The Artful Dodger is a fun, energetic, freewheeling nine-part series that reinvents Dickens’ timeless characters with a wry smile to their literary roots while embracing a pace more akin to Peaky Blinders. It won’t appeal to everyone, but it doesn’t much care, and that’s part of its effortless charm. The Artful Dodger is streaming now on Disney+.
Charles Dickens was a master of characterisation, with his literary creations continuing to spark public imagination and interest for over 155 years since his death. Many of his most colourful characters were not the heroes of his stories, but the side characters who helped create his unforgettable universe; who could forget Miss Havisham, Betsey Trotwood, or Uriah Heep? But out of all his creations, Fagin and the Artful Dodger have cemented themselves as perennial favourites in film and TV. In numerous stage, TV, and film adaptations, Dodger has been played by Anthony Newley, Jack Wild, and, yes, even Rita Ora, to name a few. But now it’s Thomas Brodie Sangster’s turn to don the tall hat and quarter-length coat in The Artful Dodger on Disney+.
However, anyone expecting Sangster’s Dodger to inhabit the foggy and wet streets of Victorian London is in for a surprise because James McNamara, David Maher and David Taylor’s sequel to the events of Dickens “Oliver Twist” takes us to the spit and sawdust colonies of Australia, where Dawkins (Dodger) has established a new life for himself as a talented young surgeon.
However, while Dodger may think he has escaped his past, having been left to hang fifteen years before in a damp, rat-infested cell in Newgate, his past is about to catch up with him when one Norbert Fagin (David Thewlis) arrives in town fresh off a convict ship. Understanding the damage Fagin could do to his new reputation as a skilled but penniless surgeon who cuts off limbs in record time, Dodger takes Fagin under his wing, and a new but uneasy partnership is born.
Unlike the highly underrated and equally brilliant Children’s BBC prequel to “Oliver Twist”, Dodger, James McNamara, David Maher, and David Taylor’s sequel takes a far more adult path as it laces dark comedy with adventure, heists, romance and buckets of blood and severed limbs in the heat of the Aussie outback – a wild west of drinking, debauchery and low-level crime.
As a result, The Artful Dodger sits somewhere between Poldark, Peaky Blinders and True History of the Kelly Gang as it tears up the rulebook and romps through the Aussie outback with mischievous glee. It’s fast, fun, quirky, and endearing, with a great screenplay, an engaging score, and delightful tongue-in-cheek references to Dickens’ universe.
But it’s the casting that allows The Artful Dodger to soar. Thomas Brodie Sangster’s Dodger is a delight as he struggles to shake off the past while still enjoying the thrill of a heist alongside Thewlis’ scheming Fagin. Add a genuinely fantastic supporting cast to Sangster’s engaging and lovable Dodger, including Maia Mitchell, Damon Herriman, Tim Minchin and Vivienne Awosoga, and The Artful Dodger becomes a binge-worthy treat. But it is Thewlis who steals the show with a performance full of wit, devilish charm and wicked one-liners.
The Artful Dodger is a fun, energetic, freewheeling nine-part series that reinvents Dickens’ timeless characters with a wry smile to their literary roots while embracing a pace more akin to Peaky Blinders. It won’t appeal to everyone, but it doesn’t much care, and that’s part of its effortless charm.
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