#Joe Mcdonnell

[scarlethyena]

And you dare to call me a terrorist,

while you look down your gun.

When I think of all the deeds that you have done.

You have plundered many nations,

divided many lands,

you have terrorized their peoples

you ruled with an iron hand!

And you brought this reign of terror to my land

-The Wolfe Tones, Joe McDonnell.

[good-ira]

Left: Genocide Apologia

Right: Folk music from the victims of sectarian violence (from over 40 years ago)

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in Irish History | 8 May:

1567 – Shane O’Neill’s army crosses the Swilly estuary at Farsetmore, and is defeated in a pitched battle by Hugh O’Donnell. Many drown while trying to escape; O’Neill loses 1,300 men. 1597 – Death of Fiach MacHugh O’Byrne. Fiach Mac Aodha Ó Broin was Lord of Ranelagh and sometime leader of the Clann Uí Bhroin, or the O’Byrne clan, during the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland. 1796 – John Pitt…

[pirefyrelight]

listening to rebel songs while Palestine is going through hell, and and hearing lines like "and you Dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your gun?" History going round and round in a circle huh.

[delinquenzanews]

Joe Mcdonnell è il nuovo head coach del Rugby Gubbio

Poche parole, tanti fatti: si può riassumere così la presentazione della stagione 2023/2024 avvenuta giovedì sera al campo da Rugby di Gubbio. Ha aperto le danze il Presidente Andrea Frondizi ringraziando tutti presenti e congratulandosi per i risultati ottenuti nello scorso campionato, dove la squadra Senior del Rugby Gubbio ha conquistato, per la prima volta nella sua storia, la promozione in…

[therealefl]

Eastleigh Retain Services of Shot-Stopper

Eastleigh Retain Services of Shot-Stopper

Eastleigh have announced that Joe McDonnell has signed a new contract to extend his stay at the Silverlake Stadium. The keeper, who has made 138 appearances for The Spitfires since joining in 2020 has had his best season to date, with his performances being rewarded with a new contract. Keeping the most clean sheets (17) in the league, Eastleigh will no doubt be wanting more of the same next…

[dust-in-her-face]

ngl i was looking forward to a handful of things coming back to my screens when the strike ended…and nearly all of them fucked shit up real frakking good to a point where it literally drove me back into my fixations from twenty to fifteen years ago. like i’m not even frakking kidding.

and it’s been a stressful time, y’know? husband nearly died. the lengthy recovery. getting back to life and all the tonnage of crap it brings with it. being lowkey harassed into giving interested parties a grandchild as if they didn’t just witness said husband nearly dying. again.

(did they sit there and watch me fight off catatonia and go, hey, ya know what we could use right now? a screaming, needy, angry, leaky infant. yeah, that’s it.)

so i kinda like to escape into these fictional worlds. but goddamn what a letdown it’s been. like holy shit. what’s in the water, hollywood? and it’s not even full seasons of 22 episodes like before. it’s ten or a little over. how could yall keep fucking that up? it’s literally your job, aye? but, hey, not every year is a banner year…fine.

but i was really looking forward to the happy distraction, that’s all.

crawling back to the arms of battlestar galactica with whom (yes, whom!) i have been in a relationship with longer than i’ve been with my husband. to major crimes (except season 6). to some parts of the west wing. to the golden girls. to the only reality tv i’ll ever watch, us politics and the democratic party. thank you for still being there and thank you, piracy for making sure they never go away.

special shoutout to criminal minds: evolution for going well beyond expectations. seriously. fantastic job. hell of a season. come back with the same ferocity of holy damn. thank you.

and now, back to reality and holy shit what a fucking long day has it been. (it’s almost 8am)

[graphicpolicy]

Jerome Gagnon, Heather and Travis Gibb, David Mack, Patrick McDonnell, Joe Pruett, Evan "Doc" Shaner, Scott Snyder, Jim Starlin, and Sean Von Gorman are coming to Baltimore Comic Con

Jerome Gagnon, Heather and Travis Gibb, David Mack, Patrick McDonnell, Joe Pruett, Evan "Doc" Shaner, Scott Snyder, Jim Starlin, and Sean Von Gorman are coming to Baltimore Comic Con #baltimorecomiccon #bcc2023 #bcc23

[mariacallous]

Republicans on Monday conceded defeat in their push to change how the state of Nebraska counts its electoral votes as a way to help Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in November.

