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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:
ImListening · 09/08/2017 18:24

I loved David Rintoul as Darcy - I find his voice mesmerising.

I agree with PP who said about Ciaran Hinds as Wentworth. You can do see why Anne loves him. It's my favourite Austen.

AnneElliott · 09/08/2017 18:32

I agree that the 1995 version was fab. I went to see the 2005 film at the cinema, but was asked to leave as I snorted and complained the whole way through Blush

The Bennett did not live in a mud pigsty with no servants! My friend refused to go the cinema again with me after that.

wotabastard · 09/08/2017 18:35

The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot please. Absolutely loved the book.

TmiTuesdays · 09/08/2017 18:37

One dress Lizzy wore looked like Scarlett O'Hara at the Twelve Oaks barbecue.

Seneca, it may well have been the same one. They didn't have much of a budget so reused costumes from Gone with the Wind!

YouAndMeAreGoingToFallOut · 09/08/2017 19:00

I'm reading Gone With The Wind at the moment. I can't really see it ever being adapted again as it's just so so racist.

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 09/08/2017 19:05

I've been ill over the past few days so decided to watch Sense and Sensibility. The noise Emma Thompson makes when she realises Edward isn't married gets me every time..

Have you seen the Vicar of Dibley episode where Dawn French describes the noise trying to impress her new boyfriend? So funny!

newtlover · 09/08/2017 19:06

Middlemarch would be good, a serious long series to see us through the winter.

SenecaFalls · 09/08/2017 19:08

Tmi I did not know that. Explains a lot. Smile

QueenoftheAndals · 09/08/2017 19:12

I loved the 90s Middlemarch. And it was an introduction to Rufus Sewell too!

HazelBite · 09/08/2017 19:15

How about something based on Edith Wharton's books as far as I am aware only the Age of Innocence has been tackled by Hollywood, (and badly at that).
I agree with PP's about George Elliot however the BBC did a brilliant Middlemarch in the early 90's starring a very young and beautiful Rufus Sewell as Will Ladislaw.

cowgirlsareforever · 09/08/2017 19:39

Yes I have Cherry. It's hilarious!

ImListening · 09/08/2017 19:52

I went to see the 2005 one & walked out.

I was outraged by the Bennett portrayal - they weren't rich but they were hardly on the breadline! Though they could have been once Mr B died.

cowgirlsareforever · 09/08/2017 19:54

Has anybody ever seen the US alternative ending to the 2005 P&P film? They had to add the scene because American test audiences weren't happy with the original ending.

QueenoftheAndals · 09/08/2017 20:01

Hazel, the BBC did a series based on Wharton's The Buccaneers back in the 90s. It's worth seeking out.

JaneJeffer · 09/08/2017 20:11

I remember that Queen I loved it, had the soundtrack on CD and everything!

CoraPirbright · 09/08/2017 20:18

Triskel. Yes! It's the Anne Hathaway one! Ridiculous casting of AH - she is far too beautiful but I did like the way her face lights up when she spots James McAvoy half way through a dance! And Julie Walters was ace.

It's interesting what you say about your students as I have just had the same scenario with dd. She has just discovered JA which is very exciting and was fairly astonished when I explained to her the true impact Lydia's elopement would have had on the family at large.

Re: the BBC version, I didn't like Alison Steadman - too panto dame. Also Jane was rather bovine in that one.

Trills · 09/08/2017 22:10

You Anne Bronte fans might enjoy this book explaining why Anne is the best Bronte

And YES to Emma Thompson's noisy crying.

WinterIsComingKnitFaster · 10/08/2017 09:00

The Eyre affair would be good. I think the CGI is cheap enough now to make it doable. Last Dragonslayer might be fun too.

Strange and Norrell was indescribably good, note perfect - the GBP are idiots for not watching it. Even more annoyingly, if it had been a hit they were going to do Rivers of London next.

But for actual classics,I'd like to see Emma done properly. Nobody's ever nailed it.

Worst adaptation ever is the Olivier P&P where Darcy asks Lady CDB to threaten Lizzy as a ruse to find out whether she loves him or is a gold digger. Aldous Huxley should have been shot for that.

JacquesHammer · 10/08/2017 09:09

You Anne Bronte fans might enjoy this book explaining why Anne is the best Bronte

Second best Bronte Wink

Seriously it's an excellent book though.

TriskelArts · 10/08/2017 09:13

@lucysnowe, I don't think the sets for 19thc Brussels would be the issue in adapting Villette -- it's the oddity of it as a novel, with Lucy not telling us what happened to leave her so utterly alone in the world, then not telling us for chapters she's recognised Dr John and Mrs Bretton from her childhood, then falling in love with him and obsessing about his letters while he's falling for Paulina, being haunted by a phantom nun who turns out to be Ginevra Fanshawe's boyfriend, and then switching her love to Monsieur Paul, who returns it (yay!) but gets sent to the opposite side of the world by a sinister Catholic cabal, leaving L with her school, and an Atlantic full of wrecks...

I imagine an adaptor saying 'Actually, what about another nice Jane Austen?' Grin

I do wish someone would make a good Villette, but I'm not holding my breath.

Mothervulva · 10/08/2017 12:55

I'd like to see a new Tenant and Woman in White. I must be of the few who likes the 2005 P&P, I find it lovely to watch. I'll watch any Austen adaptation though!
Agree with whoever said an Iris Murdoch adaptation; would be really interesting to see.

GhostsToMonsoon · 11/08/2017 08:37

I'd like The Mayor of Casterbridge. I also think The L-shaped Room would be good, especially as that period is popular since the success of Call the Midwife.

QueenoftheAndals · 11/08/2017 09:15

Isn't there a Woman in White adaptation due out on the BBC later this year? Or have I made that up?

AztecHero · 11/08/2017 09:26

Oh that would be wonderful. (Provided the adapters don't think they can 'do it better' than Collins and; change the ending; change the characters; turn Count Fosco into a caricature)

This thread has made me hunt out my old favourites and it is a joy to rediscover them!

QueenoftheAndals · 11/08/2017 16:49

I didn't make it up! No word on when it'll air but I'm guessing this Autumn or winter.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-02-22/ben-hardy-and-jessie-buckley-to-lead-bbc1-adaptation-of-the-woman-in-white