Oliver Twist

Poor Oliver Twist: his nearly 200-year-old misery never fails to be relevant, and so Charles Dickens' Victorian classic is dutifully resurrected every decade or so for the edification of a new generation. This elegant 1999 British Masterpiece Theatre production distinguishes itself with a lengthy new prologue that fully occupies the first of three two-hour episodes, fleshing out the story of Oliver's origins (only briefly sketched by Dickens) and thereby nicely opening up and deepening the familiar tale of the mistreated orphan taken under the dubious wing of Fagin and his gang of London street thieves. The cast is an Anglophile's dream--Robert Lindsay, Julie Walters, Alun Armstrong, Michael Kitchen, Andy Serkis, Keira Knightley, with wide-eyed newcomer Sam Smith as Oliver--and they plumb surprising depths of humor and irony in a retelling that, delightfully, remains true to Oliver's central sense of decency, which will out despite the best unsavory efforts of the rogues and scoundrels that surround him. Presented on an extra-less three-disc set, this update of a perennial favorite is recommended. (M. Johanson)