Oliver! won five out of 12 Oscar nominations in 1968, including Best Director for Carol Reed. He put a rousing musical spin on Charles Dickens' dark tale of an orphan (played by Mark Lester) seeking his fortune in ye olde London, and its popularity endures almost 40 years later. Who could forget Ron Moody crooning Pick A Pocket as Fagin, looking a bit like Bruce Forsyth after a night on the tiles.

Reviewing The Situation

Moody looks back on his defining role (first played in a stage production) in Meet Fagin and credits, not Bruce Forsyth, but the late comedian Tommy Cooper with providing creative inspiration. Fagin wasn't just an old miser in Moody's eyes, but "a clown" who used humour to engage impressionable young children.

He says too that working with the recently departed Oliver Reed (in the role of scary Bill Sikes) was "just like working with any of the other children..." It was the owl that proved to be most troublesome though, as Moody tells it, constantly upstaging him by spinning its head 180 degrees at the call of 'action!'

A Gruel-ling Schedule

Even though he's all grown up now, Mark Lester still remembers Oliver Reed with a little quiver in his voice in Meet Oliver. He reflects too on his friendship with Jack Wild who sadly passed away in 2006. According to Lester, he was "like a big brother" with their offscreen antics very much mirroring the relationship between Oliver and The Artful Dodger onscreen. By the late stages of production though, (which lasted almost a year) Lester was almost as tall as Wild so the latter was forced to wear lifts in his shoes! That might have impaired his dancing ability, but Lester maintains he was one of the worst hoofers on set.

All of those famous musical sequences, like Pick A Pocket, Food Glorious Food and Consider Yourself, can be viewed separately with dance instruction and sing-a-long subtitles. Three trivia games, an interactive map of 19th century London and a timeline of Charles Dickens' life are thrown in too. Of course Oliver! is a proven crowd pleaser, but it's a shame there isn't a more comprehensive look at the making of this epic film. Indeed we'd venture as far as to say, this Special Edition might leave some children begging for more...

EXTRA FEATURES

Oliver! DVD is released on Monday 12th November 2007.