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Original poster

To think we don't really need another adaptation of Pride and Prejudice?

230 replies

squoosh · 08/08/2017 23:28

According to the Radio Times the Poldark producers are planning an adaptation of P&P. Now God knows I love a bit of Austen, but there was the 1995 TV series and the 2005 film. And that's just in the last 25 years. And there was a stilted early 1980s version and that awful 1940-something film starring Laurence Olivier. And probably some other versions I've never even heard of. We've even had zombie P&P.

Jane herself must be rolling her eyes thinking 'have you NO imagination?'

There are so many other books that have been languishing patiently waiting for their moment in the spotlight. Let one of them be the prom queen for once!

Which book would you like to see adapted for the screen? I'd love to see a proper version of The Woman in White. I'd heard it was in the works but can't find anything on it.

P.S for all I'm complaining about yet another Pride and Prejudice that's not to say I wouldn't watch it. I just like to moan.

OP posts:
FlaviaAlbia · 09/08/2017 08:15

Well, as far as darkness goes, I don't think the 1995 one quite captured the social impacts of Lydia's running away with Wickham. It would have ruined the family and condemned the girls to spinsterhood and poverty as they wouldn't be likely to make good marriages.

The 1940's one was probably more accurate that way though it didn't follow the book as closely - Miss Bingley gets a letter from someone in Mereton saying that the Bennets have been hinted not to come to the assembly due to the disgrace.

I like the 1940's one, though not as much ad the 1995 one...

BeepBeepMOVE · 09/08/2017 08:18

YANBU.
1995 version can't be topped and is still as current as ever.

Trills · 09/08/2017 08:19

Mansfield Park.

Only kidding. That's the WORST Austen.

Trills · 09/08/2017 08:21

Whatever they do, could they do it with actors of the appropriate age?

Riversleep · 09/08/2017 08:23

sleeping Dark Tower is coming soon. I think it has Idris Elba in it.

GinIsIn · 09/08/2017 08:25

There really isn't any need for another, surely?!

I would love to see Longbourne adapted though! And I loved Lost in Austen.

JacquesHammer · 09/08/2017 08:28

I couldn't stand jennifer Ehle so I am quite interested to see the new version.

I would love to see more of the Bronte works dramatised.

ShatnersWig · 09/08/2017 08:31

Yes they are filming a new Woman in White as we speak. It's only 20 years since the BBC did it last time, although they messed around with it a bit. The BBC are also doing Howard's End which is 25 years since the film.

There are some things that just shouldn't be remade - the ITV Marple stuff is unadulterated crap in comparison with the BBC Joan Hickson versions. But generally I think you should allow 25 years between versions if you are going to do it.

Riversleep · 09/08/2017 08:33

I agree about remakes. There are a ton of books that could be adapted if Hollywood really can't employ any original scriptwriters. I'm a bit bored of Pride and Prejudice, even though I did enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Bride and PrejudiceGrin

Trills · 09/08/2017 08:34

It is interesting how much a period piece can "date".

The 1960s version of the 1800s looks different to the 1990s version of the 1800s, which looks different to the 2010s version of the 1900s.

southernharp · 09/08/2017 08:38

Howard's End! Yes please. And how about another A Room with a View? Also some Zola.

TriskelArts · 09/08/2017 08:40

I like the 1980s BBC one, though the production values mean it looks hilariously dated and as if it cost 10 p. I think the leads are brilliant David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvie Firth is too pleasant and pudding-faced for Darcy. Grin

Agreed I'd love a good series of Shirley -- though what I'd really love, but no one will ever do, for obvious reasons, is CB's Villette. I wish someone would do an eight-parter of Mansfield Park, too, but you've got the problem of the romantic hero and heroine being dullards compared to the villains.

A darker P and P might be interesting if it's intelligently done, though. One that undercut the comedy of Mr Collins, Lizzy and Charlotte Lucas with an acknowledgement that Lizzy, other than being seven years younger and prettier, is in fact in a worse situation than Charlotte, with the Longbourn estate entailed away, and therefore the family income and home vanishing as soon as Mr Bennett dies, and no employment possibilities for young women of their class. Plain, on the shelf Charlotte makes a depressing but intelligent decision -- awful Mr Collins is her only shot at not living off her brothers for her whole lif

Mrs Bennet's frantic desire to marry the girls isn't just a joke -- it's the only career they have open to them. In some ways she's more realistic than Mr Bennet, who just hides in his library from the fact that at least a couple of the girls need to marry well-off men, who will then need to support Mrs B and any unmarried daughters.

LaurieFairyCake · 09/08/2017 08:42

I love period dramas and I want to see Baranaby Rudge, Agnes Grey, Shirley, Northanger Abbey.

And while we're at it can we having Making of a Marchioness too.