“Our governor had considered a special session of the legislature in order to make that change, but the votes aren’t there to do it,” U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) told reporters on Monday after a key Republican in the Nebraska Legislature announced his opposition.

“It’s over,” she said.

Trump and Republican members of Congress last week urged Nebraska Republicans to change their electoral rules just weeks before the November presidential election so that the state’s five electoral votes would likely all go to Trump instead of allowing one to go to the Democratic candidate based on how Nebraskans vote. Nebraska and Maine are the only states that don’t follow a winner-take-all formula.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a top Trump ally on Capitol Hill, even traveled to Nebraska to urge lawmakers to support the change, but the effort appeared to stall out after state Sen. Mike McDonnell (R) balked, denying proponents a filibuster-proof majority in the legislature.

“I have taken time to listen carefully to Nebraskans and national leaders on both sides of the issue,” McDonnell said in a statement on Monday. “After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”

The state’s 2nd Congressional District, including Omaha and its suburbs, has swung toward Democrats since Trump was elected in 2016. In 2020, President Joe Biden won the district and its one electoral vote by 6.5 percentage points. Recent polling of the district shows the Democratic nominee, Vice President Harris, with a similar lead over Trump.

Changing the way Nebraska awards electoral votes could potentially have a major effect on the presidential race. If Trump receives an additional electoral vote, as he likely would in a winner-take-all allocation, Harris would need to sweep in the Rust Belt states (Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) as well as carry an additional Sun Belt state (Arizona, Georgia, Nevada or North Carolina) to avoid a tied election.

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) called the lack of support for the voting change “disappointing.”

“I’ll have to talk to the senator to see if he can change his mind, but until he does we don’t have the votes,” he added on Monday.

[mightyflamethrower]

Thomas v. Biden. Ha ha ha

Escaping an electronic lynching made the justice stronger

JUL 03, 2024

Oilfield Rando tweeted, “Imagine if Trump wins, and both Thomas and Sotomayor retire.

“The United States Supreme Court would have a majority of justices appointed by Donald J. Trump.

“Imagine the media industry meltdown LOL. The headlines would be hilarious.”

I replied, “Thomas ain't going nowhere. That electronic lynching gave him the resolve he needed to be Nothing But A Man.”

And who led the Democrat lynch mob? Pedo Joe.

33 years later, Thomas delivered another slice of payback with his concurring opinion in Trump v. Biden (aka Trump v. USA). The five men on the court plus ACB ruled that a president has immunity from prosecution in carrying out his official duties, which would preclude charging him for any of the cheapfake J6 crimes.

The decision so shocked Freeze Frame Joe that he went on national TV and turned orange.

Thomas went one step beyond the majority opinion, observing:

I write separately to highlight another way in which this prosecution may violate our constitutional structure. In this case, the Attorney General purported to appoint a private citizen as Special Counsel to prosecute a former President on behalf of the United States. But, I am not sure that any office for the Special Counsel has been “established by Law,” as the Constitution requires. By requiring that Congress create federal offices “by Law,” the Constitution imposes an important check against the president—he cannot create offices at his pleasure. If there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies, then he cannot proceed with this prosecution. A private citizen cannot criminally prosecute anyone, let alone a former President. No former President has faced criminal prosecution for his acts while in office in the more than 200 years since the founding of our country. And, that is so despite numerous past Presidents taking actions that many would argue constitute crimes. If this unprecedented prosecution is to proceed, it must be conducted by someone duly authorized to do so by the American people. The lower courts should thus answer these essential questions concerning the Special Counsel’s appointment before proceeding.

The prosecution of a former president is a very serious matter that Democrats have turned into a circus. In New York, Democrats made paying off an extortionist a 34-count felony indictment. The trial was so bizarre that I want a DNA test to determine whether Judge Merchan is a man or indeed a kangaroo.

But, this decision and Biden’s post-debate collapse in the polls have forced Democrats to postpone their sentencing of President Trump. Merchan just told Trump see you in September, which was music to his ears.

Clearly, the witch hunts failed miserably, forcing Democrats to re-assess their situation. Merchan does only what his party bosses tell him to do. It’s a New York thing.

The federal cases against President Trump are even weirder. How does holding a rally at the National Mall become an insurrection? How does holding documents Trump declassified become a violation of national security laws?

But most importantly, how does a bum hack lawyer like Jack R. Smith become the prosecutor in these cases?

