December 2007 Niki Browes Instyle Hard by name, hard by nature – the 30-year-old actor has played an alcoholic, a petty criminal, and, this month, stars as Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist. But guess what – there is a soft side. You’re pretty macho. Can you imagine calling yourself a metrosexual? Is it metrosexual to [...]

September 23, 2007 Peter Conrad The Guardian Tom Hardy has gone from being a crack addict to one of the most exciting actors of his generation. In between he nearly ended up fighting in Iraq. Why is he so in thrall to risk and living on the edge? I am always apprehensive when I meet [...]

December 19, 2007 James Walton The Telegraph Around 45 minutes into the first episode of Oliver Twist (BBC1), something deeply unexpected happened. Oliver met some people who were nice to him. Up to that point, he’d had the kind of childhood which these days he’d be able to turn into a bestselling memoir. His unmarried mum [...]

December 2, 2007 The Telegraph Oliver Twist BBC1, Tuesday, 18 December, 8pm. This serial of pithy half-hour episodes launches with a feature-length hour. The script is by ballsy writer Sarah Phelps, long-term scribbler for EastEnders. Fagin will be played by a simpering, sinister Timothy Spall; while the frenetic and very talented Tom Hardy does a [...]

December 15, 2007 Serena Davies The Telegraph Timothy Spall heads the cast of BBC1’s gritty new version of Oliver Twist. Serena Davies talks to its writer and stars about what makes this one different Oliver Twist: haven’t we been here before? “Not like this you bloody haven’t,” says Sarah Phelps, the writer behind the BBC’s [...]