Miss Austen - BBC1

[witchycat2]

All episodes are now up on iplayer. It airs weekly on Sunday at 9:05pm from tonight.

I love a period drama. I've watched the first episode on iplayer and liking it so far.

Synopsis below from BBC:

Miss Austen takes a literary mystery – Cassandra Austen notoriously burning her famous sister Jane’s letters – and reimagines it as a fascinating, witty and heart-breaking story of sisterly love.
The drama begins in 1830, many years after Jane has died. Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) rushes to visit Isabella (Rose Leslie), the niece of her long-dead fiancé, who is about to lose her home following her father’s death. Cassandra is ostensibly there to help Isabella, but her real motive is to find a hidden bundle of private letters which, in the wrong hands, she fears could destroy Jane’s reputation. On discovering them, Cassandra is overwhelmed as she is transported back to her youth. In flashbacks, we meet Young Cassy (Synnøve Karlsen) and Jane (Patsy Ferran) as they navigate the romantic infatuations, family feuds and dashed hopes which shaped their lives, and laid the foundations for Jane’s unforgettable stories. Cassandra’s re-evaluation of her past eventually leads her to find a way to guide Isabella towards the path of true happiness.

I started re-watching on I Player, so I could understand Dinah's reaction when Cassandra said she was anxious to get Isabella settled with her sisters. Mmm, Fulwar said he wanted Isabella to live with her sisters. Well he would say that, wouldn't he?

Well, Margaret is older in the novel, too — I think thirteen? I think they made her younger so she could be an adorable tomboy and play cutely with Edward, because Emma T realised his character is a total dullard in the novel, and needed as many opportunities as possible to be livened up by sword fighting and being nice to a little girl.

But agreed on Mrs Dashwood being aged up. In the novel, Colonel Brandon and Mrs Dashwood are pretty much the same age, she slightly older.

I know it won’t end like this but Cassandra and Isabella should live together, Isabella would like the animals

Yes, he was also in a Christmas film a couple of years ago with Kaya Scodelario, Timothy Spall, Joanna Scanlon, Johnny English’s sidekick, and the woman who played Dr Fieldstone in Ted Lasso. He was quite sweet, once you get past the ‘West Ham fan who snogged Ginny Weasley’ thing.

Being a West Ham fan was part of his charm for me!
But his beautiful eyes was what got me googling, despite my being 30 years too old.

Yes, Ginny was clearly mad to ditch him for Harry. Sure, he’s the Chosen One, but he’s not a doe-eyed West Ham fan…

I have absolutely loved watching Miss Austen

That was such a beautiful ending. It was so kind of Cassie to let Mary have some letters. I'd have come at her with a poker and tell her to get the f-ing f away from all of us with her nonsense. Cassie was a better woman than me. To be fair that wouldn't be hard. I cried a mix of happy and sad tears at the end and feel as though I've been sort of blessed (not in a religious way) to have been able to watch such a beautifully put together series. Of course, that could be me being overly emotional but even if it is I don't care. It was such a pleasure to watch.

He’s super in ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ I absolutely loved that series and was gutted when it finished.

Finished this tonight, really loved it, was it leukaemia that killed Jane?

I'm also shocked that Jane didn't make money on the novels, where did the money go?!

Jane's a hero of mine, I've never married and chosen to be independent and single. She's an inspiration to single women everywhere!

Nobody knows for sure what she died of. I’ve seen leukaemia and Addison’s Disease suggested as possibilities.

I found this but I guess we will never really know what she died of

https://chawtonhouse.org/2021/03/the-death-of-jane-austen/

I found there was something in my eye watching the last episode.
Beautifully done homage to Cassandra and Jane
👏🏻 to Aisling Walsh the director and the fantastic actors.

(I thought Dinah was a bad 'un but glad I was proved wrong).

I really enjoyed the series and also reading this thread too, it’s taught me so many new things about Austen. Thanks for all the insightful and informative comments!

Only watched one episode so far, so I haven’t RTFT, but wanted to say I hope someone adapts the novel Longbourn for TV. It’s basically Pride and Prejudice from the servants’ points of view and it’s so interesting.

SPOILER _ DON'T READ THIS, IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT ALL.

The scene when Mr. Hobday went to see Cassy in the poorer accommodation......

I don't recall the scene from Gill Hornby's book, but maybe I misremember.

He told her that he had something to tell her. I know that she had promised Tom et cetera, without Tom asking her anything, but I think at that moment she thought Mr. H. H. was going to declare that his feelings had not wavered and I think she was ready to change her mind, like Lizzie Bennett. But he told her he was going to be married and she immediately had to take in that news and cope with it, like Elinor Dashwood had to. Tears came into her eyes.
I feel that's one of the reasons why she was glad that Isabella had her second chance, and took it.

I felt like he was trying to tell her he would break off the engagement for her but she pretended not to understand his hints!

Yes I thought this.

There wasn’t any money to ‘go’ — she simply didn’t earn much from the novels. In fact, she had to bear the risk of publication. It was called publishing ‘on commission’. The publisher covered the costs, then paid themselves back out of sales, if any; if it didn’t cover its costs, the author was responsible. Once costs were paid, the publisher took a 10% commission per copy sold, the rest went to the author. The only alternative to publishing on commission was selling the copyright for a lump sum, which she did for Pride and Prejudice (ironically, that sold well, and would have made her money has she published it on commission). Plus she was only modestly reviewed in her lifetime — she died before she had a chance to gather much of a reputation, and Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were only published after her death. Her real sales started when Richard Bentley bought the copyrights to all her novels in 1832, so of course that was the last money Cassandra or her heirs saw of any of the income from her novels…

I thought too he was telling her he would break off the engagement but I also felt she knew that but chose not to as she couldn't break her stupid promise to Tom and felt responsibility for her widowed mother and Jane.
If he'd only have said to her that her mother and Jane were welcome too.
Yes I know it's fiction 😀

I love all things Austen but I found this a little slow. Jane was clever and witty with a rather sharp tongue, I thought she was portrayed here as really quite dawny and dull. They also didn't really age the actors, neither Cassandra nor Jane had a grey hair at supposedly 41 and 44, so I was a bit surprised when they said they were off to Winchester, I thought they were younger and it was perhaps an earlier malady. The last episode was terrific though, and made up for the rest.

Maybe because it was an outdoor scene and therefore the lighting was different but I definitely noticed a few grey hairs on Cassandra's head when she was given the letter telling her not to come at the beginning.

I agree with you @Deadringer it was a bit slow but the last episode made up for it.?

I almost bailed during the first episode when it felt a little bit like a French and Saunders sketch but I was really moved by the end.

😆