Smith is the rare prosecutor who has had a verdict reversed by the Supreme Court. Only his lack of ethics and devotion to the Democrat Party got him this gig.

Obama sicced him on former Republican Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia. While the Jack S. got the conviction, he did so in a dirty, slimy way that so violated the Constitution and the governor’s rights that the Supreme Court unanimously — RGB included — threw the conviction away.

The Washington Post reported 8 years ago:

The Supreme Court unanimously overturned former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell’s public-corruption conviction Monday and imposed higher standards for federal prosecutors who charge public officials with wrongdoing. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. described the former governor’s actions as “tawdry” but agreed that instructions to the jury in his case about what constitutes “official acts” were so broad, they could cover almost any action a public official takes. McDonnell’s promising political career was derailed by his entanglement with a businessman who showered the governor and his family with luxury gifts and financial benefits. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were indicted and convicted after he left office in January 2014.

The feds refused to try the case again because Obama got what he wanted — an end to McDonnell’s promising political career. Ha ha ha. Cheating worked.

Thomas remembered and this time the justice is questioning Smith’s appointment.

NYT tried to blow off the concurrence by Justice Thomas, writing:

Despite Justice Thomas’s concerns, courts reaching back to the early 1970s have repeatedly rejected efforts to question the legality of independent prosecutors. Those have included the Supreme Court upholding the appointment of Leon Jaworski, one of the special prosecutors who investigated the Watergate scandal, in a decision that was largely focused on the issue of President Richard Nixon’s claims of executive privilege. Judges have also tossed out efforts to invalidate the work of special counsels like Robert S. Mueller III, who examined connections between Russia and Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, and David C. Weiss, who has brought two criminal cases against Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son.

However, this court is tasing bad precedent. Thomas signaled that the court will look kindly at an appeal challenging the constitutionality of appointing special prosecutors. He pointed Judge Cannon at Smith and said fire away.

Prosecuting a former president should be taken carefully because no one has ventured into this dark territory before.

FJB been haphazard, knowing that winning by any means necessary — or unnecessary — will result in zero penalties. After all, Obama got away with ruining a Republican, why would Obama’s flunky face any consequences for phony prosecutions?

In his concurring opinion, Thomas showed the wisdom of a man forged in the fires of false accusation and racism.

The three lib Ditzy Chicks on the bench were approved by the Senate because of their ethnicity; they have never been challenged. They coasted their way in and it shows in the wise Latinx’s dissent, in which she said:

Even though the majority’s immunity analysis purports to leave unofficial acts open to prosecution, its draconian approach to official-acts evidence deprives these prosecutions of any teeth. If the former President cannot be held criminally liable for his official acts, those acts should still be admissible to prove knowledge or intent in criminal prosecutions of unofficial acts. For instance, the majority struggles with classifying whether a President’s speech is in his capacity as President (official act) or as a candidate (unofficial act). Imagine a President states in an official speech that he intends to stop a political rival from passing legislation that he opposes, no matter what it takes to do so (official act). He then hires a private hitman to murder that political rival (unofficial act). Under the majority’s rule, the murder indictment could include no allegation of the President’s public admission of premeditated intent to support the mens rea of murder. That is a strange result, to say the least.

No one who lived through the Kennedy and King assassinations would be so cavalier and casual in referencing the murder of political rivals. Even the backstabbing Bill Barr complained.

Sotomayor, Kagan and KBJ are DEI hires as in Didn’t Earn It.

Thomas did. It shows in the higher quality of his work. Pedo Joe put him through the fires of hell, forging one of the greatest justices ever.

Biden's campaign Descending after his debate with TRUMP.

[dustedmagazine]

Tsunami — Loud Is As (Numero Group)

Tsunami rolled over the 1990s like the natural phenomenon it was named for, swamping conventions about what punk should sound like, who should make it, how it should be delivered to its audience and what subjects it should tackle. Coming out of a DC hardcore scene defined by an angular, aggressive hyper male sound, Tsunami was half-female, dauntingly intelligent, haunted by melody and smothered in fuzz.  A new box set from Numero documents the band’s eight year run, including three full albums, 11 singles and some unreleased four-track demos. An exhaustively researched history by Joe Gross comes illustrated with contemporary photography, concert flyers, backstage passes and album art. Four pre-eminent female music critics—Jen Pelly, Evelyn McDonnell, Gina Arnold and Ann Powers—offer personal reflections on individual Tsunami albums.  It is a gloriously complete retrospective. If you’re not cherry picking favorites and reliving memories from the first time around, expect to be overwhelmed. It will require some time to get a handle on this.

