Great Expectations on Screen: 4 Adaptations Compared

Great Expectations has four screen versions here, and they differ more than most: David Lean’s 1946 black-and-white film, Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 film moved to the present day, a 2011 BBC serial, and Mike Newell’s 2012 period feature.

The novel is about 184,000 words, roughly ten hours of reading. The versions range from 111 to 180 minutes, so all four compress heavily: densities run from 0.6 to 1.0 minutes of screen per thousand words.

Every screen version at a glance

4 versions are listed here: 3 made for cinemas and 1 for television, released between 1946 and 2012. Runtimes are the length of the version as released, taken from the Wikipedia article for each title and checked against its IMDb entry.

Year Version Director Length Leads
1946 Great Expectations — film David Lean 118 min John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Bernard Miles
1998 Great Expectations — film Alfonso Cuarón 111 min Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hank Azaria
2011 Great Expectations — 3-part serial Brian Kirk 3 parts, 60 min total Douglas Booth, Ray Winstone, Gillian Anderson
2012 Great Expectations — film Mike Newell 128 min Jeremy Irvine, Robbie Coltrane, Holliday Grainger

How the versions differ

Lean’s 1946 film runs 118 minutes with John Mills, Valerie Hobson and Bernard Miles, and it is the version that shaped how the book is staged, from the graveyard opening to Miss Havisham’s house.

Cuarón’s 1998 film runs 111 minutes and moves the story to the present day, with Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow and Hank Azaria. It is the shortest of the four and the only one that does not use the novel’s period setting.

The 2011 BBC serial runs 180 minutes across three episodes with Douglas Booth, Ray Winstone and Gillian Anderson, and Newell’s 2012 film runs 128 minutes with Jeremy Irvine, Robbie Coltrane and Holliday Grainger. The serial is the only version with more than two hours of screen time.

Reading time against screen time

The novel runs to about 184000 words, which is roughly 10 hours at the 300 words a minute the rest of this site uses. Every screen version fits its own reading of the story into the times below.

Screen version Format Running time
1946 · Great Expectations film 118 min
1998 · Great Expectations film 111 min
2011 · Great Expectations 3-part serial 3 parts, 60 min total
2012 · Great Expectations film 128 min
The novel (1861) 184000 words ~10 h to read

For the most screen time, the 2011 serial at 180 minutes across three episodes. For the version that fixed the novel’s images in the popular memory, Lean’s 118-minute film remains the reference.

Questions readers ask

Which Great Expectations version is most faithful?

By running time, the 2011 BBC serial at 180 minutes, which is about 1.0 minutes of screen per thousand words of the 184,000-word novel. The features run 111 to 128 minutes.

Is the 1998 film set in the nineteenth century?

No. Alfonso Cuarón moved the story to the present day, with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow. It runs 111 minutes, the shortest of the four.

How long is the David Lean version?

118 minutes, released in 1946, with John Mills as Pip and Valerie Hobson as Estella.

The novel itself is on editions.ink as a free ebook: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, with EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB downloads. The full list of filmed classics covers 13 books, and the rest of the catalogue sits under classic fiction.

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