Crime and Punishment (2002 TV series) Crime and Punishment (2002 TV series) Crime and Punishment is a two-part British television crime drama series, based upon the novel of the same name by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, that first broadcast on BBC2 on 12 February 2002. The novel was adapted for television by playwright Tony Marchant, and was directed by Julian Jarrold. John Simm stars as Rodya Raskolnikov, a former student who plans the murder of a pawnbroker to alleviate his financial problems, but also as an existential exercise, feeling himself able to commit such acts without guilt, remorse or justification. The series was broadcast over two consecutive nights,
Crime and Punishment His chaotic interaction with the external world and his nihilistic worldview might be seen as causes of his social alienation or consequences of it. Despite its title, the novel does not so much deal with the crime and its formal punishment, as with Raskolnikov's internal struggle (the book shows that his punishment results more from his conscience than from the law). Believing society would be better for it, Raskolnikov commits murder with the idea that he possessed enough intellectual and emotional fortitude to deal with the ramifications, [based on his paper/thesis, "On Crime", that he is a Napoleon], but his