Monks (Oliver Twist) - in Other Media

In Other Media

He does not appear at all in Oliver!, the musical adaptation of the novel, nor in several film versions of the novel which seek to simplify the story, including Roman Polanski's 2005 adaptation of Oliver Twist. He does, however, appear in several mini-series versions of the novel, as well as in David Lean's 1948 film version.

The character of Monks (aka Edward Leeford) was particularly elaborated upon in a 1999 mini-series starring Robert Lindsay as Fagin. Monks (played by Marc Warren) is shown as a pathetic, snivelling character, dominated by his ambitious mother Mrs. Leeford (Lindsay Duncan). At one stage he complains "If I could live my life again, I wouldn't." Eventually his mother dies of a heart attack and, with some money granted by Oliver's guardians, he moves to the Caribbean where he finds happiness with a local woman with whom he starts a family (this does not happen in the Dickens novel). In one musical adaption of Oliver Twist, Monks is portrayed as a young woman named Emma Leeford, trying to give Oliver, now portrayed as a girl named Olivia Twist, a bad name so she may inherit her father's money.

Monks appears as a much different character in the 2007 TV serial, in which he is portrayed as a suave, manipulative mastermind, darkly witty and attractive to women. Arrogant and greedy, he is somewhat more daring than in the book and most of its adaptations and is shown to be a gifted liar and smooth-talker. He hires Fagin to kill Oliver, but when Fagin doesn't, he gives him two more days or he himself will kill Oliver. He is engaged to Rose but she turns against him when his true evil nature is revealed.