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.

still not sure about this version. i guess it didn't help that a reviewer said that willoughby would look at home in the stereo section at halfords.

pmsl, well he would, or driving a car with extremely loud exhaust, tinted windows, and music blaring out

Well, apart from swooning inwardly when Brandon caught Marianne and muttered 'Allow me', I'm really quite disappointed.

It just seems anaemic, and for all the sweeping shots of nature, it feels like a bit of an am-dram or student production.

I absolutely hated Willoughby and wanted to chin him through most of it. He's sort of a cross between a snotty little sixth-former and a panto-villain.

Marianne is highly irritating, and instead of rolling my eyes affectionately at her naive romanticism, I keep screaming 'Are you blind as well as stupid, woman?' at the screen.

I prefer this Edward Ferrars to Hugh Grant, to be fair, and David Morrisey shines, but he seems to belong in a much classier production.

It's all so horribly sign-posted - couldn't be any worse if they had little idiot cards appear in the corner of the screen at appropriate moments.

Willoughby arrives [everyone boo and hiss]

Oh, I know Sally Hawkins (through her brother). As does at least one other poster on the board (that I know of). She always said that she fancied doing comedy, but she seems to have got waylaid by period drama (and Mike Leigh, which can't be bad I suppose).

she's brilliant at comedy. Brilliant in Mike Leigh too.

is there a persuasion adaptation Heated? one that isn't b and w I mean? Hurrah!

I'm also prefering this Edward - Hugh Grant couldn't do supressed passion if his life depended on it. And this Elinor is very effective too. Not at all impressed with the teenager that is Willoughby

I have the complete works of JA - which should I read first having only ever read P&P about 20 years ago...

Message withdrawn

Ruined by the cottage by the sea - Jane Austen describes the cottage: "On each side of the entrance was a sitting room, about sixteen feet square ... Four bed-rooms and two garrets ..." and it was in wooded countryside about six miles north of Exeter - not the National Trust holiday cottage on the edge of the cliffs with the girls sharing a garret!

I am hardly ever satisfied with any production of Jane Austen - I think I just know the books too well )having read them all about 20 times). I did think Andrew Davies' Pride and Prejudice was really excellent and really captured the spirit of the book and the same is true of his Northanger Abbey. I have to say that although I didn't mind the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma, Amanda Root Persuasion or Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility, I thought they all left a lot to be desired. I don't dare watch the latest film version of P&P as I know I will hate it!

I think this S&S is quite good but variable. I thought they did the Allenham bit really well - that is in the book except I think it's worse because his aunt is actually there but she's an invalid so presumably doesn't know what he's up to. But I agree with SueBaroo about the signposting - Willoughby isn't like Wickham who starts off with the intention to deceive - he's much more like Henry Crawford, just careless and selfish, but he does fall head over heels for Marianne and you feel that he will regret her for evermore. So it's wrong to flag him up so soon as villain. Plus Willoughby just isn't sufficiently gorgeous. Apparently Andrew Davies meant the log chopping scene with Edward to have a similar impact to Colin Firth diving into a lake but I don't think that's going to happen either.

I thought the Miss Steeles were really good with their west country accents.

aah Episode 1 not on iplayer any more and had thought dh had already downloaded it but can't find it .

Message withdrawn

I didn't think Jennifer Ehle looked right but I think she acted it well. I do have some trouble with the fact that the actress who played Jane was pregnant - I keep looking for the bump .

There are still things I would change about that production (like that whole scene with Mr Collins driving all the way to Longbourn just to commiserate with them over Lydia which is just a letter in the book).

lol @ the wet-shirted log-chopping. Yes, it did seem a bit like AD saying 'I know what you like, ladies '

I do love his P&P, and although I think Jennifer Ehle was too old for Lizzie, really, she was vastly superior to Keira Knightley, who just spends the entire film pouting, and delivers all her lines in a rushed whisper.

I think part of the problem with pitching Austen right is that you have to stick to the moral viewpoints of the time.

It falls completely flat when you put a modern lens to it, because our age is all about wearing your heart on your sleeve and being 'emotionally honest', and would very much see Marianne as a role model. We don't really have the same concept of 'propriety'.

Message withdrawn

Onebatmother - the Persuasion that's been mentioned is the 1995 one with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds (yum). (and it is in colour, despite the fact that one of those pics is in b/w). Fantastic.

And more yum.

I've never liked Persuasion , not sure why .

Anyone seen Bride & Prejudice, the modern day Bollywood/US crossover version? It's quite sweet really.
I hated Keira Knightley as Lizzie Bennett, the quips seemed so glib and muttered so fast it was unconvincing that she even understood them let alone made them up herself. Only Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward could think up clever jokes that fast. Jennifer Ehle was a lot more thoughtful and slower in her delivery, more natural.

Was thinking last night how good Sally Hawkins would have been as Elinor.

I could never square Jennifer Ehle with my idea of Lizzie Bennett either. She's just a bit too full of sauce somehow.

Yes exactly IB. I think there is a big problem with most of these Austen adaptations (and other period dramas) in that the mannerisms of modern actresses are so, well, modern - movements very expansive and definite, confident, strong voices, and so on. I don't know whether the actresses are being told to maintain these things, or whether it just hasn't occurred to anyone that early nineteenth/late eighteenth century gentlewomen would not have behaved like that.

Sorry, I know I should be using 'actors' but the gender is relevant to this point!

But Lizzie is full of sauce, and lets some of it out inappropriately, which is what is great about her, esp when she teases Darcy. I loved her as Lizzie, I thought she was great, considering the fact that everyone will be judging what you do when you act something like this. I also loved Jane in that production, despite also looking for the bump

I didn't particularly like KK as Lizzie either, but I did like the Charlotte Lucas in that film.

Seems a shame that while Cranford worked so well, this is inferior. Where are the young character actors/actresses of the future ? I think Janet McTeer works well though.

There is reference to lizzie in the books along these lines also, about her running, when Ladies NEVER did that, adn the scene when she plays with Darcy's dog, I think that is actually in theer somewhere, tho he is not spying out the window after getting out the bath and exciting all the women

It is the fact that she dares to speak to him as an equal, and tease him with interesting and "spunky" conversation that attracts him to her, in contrast to the simpering dullness and up his arseness of Miss Bingley, who I thougthwas fab, but she will always be Duckface to me

I Have just realised why your name is familiar to me Iorek, I am reading Northern Lights, took me long enough to realise where from tho