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.

Yes, I believe they went from birth until they were walking and talking!

And potty trained.
This would solve lots of MN posts haha

Just "farm them out"

The dying reverend is Fulwar Fowle. He's Tom Fowle's brother. Tom and Fulwar were educated by Rev George Austen, Jane's father, at Steventon rectory, which is how Tom and Cassandra met. Tom and Cassandra were meant to be going to Shropshire to a living there I think ...not sure how Tom ended up going to the West Indies instead. It could be that the opportunity was given by an aristocratic family member and perhaps was seen as a better move for some reason. I'm not sure how significant Tom/ Cassandra's story is. The Fowles/ Lloyds and Austens are kind of like an extended family. I'm guessing that the reason Cassandra is in such a hurry to get hold of the letters is that, on Fulwar's death, the living and parsonage will go outside the family. Cassandra needs those letters pronto hence the hurry to get to Kintbury. Imvho of course.

@ageingdisgracefully according to a review of the book I read on Amazon "Cassandra’s Tom is a very financially poor curate. He and Cassandra need £250 yearly to marry; Tom decides in 1795 to join a maritime expedition to the West Indies to raise the money."!

Mrs Austen, untypically, nursed Jane for nine months and then sent her to the local village until about the age of 3 when they became 'sensible'. Jane's parents did of course visit regularly!

@placemats yes, sorry, I remember them being shipped out for a lot longer than I expected, then off to school.

It dose seem like in the Austen Family it really was a village to raise a family situation, and extended family taking some of the load as well. They cared for other relatives at one time or another in their home as well. The nuclear family was very different. How Edward felt about being given to rich relatives is likely lost to history.

Fanny price definitely didn't like it, so JA may not have been in favor.

@Hoolahoophop I know that Mrs Austen was the driving force behind sending Edward to the Knights. Mr Austen certainly had reservations, according to Henry. However, by all accounts Edward fitted well into the Knight family whilst also remaining close to the Austens - he kept his surname for some time.

Just started watching. Mil was sent away to live with relatives but Gmil kept the other dvs. Must have been hard for mil to be rejected. Cousin also farmed out but other siblings kept. They never ever discussed it. All matter of fact.

That kind of thing was common here in Ireland in large rural families who sometimes would send a child to live with relatives who had a small holding but no children of their own as it was seen to benefit both parties. They would usually be within walking distance of their own family though.

"I'm not sure how significant Tom/Cassandra's story is."

Well, Tom made a will and left money to Cassie so she always had a little income. Jane didn't. In this story Cassie declared to Tom that she would never marry anyone else although he wasn't asking her to promise anything. I guess that's fiction but someone might know if there was anything known to that effect. That allows the novelist to account for Cassie staying single. The novel is about Cassie - Miss Austen.
It is true that Cassie destroyed letters which Jane had written and who knows what was in them :) Many remained.

In 'Emma' Frank Churchill was 'farmed out'.

He was, but partly from necessity as he had lost his mother, but unlike the good and virtuous Fanny who was very unhappy. Frank was very happy, rich, and fashionable, but thoughtless and inconsiderate of others.

Maybe that was her opinion of people farmed out to other members of the family.

There was talk in my own extended family apparently, of a child, No.6 - her mother had 5 under 3 years of age at one point, so possibly 6 children under the age of 5, to go to a childless sister and her husband but it came to nothing.
The child's father refused to listen to any talk of it.
That was in the late 1950s.
My Mum told me the sad thing was that the childless sister was mad about children and the sister with all the children wasn't very maternal.

I really enjoyed it. I agree it took a while to sort out who was who

I recorded it and caught a few moments. It looked pretty boring but I'll give it a go.

Eliza had already died. It was her husband who was dying at the beginning. Cassandra had gone specifically to get hold of the letters.

And I think Eliza was the young woman in a bright green dress in the scene where Jane and Cassie were young and they were all giggling together on the bed

If you put classic literary adaptations into iplayer it gives you loads. I've been working through them all. I enjoyed Sense and Sensibility the series rather than the film. Little Dorritt also good and Bleak House.

I enjoyed the show but got confused by who was who. I thought the actress playing Jane was very good and that is how I imagine Jane to look like. Some of the comments on her appearance on this thread are mean and unnecessary.

I agree @Girliefriendlikespuppies . This is what Jane Austen looked like
images.app.goo.gl/Qfg1YpnZ564zaof48

Some of the comments on her appearance on this thread are mean and unnecessary.
Such as?

I can't be bothered to scroll back through the whole thread but there was one in particular that was quite nasty.

I really enjoyed it and didn't find it hard to follow, as I have also read some biographies in the past, including the Claire Tomalin one referred to by a few previous posters.

I loved it. I thought the acting and writing were pure brilliance and just such a great tribute to both sisters.

I'm two episodes in, and I love it. I did read the book a few years ago, but don't remember much about it!
I'm not usually a fan of Keely Hawes, but she's good in this - very warm.
And Patsy Ferran as Young Jane is perfect - clever, sharp, teasing, but still a loving sister & aunt ..... exactly as you want Jane Austen to be.

Well yours is the obvious one...