Escape of the Artful Dodger

'Escape of the Artful Dodger' was exceptional in terms of Australian television for children - well written, with likable characters and interesting story lines. Not many people know, but it is a huge hit in Germany and has not been off air there since 2002. I'm sure that one reason would be the acting, which was consistently good - Henri Szeps, who played the doctor, is considered to be one of Australia's finest actors. Some of the child actors might have been a bit shaky in the first few episodes, but by episode four they had well and truly settled in, and were doing themselves proud; so much so that the series was nominated for 'Best Children's TV Drama' in the 2002 Australian Film Institute Awards. All-in-all it was wholesome, first-rate entertainment. I watched the whole series with my children, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ok, don't get me wrong, Barron Entertainment is not a bad company. Shows like 'Ship to Shore' and 'Chuck Jones' are reasonable, though not great to watch, good for school holiday viewing. I'm a huge fan of Oliver Twist though, so I saw this once for the sake of seeing it, and it's bad. The acting is terrible all around, and it has plot holes and absolutely no relevance to the original book at all aside from character names. I don't have a lot else to say on it - I switched the channel halfway through, out of fear that if the wind changed I might have a permanent grimace. All I can say is, don't bother. You'll only end up wanting that half an hour of your life back so you can watch something decent that's Oliver Twist related, like the musical or the 1948 movie. I never thought I'd see a worse version than the 1999 BBC series, but this takes the cake.