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

[squoosh]

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.

Charles Dance!!!! He's got to be Sir Pervival Glyde, I hope!

How exciting!

No, that's Dougray Scott apparently. Charles D is Mr Fairlie as per the Beeb's press release.

Charles Dance would be too old for the part. He does do a great line in evil Victorians though!

Would rather see another adaptation of Mansfield Park if I had to choose a specifically Jane Austen book, I was so excited when Lady Susan was adapted it's one of my favourites. I'd like to see some of Orwells work adapted. Also Enduring Love by Ian McEwan I think it's the most realistic book I've read about grown up love.

YANBU

They will never top Colin Firth c.1995

Mr Fairlie?

In my head Mr Fairlie is played by a weak, and insipid Niles Crane type.

Lexie, about 10 years ago Billie Piper was in an adaptation of Mansfield Park,

Did anyone catch Lost in Austen on ITV some years ago? It was a slightly different take on P&P and its various characters.

Really? No one fancies henry cavill as Darcy? What about a remake of the count of Monte Christo? I always loved that book.

I've seen that one queen 😀 it's very good as well, but if I had to choose one to be redone I think itd be that. No other actor could top Colin Firth as Darcy imo. The sense and sensibility adaptation with David Morrissey is really good, I preferred it to the one with Adam Rickman tbh.

@deadringer he's gorgeous but about a decade too old!

I was going to suggest Precious Bane, not having realised that it had been done. I'd like to see an adaptation of Gone to Earth too.

Has The Mill on the Floss been done on tv? That would make good viewing.

Newtlover, I have often wished for a tv adaptation of Zola's Rougon Macquart novels.

That would be long enough to see us through several winters!

I think Mill on the Floss was filmed back in the 90s, with Emily Watson?

I always wonder will they ever do The Grapes of Wrath again but surely they could never top the Henry Fonda version?

TBH I don't think anyone has ever done Wuthering Heights properly. I might have to do it myself one day.

Fenella he is younger than Colin firth was I think, and he nailed it. I actually don't think the 1995 one can be topped, but I wrote a sequel and Henry cavill is my top pick for darcy if it ever gets made into a movie. its not likely tbf The mill on the floss is beautiful but so sad, I don't think I could bear it.

Henry Cavill is just a beefy airhead, Charming in his own way I'm sure but not a Darcy.

The Timothy Dalton Wuthering Heights made the excellent decision to skip the second half entirely.
Isabella and Hindley give Heathcliffe the murdering he so richly deserves and everyone else lives happily ever after. Great improvement on the original.

Sorry if this has been covered/the thread has moved on but I think there is room for new adaptations every so many years. Sometimes it's more than just a TV programme. I have really fond memories of the 80s version of P+P because we watched it with my late DM who loved it and it was 'our' P+P. Other people will love the Andrew Davies version etc. It's not always a thing in isolation, though I can see that it may be different as the delivery of TV etc has moved on from 3 or 4 channels and that's your lot.

The Billie Piper Mansfield Park was as unlike Jane Austen as I hope will ever see, but I can see that a faithfully portrayed Fanny Price is not likely to appeal to many viewers who don't already know and like her from the book. I thought the 1980s (?) BBC series was very good.

Yy, Fifth, it was like casting, I don't know, Dita Von Teese to play Mother Teresa of Calcutta. And wasn't it Johnny Lee Miller as Edmund, or someone else unlikely? Filming MP is a tough sell because Edmund and Fanny are so prim and joyless compared to the fascinating, amoral Crawfords, and Fanny doesn't have any Jane Eyre gutsiness to go with her moral uprightness. And hard for a modern audience to grasp why a house party acting a play is so wrong.

Fanny could definitely look like Billie Piper - I'm listening to it on Iplayer at the mo and being struck by how much people talk about her attractive face and figure. But she's not lively and vivacious, and she's forever being exhausted by walks that everyone else is fine with.

I think you have to see Fanny Price as a victim and eventual survivor of an abusive childhood. I think she's a fascinating character, and ultimately the one with strength and guts that the Bertram children never develop.

Blatant place-marking to come back to this in the morning.

I've just gone through the cast list for the new Woman in White production. Surely Jessie Buckley is too attractive to play Marian Halcombe convincingly?

'never was the fair promise of a lovely figure more strangely and startlingly belied by the face and head that crowned it. The lady's complexion was almost swarthy, and the dark down on her upper lip was almost a moustache. She had a large, firm, masculine mouth and jaw'

Maybe they're going to ugly her up a bit for the part. But I have a sneaking suspicion they may be like the Young Victoria producers and assume viewers will reject any programme with a less than gorgeous female lead. Queen Victoria and the actress who plays her could not look any more different. Queen Victoria looked like a turnip/human hybrid with bulging eyes, the actress who plays her on ITV is jaw droppingly gorgeous. I just can't take it seriously.

Triskel that was the 90s film with JLM as Edmund and Frances O'Connor as Fanny.

sqoosh Jessie Buckley played the "plain" Marya Bolkonskaya in last year's War and Peace and was excellent in the role. Perhaps they'll plain her down, so to speak for this too.