Dodgy Premiere for Disney+

What the Dickens! Disney+ will premiere its Australian Original series The Artful Dodger on November 29.

Not to be confused with the BBC kidult series Dodger that streams on TVNZ+, The Artful Dodger is billed as “an irreverent follow-up” to Charles Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’ that explores the adult double life of the famous prince of thieves in a new setting. Reads the blurb:

Set in 1850s Australia, in the lively colony of Port Victory, Jack Dawkins aka The Artful Dodger, has transferred his fast fingers as a pickpocket to the nimble skilled fingers of a surgeon. Dodger’s past returns to haunt him with the arrival of Fagin, luring him back into a world of crime.

A greater threat – to Dodger’s heart – is Lady Belle, the Governor’s daughter, determined to become the colony’s first female surgeon.

From heists and life-and-death surgeries to the harsh realities of the criminal world mingling with the middle ground and gentry, this eight-part series is a tale of reinvention, betrayal, redemption, and love with a twist.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Pistol, The Queen’s Gambit) plays Jack Dawkins (aka The Artful Dodger), David Thewlis (Landscapers, Fargo) is Fagin and Maia Mitchell (Good Trouble, The Fosters), Lady Belle Fox.

Rounding out the cast are Kiwi Albert Latailakepa and Australians Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Miranda Tapsell (The Sapphires), Tim Minchin (Upright), Susie Porter (Wentworth), Kym Gyngell (Black Snow), Damien Garvey (Nautilus) and Jessica De Gouw (The Secrets She Keeps).

“We’re thrilled to debut this must-see Australian storytelling to global audiences on Disney+ under our Star entertainment banner and on Hulu in the US on November 29,” The Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Kylie Watson-Wheeler, said.

“This is our second locally produced scripted series and we’re excited to share it with audiences locally and internationally.”

The Artful Dodger is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television’s Curio Pictures and produced by Beach Road Pictures. It was filmed in New South Wales with financial support from Screen NSW’s Made In NSW fund.