The Other Bennet Sister starts tonight on BBC1 8pm

[IwantToRetire]

Seemingly unremarkable and often overlooked, Mary Bennet longs to win her family’s approval.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002qkp3

Is this going to be a spoof or some sort of spin off ?

2nd episode tonight at 8:30

Couldn't see a thread so hope this isn't a duplicate!

You can vote for this on the NTA awards.

I’ve just watched the whole series for a second time and enjoyed it just as much. I wanted my DD to see it, as she aspires to be an actor. We both agreed that the acting was superb - both the main characters and the minor ones were first class.

Maybe branches of families were more commonly not in touch back then. There might have been complicated class issues and snobbery, even within families, where the ‘posh lot’ didn’t like to acknowledge the ‘country cousins’ or embarrassingly poor branches. And I guess communication might have been less frequent and instant - back then people couldn’t so easily pop to London and back to the Hampshire countryside etc to visit people. And obviously there were no phones or FaceTime or anything!

When I read the book, I couldn’t get over the fact that the Gardiners appear to have gone to Longboirn for Xmas without their children

They don't bother taking them to the Lake District either!

I think in those days and probably in their social class, it was perfectly normal for people not to spend much time with their children. I think it was common until fairly recently for children to be looked after by a nanny, eat separately and e.g. be brought downstairs to say good night to their parents sounds good to me

The Gardiners and their kids definitely rock up in Pride and Prejudice and leave their kids at Longbourne while they take Lizzie on holiday! Mary definitely would know who they are so pp makes a good point.

She would have known them as cousins (though maybe not seen a great deal of them). I took that scene -where the children introduce themselves - to be a formal way of acknowledging their new relationship together as governess and pupils. Their mother was there to make sure it was done politely and in the correct manner.

In 'Pride and Prejudice' the Gardiners and Bennets seemed to be on very good terms, and 'The Other Bennet Sister' is partly a follow-on.