I'd Do Anything Winner, Jodie Prenger is, according to Cameron Macintosh, too "big" to play Nancy, while Dollymix reader, Alex, feels that the real reason the two black girls got the boot was that they were the wrong colour to be Dickens' Victorian prostitute.
But just what did Nancy look like anyway? Since I grew up with the musical version of Oliver, Shani Wallis has always been my template for Nancy, but the BBC's 2007 version gave us a mixed race Nancy who fitted right in to what was already a multicultural Victorian London.
Keep reading for Dickens' description of Nancy and a round up of Nancy through the ages.
This is how Dickens introduces her and her friend, Bet:
"They wore a good deal of hair, not very neatly turned up behind, and were rather untidy about the shoes and stockings. They were not exactly pretty, perhaps; but they had a great deal of color in their faces, and looked quite stout and hearty."
Doris Lloyd (left), Nancy in the 1933 Oliver Twist (the first non-silent Dickens movie). According to the IMDB review, the British actress was "adequate"
Kay Walsh (right), Nancy in husband, David Lean's BAFTA nominated 1948 version of Oliver Twist. Walsh wrote the much-praised intro to this version, which shows Oliver's mother giving birth. According to the IMDB "she disliked this role as Lean would not allow her look as dirty or "more damaged" as she felt the role required".
Shani Wallis, Nancy in Oliver! The Musical. Everyone's archetype of Nancy, Wallis was the one that all the I'd Do Anything hopefuls were trying to live up to.
Emily Woolf. Alan Bleasdale's 1999 version of Oliver Twist for ITV also featured national treasure, Julie Walters, Gollum (Andy Serkis) and Keira Knightley.
Leanne Rowe was Roman Polanski's Nancy in his over-long, over-serious version. She cut a very fragile figure in the movie, and although Rowe was in her twenties when the film was made, she looks younger.
Sophie Okonedo. Played Nancy in the 2007 BBC adaptation of Oliver Twist.The Oscar-nominated actress is mixed race, with Nigerian and European/Jewish ancestry.
Related: I'd Do Anything's Jodie is cast as Nancy. But not for every performance...
More I'd Do Anything fun and games over on Available for Panto