Period dramas make pots of money for the BBC so stop fucking about and make lots of them. There is NO reason not to make them.

Make more Dickensian too - missed that terrible last year - I know it cost loads but I loved it.

JacquesHammer · 09/08/2017 08:46

I don't see period adaptations as a "remake" in the true inference of the word.

I guess everyone who has read and loved a novel will see their own interpretations they want to share.

There's just so much in the classics IMO they still offer a wealth of possibility for new adaptations

Trills · 09/08/2017 08:47

Darker P&P would also focus on how Mr B has not saved any money for his daughters, he's frittered it all away (or let Mrs B fritter it) without a thought to their future.

CoraPirbright · 09/08/2017 08:48

Ah yes, Triskel that would make it interesting! Did you ever see 'Becoming Jane'? Embarrassingly fluffy film but there was a brilliant speech in it from Jane's mother (played by Julie Walters) laying out just how poor Jane's prospects would be if she didn't marry. Something about being a target for scorn, pity and stones from village ruffians with impudent tongues. And having to dig your own potatoes. It was brilliantly done.

Also, if the Poldark crowd do it, I would worry about their propensity to gallop through too quickly. I know they have to hold everyone's interest and avoid becoming plodding and dull but the way they are racing through the whole Ossie/Rowella/Morwenna scenario, when in the books it is so good, is a shame.

AnneElliott · 09/08/2017 08:53

Would also like to see the tenant of wildfell hall and No Name made into a film. Great books both of them.

AnneElliott · 09/08/2017 08:54

Persuasion is of course the best Austen book but there have already been good adaptations done of that.

JacquesHammer · 09/08/2017 08:57

The BBC adaptation of Tenant of Wildfell Hall was rather good.

TriskelArts · 09/08/2017 09:04

Cora, I saw an embarrassingly awful film with Anne Hathaway, and a somewhat better one with Olivia Williams, but can't remember which was which...?

I think the issue is that Austen's contemporaries didn't need the economics spelled out the novels are full of poor spinsters and widows, like the Bateses in Emma and Mrs Smith in Persuasion, and even Jane Fairfax, who is young, accomplished and beautiful, but clearly not much of a marriage prospect without any money, and heading for governess-hood when Frank Churchill falls for her but we probably do.

My students tend to see Lydia's elopement as 'a bit embarrassing' for Lizzy, and need to have it pointed out that it's way more serious -- if Austen hadn't plotted it so that Darcy is present when Lizzy gets the news, blames himself and enforces/bribes the Lydia-Wickham marriage which makes the Lizzy-Darcy and Jane-Bingley marriages possible, then it's very unlikely any of the Bennet girls would have married, because of the disgrace. Lydia couldn't have returned home unmarried but seduced, and would have had to be kept somewhere distant, and a possible illegitimate child supported, and the other four and Mrs Bennet would have had nothing to live on but her tiny income after Mr B died.

BalloonSlayer · 09/08/2017 09:07

I love the 1995 one but when I watch it now all I seem to notice is that Jennifer Ehle is far too old for the part and caked in very obvious make up (I mean mascara, eye shadow etc not just film make up which they all wear) which makes her look totally unlike the fresh country 20 year old she is meant to be. It rather ruins it for me which is a shame as her performance is excellent.

Julia Sawalha was far too old as well of course but carries it off perfectly.

TheHiphopopotamus · 09/08/2017 09:12

Normally when it comes to remakes, I'd say YANBU (Spiderman for example) but P&P is my absolute favourite book so they can't remake it enough imo.

The 1995 one is the definitive one (Firth was perfect) but in that version I can't see how he ever though Elizabeth wanted to marry him because she all she ever did was give him dirty looks (Mr Collins and Mr & Mrs Bennett were perfection also, but Jane wasn't pretty enough).

2005's had Keira Knightly as Elizabeth so the less said the better. P&P and Zombies was quite a good take on it and Matt Smith as Mr Collins was surprisingly good.

Longbourn was awful, just awful. Sucked all the joy out of the original.

I'd like a new one to contain all the best elements of previous versions if possible (even though I know it won't).

FlaviaAlbia · 09/08/2017 09:14

Oh, yes, I'd love to see Making of a Marchioness done well.

TheHiphopopotamus · 09/08/2017 09:14

I'd also like to see a new Tenant of Wildfell Hall as well though. I though poor old Anne Bronte gets woefully overlooked on all counts.

TriskelArts · 09/08/2017 09:15

I read in an interview that the blonde Jennifer Ehle knew the producers were set on a brunette Lizzy, so she dyed her eyebrows dark for the audition because she knew they'd be trying her in a dark wig -- I like her performance, but agree she isn't physically right for the part. The thing that bugs me more, though, is that the actress who plays Jane, the family beauty, is very pretty, but looks awful and weirdly strapping with the period-appropriate hairstyle and dresses.