PRESS RELEASE:

Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, Bleak House) and Douglas Booth (The Pillars of Earth) star in Charles Dickens' tale of an orphan's sudden expectations of wealth and true love. Complicating the picture are an escaped convict, a wily lawyer, a deranged rich woman and a bewitching, cold-hearted beauty. The timeless classic also stars David Suchet (Hercules Poirot) and Vanessa Kirby (The Hour).

Great Expectations, Charles Dickens' remarkable tale of rags to riches to self-knowledge comes to Masterpiece Theatre in two parts on Sundays April 1 and 8 at 8:00 p.m. on KUED.

Anderson appears as one of Dickens' most haunting creations: Miss Havisham, a bride-to-be who was jilted at the altar years before. Newcomer Douglas Booth stars as Pip, the promising young man who is snared in Miss Havisham's lair.

Great Expectations airs during the bicentennial of Dickens' birth and marks the fifteenth Masterpiece adaptation of the great novelist's works.

"Within minutes of starting the first episode I found myself . . . gripped," wrote the Daily Telegraph of London.

"Sensory, visceral, totally Dickensian. . ." declared the UK's Guardian.

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