With 2012 marking the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth (be easier if someone would just say 200th  anniversary), the BBC and PBS’ Masterpiece series have teamed up and commissioned a new adaptation of Dickens’ classic, Great Expectations. According to the BBC, filming will begin in July in London with Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) starring as Magwitch and Douglas Booth as Pip. Public television viewers may also recognize, as would UK fans from its’ ITV broadcast days, Winstone from his role as Will Scarlett in Robin Hood (Robin of Sherwood in the UK).

Appropriately scheduled to be part of BBC One’s Christmas programming and a centerpiece of their 2012 Dickens’ celebration plans, the new adaptation will air in the Spring on PBS stations in the United States as part of the Masterpiece series, a series that is already is shaping up to be one of the best I can remember with a second series of Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs and Sherlock already a part of the 2012 season. Also, a reminder, that the new season of Downton Abbey 2 is set for a January 8 premiere with Upstairs Downstairs 2 and Sherlock 2 looking at a Spring 2012 premiere date.