bastardise the great canon of English literature either by vulgarising it in this way or sanitising it.”

He continued: “Classic works deserve to be respected and their authors revered. It is an insult to both the texts and the writers to impose this kind of drivel on them.”

Great Expectations also stars Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham and Line of Duty’s Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella.

The 1861 novel tells the story of orphan Pip’s rise from poverty to wealth.

Great Expectations begins on Sunday, March 16 at 9pm on BBC One.