Dickens - anti- imperialist?

Interesting that the libby - left BBC has now adapted Dickens’ Great Expectations as ‘a strong anti-colonial message’. Fionn Whitehead, the actor who plays the grown-up Pip, says that the British Empire was “a horrible thing” which “destroyed a lot of cultures around the world” and anyone who disagrees is “clearly kidding themselves”. As Whitehead apparently admits he doesn’t read any books himself I don’t know how he knows this. Presumably by trolling left-wing websites? Funny in my visits to ex-colonial countries there are many of its peoples who appear grateful to the benefits colonial rule brought. But then again they need to listen to the wisdom of Mr Whitehead and get educated!
An interesting corollary is that a former labour counsellor was in the news about three years ago for spraying walls with the fact that Dickens was a racist, insisting that Dickens was “a notorious genocidal racist... That’s the real Dickens.” So now the left is using him as an anti-imperialist we have come the full circle in muddled thinking!