# The best Charles Dickens adaptations

From David Lean's Great Expectations and Oliver! to Bleak House and The Muppet Christmas Carol: the Dickens films and series picked by Stylist and ranked by whatNerd.

- 2456 votes · 14 items
- Jan 3, 2023 · Harsh Iyer
- https://even.best/en/l/4328/the-best-charles-dickens-adaptations

## Top 12

1. **Great Expectations (1946)** (233 · ▲253 ▼20) — David Lean: Pip, Miss Havisham and the convict on the marshes.
2. **Oliver! (1968)** (196 · ▲219 ▼23) — Carol Reed's musical Oliver Twist; Oscar for best picture.
3. **Bleak House (2005)** (168 · ▲190 ▼22) — BBC: Gillian Anderson's Lady Dedlock and the endless Jarndyce case.
4. **The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)** (168 · ▲187 ▼19) — Armando Iannucci: Dev Patel in a colourful, comic take.
5. **Oliver Twist (1948)** (147 · ▲167 ▼20) — David Lean, with Alec Guinness as Fagin.
6. **Scrooge (1951)** (131 · ▲161 ▼30) — Alastair Sim in what is often called the most faithful Christmas Carol.
7. **The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)** (122 · ▲138 ▼16) — Michael Caine's Scrooge among the Muppets.
8. **Scrooged (1988)** (97 · ▲122 ▼25) — Bill Murray as a cynical TV executive visited by three ghosts.
9. **Little Dorrit (2008)** (89 · ▲117 ▼28) — BBC: Claire Foy as Amy Dorrit, born in a debtors' prison.
10. **A Tale of Two Cities (1935)** (79 · ▲112 ▼33) — Ronald Colman between London and revolutionary Paris.
11. **Nicholas Nickleby (2002)** (76 · ▲120 ▼44) — Douglas McGrath: Charlie Hunnam, Anne Hathaway and Christopher Plummer.
12. **Great Expectations (1998)** (64 · ▲103 ▼39) — Alfonso Cuarón moves the story to modern Florida and New York, with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow.
13. **Dickensian (2015)** (61 · ▲92 ▼31) — BBC: Dickens's characters all living in the same London street.
14. **Martin Chuzzlewit (1994)** (53 · ▲89 ▼36) — BBC miniseries about a family's greed for an inheritance.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.