Great Expectations on PBS

<p> Charles Dickens was perhaps the most popular British author of his age and unlike his literary contemporaries, Dickens' legacy continues to grow two centuries later. PBS' Masterpiece Classics marks the bicentennial of his birth with a new BBC production of <em>Great Expectations</em>. Starring Gillian Anderson as the broken yet strangely resilient Miss Haversham, she is surrounded by a sterling British cast, including the always-wonderful (and often overlooked) David Suchet as her solicitor and newcomer Douglas Booth as the adult Pip. </p> <p>Filmed with cinematic scope and ambition, the new production is more than the tidy drawing room dramas once staged by British television. Perhaps Dickens' most autobiographical novel, <em>Great Expectations </em>is the story of an orphan boy rising from pluck leavened with good fortune in a world of casual cruelty, economic hardship and the constraints of a class system. As with most of his stories, the message is that compassion can sometimes soften the stoniest hearts and the seemingly random spark of hope can light the darkest passages. </p> <p>Premieres 8 p.m. April 1 and April 8, MPTV-Channel 10 </p>