Bleasdale on Fagin: "In Dickens's novel I was worried by the perhaps accidental anti-Semitism. In our version we see that he is Jewish and he refers to it himself quietly. The fact is that he's an immigrant and the laws of this country at that time, refused to allow Jews to hold property, so often the way they would make a living was either through loans or through criminal actions.

Robert Lindsay, who played Fagin in the hit West End musical of Oliver Twist two years ago, took a new approach to this charismatic character:

"As an immigrant and a criminal, Fagin is part of the underclass in London in the 1830s and as such had to live in the most appalling conditions. He robs, he steals, he trains young boys to be criminals. Fagin does have a moral sense. It is this which makes him so fascinating. This man has a genuine love of children, he just loves their innocence, and he is totally fascinated by them. In a way, Fagin is still a child himself. He is not a violent man and he knows that in order to procure the children, no violence must be used. He treats the boys with great fondness, he entertains them, keeps them warm and protects them, but on the other hand he is using them. That's the strangeness of the moral world that Fagin occupies."