Artful Dodger actor admits Disney+ show is "not very Dickensian"
Game of Thrones and Love Actually star Thomas Brodie-Sangster has spoken about his new Disney+ show The Artful Dodger and has admitted that it's "not very Dickensian".
The actor is playing the titular character after the events of Oliver Twist, as his skills are put to good use as a Royal Navy surgeon in Australia (which is where the series was produced). Of course, Fagin (Harry Potter's David Thewlis) soon turns up and tries to lure him back to a life of thievery.
"It's very, very different," Brodie-Sangster told RadioTimes. "It's colourful, not really very Dickensian when you think about it.
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"I wanted to focus on what was on the page, on the script, do them justice and not worry quite so much about the history because anyone that's truly a Dickens fan and loves the books, it's not that.
"It's taken those characters and throwing them into a different setting, different pacing, different feel. The closest thing you'd get is probably some of Fagan's dialogue [being] Dickensian."
Brodie-Sangster also stated that he didn't go and watch any previous adaptations of Dickens' classic work in preparation for the role, even though he's obviously seen the 1968 musical before.
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He said: "I wondered about doing that and then I didn't. I loved the original film and I looked at some still images. Weirdly, I looked at some behind-the-scenes stuff but no, I realised quite quickly that I didn't need to do that.
"That film is quite ingrained in my head as a kid anyway and whatever I needed to pull on from that, I did, but I didn't ever actually find myself doing that."
The Artful Dodger comes to Disney+ UK and Ireland on January 17.
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