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.

Keeley Hawes as Cassandra is much younger than the novel suggests. She's even described as 'an elderly lady'.

I've finished it,once I started I couldn't stop. Best thing I've seen for ages, absolutely loved it.

I had to google multiple times as I too was confused and not sure who was who! 😕

Yes I thought the same.

Keeley Hawes is terrific in it.
The young Keeley not so much. I think she is too "modern" in her mannerisms and her looks in it.
Does anyone else think she looks like a young Victoria Beckham, when she first became famous ?
Isn't the maid a bit "forward" and cheeky towards the older Cassandra ?
Jane doesn't look like what I imagined her to look like. Those eyebrows dominate her face.

Isabella is Eliza's daughter

Apparently the Beeb is going to make " The Other Bennet Sister" (based on Janice Hadlow's novel). I adore this book and hope they make a good fist of it.
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Which sister is it about? I think the BBC can be very good at period dramas and even if they’re not, it’s always nice to look at the costumes and imagine yourself there

I enjoyed it once i had everyone worked out. It does take a while especially with the flash backs.

Did anyone notice Cassandra, on entering the landing when Isabella's father died, had only one earring in.
Later she had two.

Thanks for that @Lookatthem . Still bit out of sorts, think the two sets of time periods isn't helping me workout which generation is which!!

Will this thread be TV paced?

I think it would have benefitted with a bi of blurb at the beginning. ie it's 1830, Jane Austen has been dead for X years etc. Ok I guessed that was the case as she was reading a published book and the fashions had changed, but that's no guarantee...(a recent production of P and P has the "wrong" fashion)
I also thought the maid would not be as openly insolent
However I loved all the Georgian/early Victorian furnishings!!

Ooh yes, it's a gorgeous property.

I'm reading a JA biography at the moment and really want to find time to watch this. I read the novel in the summer. The maid was exceeding insolent in the novel, way beyond propriety.

I think it makes i harder to keep track of JA family in that they all intermarried, were blended families and all seemed to have the same few names! I never realized until my lates read how close JA was to being very rich, either through marriage or if family had chosen to spread their wealth.

Her brother Edward was adopted by childless relatives, and was richer than Mr Darcy (estimated revenue from his estates was £15,000 a year). But his birth Mother, and Sisters spent a good deal of their lives moving from place to place in search of cheap lodgings. Even when he did gift them a house to stay in rent free towards the end of his mothers life it was very far from the life he was living. They had an old pub on a main road. He has two manor houses. They also narrowly missed out in inheritance from another relative on the Leigh side of the family whose property Stoneleigh Abbey looks strait out of Mansfield Park.

She was the poorest relation amongst some seriously wealthy larger family relations.

But I digress. Back to the drama. Sorry.

That's so interesting @Hoolahoophop

@Hoolahoophop Do you recommend the biography?
I really enjoy biographies but realise I have never read one about JA.

It really is, we also hear about her failed romances, if she had not retracted her engagement from Harris Big-Wither she would have become mistress of Marydown which was a very significant estate.

Of course as the Mistress of a large estate she may not have had time for writing or pushing to get her books published, so for readers it may well be a good thing that she remained relatively poor.

@Notonthestairs The one I am reading is Jane Austen at home by Lucy Worsley. I have read others as well. I would say only if you like Lucy Worsley. She has a very strong voice which is audible throughout the book. She also freely owns that she places her own interpretation on events. So if you enjoy any of her TV histories and agree with her views then it is very readable. Some can be a bit dry, some a bit puritan. I think the Maggie Lane and Deirdre Le Faye ones are highly rated and have stood the test of time.

I liked the fact it wasn't spelled out and you had to concentrate, I didn't pick up my phone once which is a good sign .

Re the maid, I thought it odd that her employer ( can't remember her name) hadn't taught her the basics of literacy as she was a tutor.

Loved it, had to concentrate hard to work out who was who, but I think this is going to be a great series.

I enjoyed watching it but then I have read Claire Tomalin's Jane Austen: A Life. I might also read Lucy Worsley's book because I like how she writes.

For me the star of the show was Hawes' Cassandra's dress - those pockets (swoon) 😃

I'm going to keep it to Sunday evening watch. Cassandra was considered a beauty when younger.

Thank you - that is great. I read Lucy Worsley's Agatha Christie biography so I know what you mean about her voice!

A bit of psychoanalysis @Hoolahoophop might not have gone amiss with Edward - he was given away to childless relatives....
The poor man might never have recovered from that rejection and so wasn't as generous to his mother ( who appears to positively dote on Cassandra in this series ) as he should have been.

Just a thought

@deeahgwitch I agree, by our standards. However it seemed it was quite common for children to be raised by the whole family rather than the nuclear family and giving away a child to a relative was quite common. Especially a very rich relative! They did all stay in contact, so it wasn't a bye, never see you again. But as they were separated quite young he may not have felt much brotherly affection for his two sisters either.

JA went away to boarding school at 6 (probably to make space for the boarding boys at the rectory who were being taught by her father). She never had a close relationship with her mother. Letters show that. It may be that people didn't care much for JA mother, so did little for her and Jane and Cassandra suffered for that.

@deeahgwitch I think I read that all the Austen children were "farmed out" to village families until they were more manageable