Adaptation of ‘Oliver Twist’ Tweaks Dickens’ Classic Tale

PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre” opens its 30th season Sunday with a sumptuous three-part adaptation of Charles Dickens’ beloved novel “Oliver Twist.”

But viewers tuning in to the first installment will no doubt wonder: “Where is Oliver Twist?” The plucky little orphan toiling in a workhouse who makes a huge mistake when he asks for more food is nowhere to be seen. Neither is his cohort, wily young thief the Artful Dodger, nor the Svengali-like criminal and corrupter of young children, Fagin, his evil crony, Bill Sikes, and Sikes’ ill-fated girlfriend, Nancy.

In fact, these legendary characters don’t even show up until the second episode the next Sunday.

Adapter Alan Bleasdale decided to give “Oliver Twist” a twist by writing an entire back story to the tale.

“The reason I have done a back story--as it were--was that Dickens was only in his early to mid-20s when he wrote this,” Bleasdale explains. “It was his first novel, and he was almost making it up as he went along.” Dickens’ stories were published in serialized chapters in magazines before he put them into novel form.

“Unlike his other novels, which are structurally far more accomplished, he paints himself into all four corners [in “Oliver Twist”],” Bleasdale adds. “The reason why I altered the construction of the piece so much is to try and get him out of those corners.”

In Sunday’s episode, Bleasdale introduces viewers to Agnes Fleming (Sophia Myles), a young woman who falls in love with handsome Edwin Leeford (Tim Dutton), a friend of her father’s (Alun Armstrong). Pregnant by Leeford, she ends up fleeing her family after she learns of Leeford’s sudden death and gives birth to Oliver in a workhouse. As soon as Agnes puts the infant in her arms, she dies.

Leeford is married to the demonic Elizabeth (Lindsay Duncan), a woman who is a decade older than her husband. Edward Leeford (Marc Warren), who goes by the nickname of Monks, is their epileptic, disturbed son. This dysfunctional mother and son search for Oliver so they can murder him before he can inherit his father’s estate.

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Bleasdale created this back story from five pages that appear near the end of the novel.

“The first two hours explain so much about what happened to the boy and why he was left in the manner in which he was left,” he says. “All I wanted to do was to make it believable in this day and age. . . . I had to find a way of doing it so it was honest to the book and to the man and honest to its time.”

A new hook was needed, Bleasdale felt, because there have been so many previous filmed versions, including the 1922 silent with Jackie Coogan and Lon Chaney, the 1948 David Lean version with Alec Guinness as Fagin and John Howard Davies as Oliver, and the Oscar-winning 1968 movie musical “Oliver!,” with Ron Moody as Fagin and Mark Lester as the youngster.

Finding the actor to play Oliver was no small feat. The writer and producers auditioned practically every young British lad who wanted to act. The blond, winsome 9-year-old Sam Smith was one of the last actors they saw.

“He came in near the end, when we were in despair and we just knew straight away he was it,” says Bleasdale. “He is the most mature and charming and intelligent and sweet child. He was professional.”

Except for the scene in which Bill Sikes (Andy Serkis) verbally attacks Oliver. “He was actually frightened,” Bleasdale recalls. “It seemed to me he wasn’t acting. That was the only time he faltered. The camera was on him and the tears in his eyes were real tears. It actually makes great TV.”

Bleasdale was passionate not to have the Jewish Fagin become an anti-Semitic stereotype. “The last thing I wanted to be accused of was being prejudiced against any race or country or religion,” he says. “I was horrified when I reread ‘Oliver Twist’ [and saw] the use of the word ‘Jew’ time and time again--used almost as a swear word.”

In his research, Bleasdale discovered that several of Dickens’ Jewish friends, especially those he met in America, wrote to him about this wording.

“Later in his life, Dickens questioned the whole persona of Fagin and the [pejorative] use of the word ‘Jew.’ He wrote back to all of his Jewish friends and apologized. In later editions of the book, he took out the word ‘Jew’ in hundreds of occasions,” says Bleasdale.

Bleasdale adapted the part of Fagin for Robert Lindsay, the versatile British actor who won a Tony Award in 1987 for the musical “Me and My Girl.”

Before doing the miniseries, Lindsay had spent eight months on the London stage doing the Lionel Bart musical “Oliver!”

“It was interesting how different Fagin is in Alan Bleasdale’s version,” says Lindsay. “The Fagin that I played in London was very much the London Jewish villain. When Alan Bleasdale wrote this, he said, ‘I want you to play Fagin as a cosmopolitan man who has traveled the world--an Eastern European.’

“What I got in the script was that he was a man from Prague who traveled through Europe and ended up in England. Alan wanted to get a sense of the wandering Jew--the man who had no home which puts him on par with Oliver Twist.”

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In the musical, says Lindsay, Fagin is much more of a father figure to his band of thieving urchins. “One that the children adored and yet were frightened of and respected. This Fagin is very charismatic,” he says. “He has a Svengali hold over the children, where the children are really scared of him. He is a far more dangerous character.”

Lindsay insisted Fagin have bad teeth. “I knew people in that period didn’t look after them,” he says. And in playing Fagin, Lindsay decided not to bother to wash his clothes either.

“I smelled dreadfully during the film,” Lindsay says, laughing. “Some of the kids used to comment on how bad I smelled. I just insisted the costume department never wash my clothes. The shirts were crusty. It was not nice.”

Adapting “Oliver Twist” also gave Bleasdale a chance to write--through the Monks character--about epilepsy, a disease his own son Timothy suffers from.

“I have always wanted to write about epilepsy, but it is such a personal thing in our lives,” Bleasdale says. “I didn’t want to exorcise our son’s ghosts and our ghosts and make it true life. I could get [with “Oliver Twist”] the opportunity to write about epilepsy without it seeming like a personal statement on behalf of an epileptic son.”

* “Oliver Twist” airs Sundays through Oct. 22 on “Masterpiece Theatre” at 9 p.m. on KCET and KVCR. The network has rated it TV-PG-V (may be unsuitable for young children, with special advisories for violence).