Docspock, you might be thinking of David Copperfield, I think.
Oliver Twist's mother died in childbirth and he spent the first eight years of his life at a baby farm before being transferred to the workhouse.
The BBC version, as with many dramatised versions of such novels, isn't entirely faithful to the book. This happens for all sorts of reasons.
Mr Dickens was not given to taking liberties with poetic licence. What he had to say and write about was far too serious and, sadly, commonplace for that.