It began in Arlington, Virginia, at a punk house called Positive Force, where Jenny Toomey and John Pamer first met in 1990, and shortly after that, encountered Kristin Thompson. Toomey’s college band, Geek, was winding down, and she had started her own label, Simple Machines. A last hurrah, summer tour for Geek, supporting Superchunk and Seaweed, threw her into contact with Andrew Webster, soon to be Tsunami’s bass player. The band came together after their return. Toomey and Thompson played guitar, with Toomey singing, and Pamer sat in on drums.  

Things moved quickly after that. A nine-song cassette called Cow’s Arcade came out early in 1991, followed by the Headringer 7” later in the spring. In August of that year, Tsunami toured with Velocity Girl and played at the International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia, Washington, alongside Beat Happening, Bikini Kill and Fugazi, still less than a year into their run as a band. It was about this time that they wrote and recorded “Genius of Crack,” still one of Tsunami’s best known tunes and a wonderfully noisy but languid meditation on alienation. “We're so slack, we come off like geniuses on crack,” Toomey belts against a beautiful roar of feedback-addled guitar tone.

A spate of singles and compilation tracks took Tsunami through 1992, and in 1993, the first LP, Deep End appeared. That full-length takes up the entirety of LP 1 in this five-album set. Side one ends with the furious drone and churn of “460,” whose explosive energy and shimmering textures cross the Replacements with, oh, I don’t know, Bailter Space. That same year, 1993, Tsunami toured with Superchunk, opened for PJ Harvey once or twice, and got invited to play at the Primus/Alice in Chains/Dinosaur Jr. headed Lollapalooza.

Heart’s Tremolo, in 1994, interspersed lyrical intervals with blaring guitar mayhem, very much in the loud-quiet way of the mid-1990s. Songs like “Fast Food Medicine” simmer disconsolately before they flare to life, and the song “Fits and Starts” begins its brief life as a folk song, full of squeaky string slides and earnest poetry. “Quietnova” is the album’s opener and a statement of purpose; the most dangerous stuff isn’t always the loudest.

The third LP encompasses the 1995 singles/B-sides/compilation tracks compendium World Tour and Other Destinations. It includes another version of “Genius of Crack,” the wonderfully noisy “Kickball Babe,” Tsunami’s surprisingly sensitive (and only holiday offering) “Could Have Been Christmas” and their full-throated Minutemen cover “Courage,” among others. A Brilliant Mistake, from 1997, expands the instrumentation further, with jazz-leaning bass and Luther “Trip” Grey’s intricate and unhinged drumming (check out the opening to “David Foster Wallace”).

This review, of course, can’t describe any more than a fraction of what Tsunami puts on offer here. The set includes 62 songs, more than three and a half hours of music, in-depth history and analysis and loads of imagery. Tsunami may have roared into the culture like a tidal wave—and retreated almost as quickly — but this expansive box set reminds us (or perhaps informs us in the first place) of what made them special.  

Jennifer Kelly

[gorogues]

Spoilers for comics in January 2025!

You can see them in full at Adventures In Poor Taste.

It's mostly just reprints for that month, but here's the Flash solicit now that we know Marco will be in the upcoming Skartaris storyline. Strangely, no cover is provided.

THE FLASH #17 Written by SIMON SPURRIER Art by VASCO GEORGIEV Cover by MIKE DEL MUNDO Variant covers by DIKE RUAN and BALDEMAR RIVAS $3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock) ON SALE 1/22/25 As The Flash races to contain damage to Skartaris, forces both below and above ground make their move to grasp power. The Flash Family vacation leads the West clan to meet the one and only Warlord!

This next book is obviously a collection with tons of Digger, so fans of his might want to pick it up!

