BBC's Dodger turns Charles Dickens' grim 19th-century London into a kinetic, joke-heavy caper series. Christopher Eccleston's Fagin leads a crew of scrappy street kids who treat pickpocketing like an art form, giving Oliver Twist a fast, modern energy that hooks middle-schoolers.

While it leans heavily into slapstick and playful crime, the underlying reality of Victorian workhouses and street survival gives it some historical substance. If your kid likes quick-talking underdogs outsmarting adults, this period piece delivers without feeling like assigned reading.