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.

That's so funny but yes I was very moved at the end.

I love Keeley Hawes

I loved it.
What a treasure , almost didn't bother but so glad I did.
Cried but also so full of joy at last night's episode.
Keeley Hawes is fantastic, so glad she hasn't messed about with her face, such a change to the usual pouty nonsense on TV these days.

Yes I really hope she hangs onto her real face but I bet the pressure is massive.

I saw Helen Fielding interviewed the other day and the cheeks..... all so Zellwegger looks so odd. But sorry to hijack this thread!

It wasn't unlike the confusion at the end of Sanditon S2. Help us!

I think the tears in her eyes were just that - her instincts wanting to change her mind and, as you say, her 'responsibility' telling her she mustn't.

Oh yes, all fiction. Sometimes I tell myself that Fitzwilliam Darcy was the mere figment of a young woman's imagination. However much emotional energy has been expended over him in the last 200 years?

Yes she knew he was giving her another chance and he would call off the engagement for her ( a major thing in those days)however she had to stand by her word to Tom but also felt duty bound to care for her mother and sister.
So sad

I thoroughly enjoyed Miss Austen, best thing I have watched for a while. The acting was superb.

@upinaballoon also the bit with the wrong sister reminded me of Sanditon which I still haven't got to see the final series of on tv! It should be on constant repeat

That's really interesting, thanks.

I don't know why but I still think leukaemia, I've worked in palliative care and that seems to fit to me.

What I didn't quite get was the part where Cassie reads Mary's letter where she lies and says Cassie fell to the floor and was inconsolable etc when told about Tom.
A big deal was made of it – it's even in the episode description on iPlayer – but I don't see how it has to do with Cassie burning Jane's letters, which was about her not wanting it revealed that Jane suffered from 'melancholy', wasn't it?
At most it seems to be another indicator of Mary's not-so-nice character, which is fine as far as it goes, but it seemed to be given a bit too much weight.

Did their mother really outlive Jane? She was absent from the later scenes where Jane was ill and dying. I assumed she'd predeceased her.

Their mother lived to the ripe old age of 87!

Bit late to this (as ever!), but I enjoyed it.

The one brother having so much-Edward was it?

Did he ever remarry?

Even if not I suppose he wouldn't have housed his Mum & sisters with him just in case!

He also had about a dozen kids didn't he?

The one who took over from his father-was it James?

I found that a bit odd.

Didn't the house go with the living?

So it was to be expected that they would move out when Mr Austen senior retired?

Maybe Mary was a really awful person, but if the James was by now doing the required work, why shouldn't he get the house?

Can you imagine if she was on here asking that question?

How odd. We didn't see her at all after Jane became ill, and she was nowhere to be seen as Jane was dying.

In real life I think Mary's sister Martha was the friend of Jane and Cassandra and I think she helped Cassy to nurse Jane. Was she in that early scene with Mary and Eliza when Cassy was pushing Mary towards her brother? She didn't seem to be in any more of this Gill Hornby book.
Please correct me if I have this wrong.

I don't remember that scene...
I'm going to read the book when I have a chance. I wonder if it's different/more obvious where their mother is in that.

I came back here to ask for my last post to be deleted but I'll let it stand. It appears to have been Mary who helped to nurse Jane, not Martha. Sorry about that. I've corrected myself.

Ah, OK, yes I do remember Jane and Mary talking when Jane was bed-ridden.

I have a feeling that even by the time JA was dying her mother had given up travel, she was considered, or considered herself in some of Janes letters, an invalid and would not have travelled to the hospital to be with Jane. As they didn't get on particularly well it may have been best she was not there.

In Lucy Worsley's biography Jane Austen at home she makes a point of the fact that aside from Cassandra Jane had more comfort from her lifetime friends than her family. Her brothers each made a final fleeting visit in the months leading to her death. But Cassandra was the only family who took the trouble to be there.

www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/jane-austen-s-family-in-ireland-how-they-shaped-politics-and-society-in-the-north-1.4024014
I found this interesting about Edward's descendants ending up in Ireland.

The name Cassandra was still going strong in the family years down the line!

I remember watching Miss Austen regrets & Jane's mother saying to her that they (her, Jane & Cassandra) would all have been well off/comfortable, can't remember the exact phrasing if Jane had married Harris Bigg.

How much responsibility would a SIL have to his wife's mum & sister though when they had sons/brothers still living?

I thought she died at home? or was that just in the series?
I didn't know Jane was more supported by friends or that she and her mother didn't really get on; that's interesting.

Jane died in Winchester, she had travelled there to be treated for her illness. I have read a book of Austen's letters and the impression I got was that their mother was quite selfish and a bit of a hypochondriac. Iirc Jane describes her as complaining of a sick stomach and being generally very unwell when they were travelling, but thoroughly enjoying tucking into a meat pie shortly afterwards at an inn.

You can visit the house Jane died in this summer.
https://www.visitwinchester.co.uk/events/no-8-college-street

Walked past the house last week. It's near Winchester College and the back of the cathedral close.