Great Expectations

Did you watch the BBC adaptation over Christmas?  What did you think?  I thought it was good, even though I've always had problems with the story - mainly because we're obviously supposed to empathise with Pip (aren't we?) and I find him a generally unsympathetic character.  The story is all about manipulation - he is manipulated throughout by Miss Havisham and, unknowingly for most of the time, by Magwitch.  It is only in the last few pages of the book, and in the last few moments of the adaptation, that he becomes his own man - or does he?  I've always had the feeling that Estella would be pulling his strings for the rest of his life - whether or not they got married.  Dickens himself apparently had doubts as to how the story should end - his original ending was completely downbeat, but he then wrote a second ending which at least allowed for the possibility that things would turn out well, and that is the version in general use.  And although for me, Miss Havisham will always be Martita Hunt, I thought Gillian Anderson was superb.