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 think like someone said above, we need a list or family tree. Why did Mary want to talk to Cassie alone though with the news about Tom? Surely Jane should have been there for support?

I think she was being self-important.

Eliza was the wife of the man who just died, she Cassandra and Jane were good friends, and Eliza and Jane were great correspondents, Hence the letters( I thought there would be many more letters btw, only looked like a handful). Eliza’s sister, Mary, who wasn’t such a close friend, married theAusten sisters brother James ( now deceased) and she is the one who want to get hold of the letters in order to get her son to write a definitive biography of Jane and James. .Cassandra was engaged to Eliza and Mary’s brother Tom.

So there is a young Jane, a young Cassie a young Mary and a young Eliza, also an older Mary and an older Cassandra. Plus Eliza’s daughters whose names I haven’t got the hang of yet! It didn’t help that they are often wearing black in mourning for one or another of their dead relatives.

I really wanted to like this but I found it dull and fell asleep.

Thank you @viques I might have to watch it again I think

I have read it but I am having a bit of trouble remembering the relationships of everyone. However, I'm enjoying it.
They've got young Cassie and older Cassie looking very alike.

It made me smile as it felt like a homage to her books and the actors were selected and played the parts like those in previous TV adaptations. Questions is, will a Darcy typ appear?

When the man died, the ladies were at the window and I think Mary said “thank goodness we weren’t at the graveside” were women not allowed at gravesides then?

No, and I believe that persisted long into the 20th century in some parts of the UK.

Now that is interesting, I never knew that so thank you 🙂

Apparently the actress playing Jane is often mistaken for Rowan Atkinson's daughter!

😂😂😂

Ah now I understand! So she won't know about the letters then?!

Hence why old cassiie was able to search from them as dead man's daughter would not know they were missing

If you've ever seen Cassandra's watercolour portrait of Jane, that's pretty much what she looked like, according to Cassandra! I think they found a really good actress for Jane and one who does truly look like Cassandra's portrait - beaky, big eyes, not conventionally pretty.

I'm not sure I completely got the relationships but I think this is it.

Jane and Cassie are sisters. They have some brothers but no other sisters. Their brother James is a widower and they are very fond of his daughter Anna. They want him to marry again and decide that their friend Eliza Lloyd's sister Mary would be a good choice. Older Mary is played by Jessica Hynes. Eliza marries the vicar Fulwar Fowle (cracking name) and has several children, including Isabella. Jane and Cassie never marry. Cassie was engaged to Thomas Fowle, Fulwar's brother, but as we saw tonight, he died before they could be married. Jane died tragically young (41) from something that was untreatable then (opinions seem to differ on what it might have been).

Another Lloyd sister, Martha, married another Austen brother, but I don't think we saw anything of that.

Here's Cassandra's watercolour.

Not a good likeness apparently

I've read the book.
The first few pages have a "castlist" explaining who is who.
I've attached screenshots...
I think they've been attached in reverse order, but might help!

I don't think so.

I’m very tired tonight so had to pause it a few times to get my head around who was who but did follow it. I enjoyed it. Be interesting to see where it goes next.

I’m in a costume drama phase. Was ill last week, rewatched the 1995 Pride and Prejudice and watched the 2005 Bleak House for the first time, both BBC.

Made me nostalgic of the ones I watched in the 90s. Loved the Vanity Fair if that era and the Bucaneers. Think they were both on ITV at the time.

Any other recommendations?!

Cassie seemed very preachy to Isabella about sisters and a bond. Is that because Cassie and Jane were very close?

Yes I think so @JewelleryCat

I really enjoyed the first episode.

I really enjoyed the first episode and am looking forward to the rest. I loved how young Cassie actress got some of Keeley Hawkes' mannerisms

Ha Ha . I normally love a period drama, but this sounds far to complicated for my resting brain on a Sunday evening.