'Great Expectations' writer adds 'saucy lines' after Olivia Colman casting

Fans already have huge expectations from the BBC's new adaptation of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations starring Olivia Colman.

Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight was also inspired by this casting, as it motivated him to go back to the scripting stage and add in "saucy lines".

Knight explained: "[Miss Havisham] was written as quite a big role anyway – obviously you’ve got to write it to get the actor – and she’s got to read pretty much beginning, middle and end. But when I knew it was Olivia obviously then you go back and start to enjoy yourself because you can start adding [a] bit more of what Olivia brings.

"She’s just so powerful on the screen. There’s a couple of things we changed once we knew she would be in the role – a couple of what you’d call saucy lines where you know she’s going to pull it off in a way that it’s going to be just right. And she does."

The new six-part adaptation of Great Expectations also stars Fionn Whitehead, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ashley Thomas and Johnny Harris amongst others, and is executive produced by Tom Hardy and Ridley Scott.

The series is about an orphan boy who is taken on by a wealthy old woman whose life gets wrecked by a failed relationship.