Jane Austen TV Adaptations - which are the best?

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If Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle P&P is my fave and I hated the Keira Knightley film version and I love the Emma Thompson/Alan Rickman/Kate Winslet S&S....

....Which adaptations of the other Austen works would I prefer? BBC? ITV? There's a billie piper mansfield park...but billie piper?! Kate Beckinsdale's Emma?

HELP!!!

I would also recommend the 1999 Mansfield Park with Johnny Lee Miller. There's a S&S TV adaptation from 2008 that's worth a watch too if you didn't like the film, but it's much less glitzy. The 2007 Northanger Abbey with Felicity Jones, too.

I love the passion between Darcy and Lizzy in the KN film but I just don’t feel like there’s enough content, like when it ends after that scene in the field I just wanted more! But I suppose that’s the difference between a TV series adaption and film.

Cacao, I always remember my A Level English teacher saying we'd grow into Persuasion and she was absolutely right! I like the Amanda Root version. I also like the Sense and Sensibility with Hattie Morahan as Elinor. Marianne Dashwood is the literary character I love to hate......... The new Emma was the last thing I saw at the cinema before lockdown, and I enjoyed it as a very beautiful looking romp, but am of the opinion that you can't do Jane Austen justice in a film - not enough time for the nuance.

Another vote here for Persuasion. Amanda Root was perfect. Never forgotten it.

fantastic, thank you! i'm merrily searching these down! I'm excited by the Persuasion as you're all saying its faithful to the book which is generally how i prefer my adaptations to be. I'm not keen on 'modern retelling in dodgy regency clothes' type ones which some of the more recent attempts seem to fall in to.

Had not heard of love and friendship as a version of Lady Susan, will definitely look that one up too.

Have to disagree, i think Jane was perfectly cast in P&P - a classic beauty of regency time although not a great beauty to a modern eye.

looking for the 1999 mans park too.

This is very helpful.

Doesn't have to be just austen but hers are adapations i've been meaning to get for ages. have also got north and south and wives and daughters (gaskell) that i love. any other good recommendations of period dramas of the same ilk much appreciated!

and yes i also agree that there is too much to do for a film, all the nuance is missed out. i did enjoy the new Emma at the cinema but not as a true austen but as a fun regency rom-com.

I also really like the Andrew Davies Bleak House and Little Dorrit (with Claire Foy pre crown).

Ciaran Hinds/Amanda Room Persausion is the best.

@savemejebus

Snap *@WrinklesShminkles* I came on to say Northanger Abbey. I love JJ Fields as Henry Tilney 😍

So do I but I couldn't remember his name! Perfect casting.

North and South is one of my favourites - very romantic. I also really liked The Tennant of Wildfell Hall with Tara Fitzgerald.

Would second North and South with Richard Armitage. Beautifully done.

Have you tried The Forsyte Saga with Damian Lewis? I might rewatch that ...

I love the Kate Beckinsale Emma. Can’t watch any others.
Ditto the Amanda Root Persuasion.

And I don’t think there will ever be a better P&P than the Beeb one of 1995. Though having said that, a much older neighbour didn’t like it at all she was still in love with Mr Darcy (Laurence Olivier) in the dreadful old Hollywood B&W.

Dreadful to me, anyway - clothes were all wrong and Lizzie was much too ‘sweet’.

While talking classics, I love the Beeb Middlemarch, too - very well done IMO.

Another favourite is The Way We Live Now - a wide Victorian canvas with David Suchet brilliant as the arch-swindler Melmotte, and Shirley Henderson equally brilliant as his daughter. It’s not often that I’m happy with the TV adaptation of a favourite book, but this was def. one of them.

I remember enjoying the Kate Beckinsale Emma too. That's when she was a real actress, before she became a Hollywood Barbie.

Gentleman jack is great

I really enjoyed the Sally Hawkins & Rupert Penry Jones version of Persuasion. I haven't seen the one with Amanda Root, I must go look for it.

I can see your neighbours point of view GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER, Laurence Olivier helps blind me to the faults of the rest of it I think he was an excellent Mr Darcy.

The P&P film with Kiera Knightly was so irritating, Mr Bingley was played as a simpering half wit.

I saw Amanda Root on the tube once and I really wanted tell her how much I loved Persuasion but I didn't want to bother her as I'm pretty sure I was the only one who noticed her. Wish I had now.

I bought the Love and Friendship (Lady Susan) DVD recently, but found it very meh - nothing like as ‘biting’ as the IMO brilliant short novel.

I do wish someone else would do it better.

And PS, Kate Beckinsale was unrecognisable in L&F! Whatever possessed her to change her appearance like that?

I’d forgotten, I did see the new film of Emma just before lockdown, but it was pretty forgettable, apart from the fact that Knightley (remarkably Wurzels-ish haircut) and strides into his house and strips naked at one point, and at another Emma pulls up her dress and warms her bare backside at the fireplace.

Kate B became a different person when she left the lovely Michael Sheen and moved to America. She seemed to want to transform her appearance, can't think why.

I’ve never understood the hatred for the Keira Knightley P&P. I love the BBC version but all the actors are about 10 years too old for the roles and it’s too clean/sanitised. The KK version did at least give a sense of the grubbiness of the time. I also loved Matthew Mcfadyen as Darcy.

Ooh some others to look at, thank you! Will check them out. I’m enjoying my regency kick so far! Have ordered the Amanda root persuasion to start me off and the Kate Becks Emma.

I remember watching g north and south as a teen when it came out, not watched it since so looking forward to that!

I agree that Mr Bennett in the film version was dreadful. Such a silly drip. Even in the TV one there were a couple of times he came over as a bit of a twit. But on the whole I did like that actors performance. I loved the houses.