This adaptation moves the setting of the novel forward a few decades. In the novel, adding up the dates reveals that Moll first goes up to London in the late 1630s, and begins her career as a thief in the 1660s; in this series, however, these events are associated with Moll attending two plays - "The Country Wife" (1675) and "The Way of the World" (1700). The costumes are appropriate to this later period.