Jane Austen TV Adaptations - which are the best?

[AnabelleClarabelle]

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!!!

Forgive me mentioning film versions but I adore P&P with Greer Garson and Olivier 1940.

If you ever get the chance to see it, just wonderful.

I love black and white versions of lots of the classics, possibly because I associate them with childhood.

North and South is the Daddy of all period dramas. Richard Armitage!

But I also loved the S&S from about ten years ago. I've completely blanked on the actress who plays Eleanor but she's just so good.

Have you seen Lost in Austen?
"Amanda, an ardent Jane Austen fan, lives in present day London with her boyfriend Michael, until she finds she's swapped places with Austen's fictional creation Elizabeth Bennet."
It's quite entertaining if you're a Pride and Prejudice fan.

I enjoyed Lost in Austen, SephrinaX! Was on a few years ago. Jemima Rooper was very good.

After the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle Pride and Prejudice, my favourite is the Persuasion with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. Root was brilliant in it and it's quite sad that she didn't go on to future stardom.

Colin Firth bbc p&p

Amanda root and ciaran bbc persuasion

Hattie morahan/Dan Steven's bbc sense and sensibility

I like the bbc emma from yonks back 1970s I think but havent seen the romola garai version yet. Or the recent film.

Also the BBC 1986 version of northanger abbey but I havent seen the more recent version with Jj field so cany compare.

The film Love and friendship is very funny.

For sheer drama I love to watch the recent bbc war and peace. It's on iplayer still so worth a watch. The ending is not faithful to the book but I think finishes it nicely.

Emma Thompson Thurlow? With Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant? I do like that one.

Anyone who fancies a period drama to really get stuck into, do try The Pallisers if you haven’t seen it - made in the 70s and maybe a wee bit slow to start, but 24 IMO brilliant episodes.

It covers all 6 of Anthony Trollope’s Victorian series of novels and includes everything from an heiress being married off against her inclination, to someone wrongly accused of murder, with politics thrown in. Not to mention a scheming little baggage who steals some fabulously valuable diamonds - worth £10k in those days! (The Eustace Diamonds is one of my favourites of the novels.).
Series features a young Susan Hampshire as a lead character.

@FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack

Emma Thompson Thurlow? With Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant? I do like that one.

It was a BBC one so everyone was much younger. Dominic Cooper was Willoughby, which was quite good casting

Ooh, sounds good, must look that up too

I also love the BBC Hattie Morahan/Dan Stevens S&S. I think it was really well cast all round - Dominic Cooper was great as Willoughby and David Morrissey was very good as Colonel Brandon and Clare Skinner as Fanny.
Also as it was 3 hours long they were able to dig a bit deeper than the Emma Thompson version.

Romola Garai version of Emma with Johnny Lee Miller is another favourite.

Agree with everyone else that the Amanda Root Persuasion is the best adaptation. It is my favourite Austen novel.

Also loved the 1995 BBC P&P.

Hated Keira Knightly version although the recent version of Emma in the cinema was good. Rather overtly funny but it's probably very hard to do the irony in the book.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER
Thank you🙏

Anniversary of someone very close and wanted a memory of the soft, gentle, mindless thrash that was so beloved of my afternoons as a child.

Loved it. "Pallisers."
So reminded me of Upstairs Downstairs...loved it.

Mindless.
Loved it

Thank you so much🙏👍

You’re welcome, @billy1966. I now have a yen to watch it again! But will maybe save it for long winter nights - it’s perfect for those.

Re S&S, I could never take to Emma Thompson as Eleanor - too old and just not quite right, somehow.

Who else thinks her sister Sophie was brilliant as Mary in the Amanda Root Persuasion?

For my money she’s a better actress than her sister.