Controversy
The adaptation, by Alan Bleasdale, attracted controversy, particularly for the decision to begin with two hours of backstory (much of it invented by Bleasdale) before reaching the plot of the novel. Furthermore, Bleasdale altered well-known sections of the novel, so that although the basic idea is the same, almost every detail is changed enough so that the miniseries plays like an original story, not an adaptation. Monks, who is made an out-and-out murderer in this miniseries (he kills his father), is nevertheless changed from a completely irredeemable and evil villain to someone who reforms to the point of getting married and starting a family.
Read more about this topic: Oliver Twist (1999 TV miniseries)
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
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