Great Expectations

Philip Pirrip –or ‘Pip’ – has ‘great expectations’. An orphan, brought up in a small village on the Essex marshes by his sharp-tongued sister and her husband Joe Gargery, the gentle and kind-hearted village blacksmith, he receives from an anonymous benefactor the chance of escaping the forge. Pip’s expectations are fraught with difficulties as he passes from childhood to adulthood and discovers his true self.

Around this core move a host of fine Dickensian characters – the unbearably smug Mr Pumblechook, Miss Haversham, deranged in her wedding dress, and the chillingly meticulous lawyer, Jaggers.