DC FINEST: SUICIDE SQUAD: TRIAL BY FIRE Written by JOHN OSTRANDER Art by LUKE McDONNELL, JOHN BYRNE, JOE BROZOWSKI, and more Cover by LUKE McDONNELL and KARL KESEL $39.99 US | 560 pages | 6 5/8″ x 10 3/16″ | Softcover | ISBN: 978-1-77950-075-9 ON SALE 3/11/25 Task Force X was created in World War II to neutralize metahuman and supernatural threats. Over time, the roster was updated to include incarcerated supervillains who could reduce their prison sentences if they went on dangerous assignments that were deemed suicide missions. Thus, Task Force X earned a new nickname: the Suicide Squad! This first collection of John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell’s classic run includes stories from Suicide Squad #1-10, Secret Origins #14, Detective Comics #582, The Fury of Firestorm #62-64, Firestorm: The Nuclear Man Annual #5, Legends #1-6, and Millennium #4.

This next trade should include a couple of stories with Rogues, since Kadabra appears in a couple of these stories, and some other Rogues appear a bit too.

LIMITED COLLECTORS’ EDITION #48 FACSIMILIE EDITION Written by E. NELSON BRIDWELL and JIM SHOOTER Art by CURT SWAN, ROSS ANDRU, NEAL ADAMS, CARMINE INFANTINO, GEORGE KLEIN, and DICK GIORDANO Cover by CARMINE INFANTINO, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, and BOB OKSNER $14.99 US | 56 pages ON SALE 1/22/25 The greatest races of all time between Superman and the Flash are reproduced in this tabloid-size facsimile of the 1976 Limited Collectors’ Edition classic. In addition to tales of super-speed, this issue includes bonus features like a tour of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude drawn by Neal Adams and “How to Draw the Flash!” by Carmine Infantino. Test your knowledge with a Flash puzzle and be sure to buy a second copy to cut out the tabletop diorama on the back cover.

The next trade has a Bronze Age Eobard story in it (the one in which he gets salty about being called the Reverse Flash).

DC FINEST: TEAM-UPS: CHASE TO THE END OF TIME Written by MARTIN PASKO, DAVID MICHELINIE, LEN WEIN, and more Art by JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, MURPHY ANDERSON, CURT SWAN, and more Cover by JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ and DAN ADKINS $39.99 US | 560 pages | 6 5/8″ x 10 3/16″ | Softcover | ISBN: 978-1-77950-082-7 ON SALE 3/18/25 The Man of Steel and the Flash! The Caped Crusader and Black Canary! See the World’s Finest duo of Superman and Batman join forces with other DC superheroes in DC Finest: Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time, collecting some of the most exciting team-up stories from the Bronze Age of comics from May 1978 to October 1979. Featuring the works of some of the greatest artists and writers in comics, this volume contains stories from DC Comics Presents #1-14 and The Brave and the Bold #141-155.

[plethoraworldatlas]

Palestine advocates on Wednesday slammed the Biden administration as it pushes Congress to approve the sale of $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel, despite public pronouncements of anger over ongoing Israeli atrocities in Gaza and a federal ban on the U.S. arms transfers to human rights violators.

The New York Times reported that the U.S. State Department has informally asked two congressional committees to begin the legislative review process for the deal, which involves the sale of as many as 50 McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighters to Israel, as well as munitions, training, and other support.

The proposed deal—which would be one of the largest and most lucrative arms sales to Israel in years—comes amid Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, during which more than 115,000 Palestinians have been killed, maimed, or are missing and presumed dead.

The planned sale also comes amid growing frustration among Biden administration officials over what President Joe Biden called Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza. On Tuesday, Biden said he was "outraged" and "heartbroken" by Israel's airstrike targeting a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven humanitarian aid workers, including one U.S. citizen. Biden acknowledged that the attack was "not a stand-alone incident" while asserting that Israel has "not done enough" to protect Palestinian civilians.

"Does anyone wonder why Netanyahu ignores Biden's pleas for restraint in Gaza? Netanyahu sees them as empty words because, as Israel is bombing and starving Palestinian civilians, Biden still wants to sell it $18 billion of F-15 fighter jets," former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said Wednesday, referring to right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1951 – Birth of Volunteer Joe McDonnell, in Lenadoon, Belfast, who died in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

McDonnell was born on Slate Street in the Falls Road of west Belfast on 14 Sept 1951, and was the fifth of 10 children and went to a nearby Roman Catholic school. In 1970, he married Goretti, and moved into her sister’s house in Lenadoon. There were only two Catholic houses in this predominantly Ulster Protestant housing estate, and the house was attacked on numerous occasions. McDonnell was…

[byneddiedingo]

Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta, and Joseph Bono in GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)

Cast: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Christopher Serrone, Paul Sorvino, Frank Sivero, Tony Darrow, Mike Starr, Frank Vincent. Screenplay: NIcholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese, based on a book by Pileggi. Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus. Production design: Kristi Zea. Film editing: James Y. Kwei, Thelma Schoonmaker. 

