Is anyone else watching the new Sense and Sensebility atm?

[08aGreatYearForCarmenere]

It is good but quite odd as the casting is strangely similar to the film version, ie they all look and sound very alike.

Heated - thoroughly agree about CH and Amanda Root version of 'Persuasion'. Also Precious Bane with J McTeer. Am really showing my age.

And of course the Elizabeth Garvie / David Rintoul P&P was infinitely superior to the overblown Colin Firth version ...

agreed SBS on the Elizabeth Garvie P/P - God that was a very long time ago wasn't it.

Have we had any Thackeray recently? I would love a bit of Vanity Fair.
Or Eliot (George)?
Actually a bit of Hardy mightn't go amiss.

I watched the Reese Witherspoon Vanity Fair a few weeks ago. Was OK, but she was a bit lacklustre, and just not bad enough for my liking.

Surroundedby - oh yes, the Colin Firth P&P is awful - in fact, by definition, I've decided that anything with Alison Steadman in is automatically awful. But I am one of few (it seems) who absolutely loved the Kiera Knightley version, except Mr Bennet's teeth.

I SO agree about Alison Steadman, can't bear her, ghastly ghastly ghastly just does Abigail's party whatever she's in. Her caricature in the CF P&P ruined it for me, whereas I thought Brenda Blethyn (is that who it was in the KK version?) made Mrs B real and totally believable.

I still think David Rintoul was the definitive Darcy for me though. Loved that version.

Wives and Daughters about 4 years ago was excellent. And Bleak House best thing in years.

Harold Pinter was very odd in that Mansfield Park film. He just did his 'The Caretaker' malevolent thing. Couldn't bring myself to see Keira in P&P, sorry. And Reese Witherspoon looked rather lost in Vanity Fair. As did most of the cast actually.

A vote for Tom Hardy as Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist over Christmas - thought he was amazing in the part.

Janeite - I've given up trying to tell anyone in RL that I loved the recent P & P film, preferring it to Colin Firth et al - judging by people's reactions, I seem to be saying 'Oh, and I torture puppies as a hobby, you know.'

I must see different real life people then, as everybody I have spoken to about it loved it! I thought it smouldered, unlike the Colin Firth one, which merely simpered!

I liked the KK version - except that they persisted in dressing her as Jane Eyre and putting her into a Wuthering Heights landscape.

Still haven't seen the KK P&P - will be making an effort to find it now, as a result of this thread. Though I did quite enjoy the colin Firth one, though not particularly because of Colin Firth. Loved Bleak House - whatsername, Mulder or Scully, was a complete revelation. Did anyone watch the Old Curiosity Shop over Christmas? I did, but was very disappointed with it - unrelenting doom and gloom.

I fell asleep waiting for Little Nell to die...

yes turquoise, Brenda Blethyn is the intelligent director's Alison Steadman I think.

Little Nell dying - hadn't read the book (my mistake - although i'd tried several times to get through it) and couldn't cope with the ending of the grandfather being okay after what he'd put her through. I like a nice tidy moralistic ending even though life isn't like that.

I quite liked the way the KK P&P was full of mud and smelly dogs and chickens etc. It seemed a bit more real.

Also quite liked the lack of kiss at the end.

Much sexier than Colin Firth imho -

www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0414387/Ss/0414387/iid_945741.jpg.html?hint=group

But I did think Benjamin Whitrow was the best Mr Bennet, still a few niggles, but at least I wasn't shouting at the screen unlike in the KK one.

And David Bamber as he oozed across the screen as the servile and sanctimonious Mr Collins was just sublime!

Ooh, janeite, I came over all unnecessary!

Gorgeous!

oo, no KK version is in my cupboard for completeness (I am a tidy geek) but I really didn't like it. I grant you Mrs Bennett was better, but Mr Bennett had no spark, and Matthew McFadyen didn't come across as a man who could appear proud, he was just wet.

And I actually found myself, in some moments, thinking I wouldn't mind marrying Mr Collins, and that's just wrong.

But that lass from playing the field, Cranford and Lark rise was fab in the KK version wasn't she?

I quite like the Oscar Wilde quote that "One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing." - it just doesn't really work any more, does it.

oh yes, had forgotten that JN - perfect OW/

So - what other central dilemmas/plot devices/come-uppances don't work any more?

I quite like M McFad as Darcy but he was a leetle bit wet and also has an enormous head shaped like a box. Also one of those men who is attractive until he smiles and when that happens you want to run and hide from him.
KK was good in some ways, properly sassy like EB should be. But what's with that awful greasy fringe? Not good imho.
But the worst crime in the KK version is

WICKHAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh lord preserve us from the horror of a block of wood who can't act given a part where we are supposed to believe it plausible that Lizzie would find him more sexy and charismatic than Darcy. A chair would have had more sex appeal than that muppet.

how did he get the part?

lol head shaped like a box!
Useful, though, for trinkets?
Can't make Wickham link work on my craptop.

I can't make the link work either, but according to IMDB, it's him. Looks v pretty.