In this immensely popular film version of Lionel Bart's musical, Ron Moody - top-billed and Oscar-nominated as Fagin - brings a wealth of Petticoat Lane wit and wisdom, and a certain magnificence, to the role he had created on stage. Mark Lester is a bit too sweet as the orphaned Oliver Twist. On the other hand, Oliver Reed brings such dark brooding menace to the part of Bill Sikes that he might be too scary for younger viewers. The film collected six Oscars, including best picture and best director (Carol Reed, a last minute substitute for Lewis Gilbert, who probably would have brought the charm the fable sometimes lacks), and there's no denying that the Academy recognition for sound and art direction is well and truly justified. Today, it works well as a child's introduction to Dickens, and adults can enjoy Shani Wallis's Nancy, Jack Wild's impish Artful Dodger (he was also Oscar-nominated), the inimitable Harry Secombe's Mr Bumble and Onna White's brisk Broadway choreography.

Musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, a classic tale of an orphan who runs away from the workhouse and joins up with a group of boys headed by the Artful Dodger and trained to be pickpockets by master thief Fagin.