When the best picture and best director Oscars for 1990 went to Dances With Wolves and Kevin Costner, many saw it as a gaffe by the Academy, if not a downright snub of Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas. I actually remember enjoying Dances With Wolves a great deal. I liked the performances by Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, and Wes Studi, appreciated the attempt to see things from the point of view of Native Americans, and found the buffalo stampede thrilling. But I haven't seen it again for many years, and don't really have much interest in doing so, There are people who say that the real test of a movie is whether you want to see it again, because each time you watch it, you either see it differently or get a sense of why you liked it the first time. In the latter case, there's a great pleasure in hearing the dialogue in a movie like Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943) fall into its accustomed place each time you revisit it. But GoodFellas seems to me to fill both categories: You anticipate the "What do you mean, I'm funny?" exchange between Tommy (Joe Pesci) and Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), while at the same time you see something new in the way scenes are staged or filmed or edited. I will have to say that the Academy's choice this time doesn't seem so egregious to me as does its choice of Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980) over Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980). GoodFellas can be just a little too clever and showy for its own good. Consider the dazzling tracking shot as Henry and Karen (Lorraine Bracco) enter the Copacabana via the cellars and kitchens, or the fast-paced editing in the climactic scene when the paranoid Henry is dashing around town, keeping an eye on the helicopter above. On a repeat viewing, both scenes maybe draw a little more attention to film technique than is good for narrative coherence. But these are quibbles. GoodFellas won exactly one Oscar, for Joe Pesci's hair-trigger performance. Lorraine Bracco lost to Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost (Jerry Zucker), the adapted screenplay award went to Michael Blake for Dances With Wolves instead of to Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and Thelma Schoonmaker lost the editing Oscar to Neil Travis for Dances. And Ray Liotta's exceptional performance went completely unnominated. 

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. Set in Kent and London School, early to the mid-19th century. Published 1861.

Great Expectations is an upcoming period drama developed by Steven Knight. It is based on the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip. It is Dickens' second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person.

The six-part miniseries is a Victorian slice. The British writer Steven Knight (the creator of “Peaky Blinders,” who also adapted “A Christmas Carol” for television, in 2019) casts gothic and colonial shadows over the beloved bildungsroman, which follows Pip, an orphan whose aspirations to become a gentleman are bankrolled by a mysterious benefactor. In Knight’s retelling, Pip learns that few fortunes are made without preying on the misfortune of others.

Pip Gargery (Fionn Whitehead) is an orphan living in coastal Kent with his blacksmith brother-in-law Joe (McDonnell) and his viciously abusive sister Sara (Hayley Squires). Like most of Dickens’ orphans, Pip dreams of a grand life in which he does not have to adopt Joe’s trade; he wishes to travel the world. The local wealthy madwoman, Amelia Havisham (Colman), twisted by rage at being abandoned by the altar, lives in her wedding dress while destroying her adopted daughter Estella’s (Shalom Brune-Franklin) emotional and psychological health. Pip is hired to serve as a companion to Estella; Miss Havisham observes the pair and encourages Estella to treat him with abject cruelty. An unknown benefactor finances Pip’s journey into London life, where he meets his new boss, Mr. Jaggers (Thomas). Together they try to topple the spice trade empire of Bentley Drummle (Needham), a craven man engaged to Estella.

With a cast like this behind Knight’s name, it’s no surprise there’s been a lot of hype around the new period drama. Just look at this star-studded list:

-Olivia Colman (The Favourite, The Crown) as Miss Havisham -Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) as Pip -Shalom Brune-Franklin (The Tourist) as Estella -Ashley Thomas (The Ipcress File) as Jaggers -Johnny Harris (Without Sin) as Abel Magwitch -Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows) as Mr Pumblechuck -Hayley Squires (Adult Material) as Sara Gargery -Rudi Dharmalingam (The Lazarus Project) as Wemmick -Owen McDonnell (The Holiday) as Joe Gargery -Trystan Gravelle (Mr Selfridge) as Compeyson -Laurie Ogden (The Colour Room) as Biddy

Great Expectations - Creator: Steven Knight It will premiere on BBC One on Sunday, 26th March 2023. 9 pm, BBC One. The USA premiere is on Hulu.