2007
Bill Sykes
The BBC produced an adaptation of Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist for a new generation; the last BBC production was in 1985. This adaptation is by Sarah Phelps, one of the writers of the long-running UK serial EastEnders, and director Coky Giedroyc. The cast includes Tom Hardy as Bill Sikes, Sophie Okonedo as Nancy, and Timothy Spall as the leader of the pickpockets.
Tom on his portrayal, from The Times Online:
“In previous versions, there has been a kind of hamminess to Sikes. He has been played as a towering rock of emotionless violence.
Oliver Reed’s portrayal, magnificent as it was, showed him as a Neanderthal beast, and you did wonder what Nancy was doing with him.
In Sarah’s script she sees much more tenderness in the relationship. In the end, he kills Nancy, but he is haunted to his own grave by her death. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not playing him crying over kittens. Sikes is still a turd that’s managed to float to the top of a shit pile that the Dickensian underworld represents.”
