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PBS - The Complete Jane Austen
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Masterpiece TheatreThe Complete Jane Austen
Premiering Sunday, January 13, 2008
The Complete Jane Austen, beginning Sunday, January 13, 2008, features all new productions of Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Sense and Sensibility. The lineup also includes the acclaimed Emma staring Kate Beckinsale, and the Emmy Award-winning Pride and Prejudice that made Colin Firth a leading man. Four of the titles -- Emma, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility -- were adapted by celebrated screenwriter Andrew Davies.
Persuasion
January 13, 2008
Northanger Abbey
January 20, 2008
Mansfield Park
January 27, 2008
Miss Austen Regrets
February 3, 2008
Pride and Prejudice
February 10, 17, + 24, 2008
Emma
March 23, 2008
Sense and Sensibility
March 30 + April 6, 2008
Info via. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/s...
I'm looking forward to all of these - especially the new Mansfield Park! Thanks for posting this information...
I'm so excited for this! It starts tomorrow! I've watched and loved Masterpiece Theatre (now simply called Masterpiece for some reason) for years. My book club here on goodreads (Rory Gilmore BC) is reading Northanger Abbey as one of it's books this month, so that will be interesting, too. Cheers, all!
I really did enjoy Persuasion. I have it tivo'ed so I think I'll watch it again soon to absorb it better.
I just posted this in the Rory Gilmore Book Club, and then came here and was surprised to find not much was said about it. Anyway, this is how I felt... oh, and excuse the language style as I'm a bit of a chameleon of accents and language styles so that happens. An odd phenomenon, but nevertheless... Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! I've just finished watching Persuasion. My heart is rending from the longing of it! It built to this breathless needing. All the unexpressed desire and constancy became so tangible. I was utterly swept up in it and am only now able to take a shallow breath. It was so endearing on all parts. I only wish that I had some dalliance with a naval officer at 19 to come back and want me still! *Sigh* Cannot we all find that kind of passion and completion?
Beautifully done. So intimate with her frequently piercing your soul by looking so fixedly into the camera. Captivating! I shall be lobbying for this volume for next month's read!
Oh, and Ashley I'm so excited for Northanger Abbey, too... Do come and join our discussions on it over in RGBC! Yea Jane!
Oh, Ajanta, if you go to Shop PBS you can already order Persuasion, though it won't be delivered until next month so if you'll want more of them then wait until they've aired and order them all!
I'm not able to watch the shows quite yet. I don't have PBS! But I have asked my mother to tape them for me and she is dutifully doing so. However, she lives in a different city and I must wait until for the next visit (which I think will be in February).I am so excited to see Persuasion. I LOVED the book. I'm in the RGBC too and I would definitely vote for Persuasion!
I enjoyed Northanger Abbey quite a bit! Persuasion was fabulous, as Wentworth was just gorgeous.
I'm a bit confused about the schedule. Tonight, January 27, we get Mansfield Park, followed by Miss Austen Regrets on February 3, and Pride and Prejudice on February 10, 17, and 24. After that, though, there seems to be some sort of lapse, as Emma isn't scheduled to air until March 23, followed by the two part Sense and Sensibility on March 30 and April 6. What is PBS airing the first three Sundays of March?
Well I am thrilled that PBS is doing this series. I have watched Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Jane Austen Regrets. My favorite so far has been the last one. I was a bit disappointed with Persuasion (but I may be a harsh critic because this is my favorite of her novels). I still like the BBC version from the early 90's the best. I thought Northanger Abbey was excellent - I could definately detect Andrew Davies touch in the screenplay. Mansfield Park was OK but that one is definately a hard one -- I think lots of people think it needs to be changed up a bit so that Fanny isn't so "saintly" and that kind of came through in this version of Mansfield Park. "Regrets" was phenominal in my opinion. I felt I got a glimpse into the person Jane Austen really was, flaws and all. Can't wait for next week!
I have been watching them, the Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park were very disapointing. I mean it just killed me when they had Fanny join the play in the house. The BBC of P and P with Colin Firth is the best though. Miss Austen Regrets I really don't know what to say about it, it is a new story of how her life might have been. I like the version that they are going to show of Emma. I am looking forward to see Sense and Sensibility, hopefully it is not as disapointing as the others that were made for PBS showing.
S&S just ended last night, and I am sad that the season is over. I really loved Northanger Abbey and S&S. Both Emma and P&P are also excellent versions that I enjoyed re-watching.
I agree that Persuasion and Masnsfield Park were disapointing. Disapointing or not, I will add them to my movie library and watch them over and over. My mother and I love having "Emma" days, where we watch all 3 versions of Emma all day long. Now we will have more movies, and more great days.
Sense & Sensibility is playing again today on PBS if anyone missed it the first time around.
“The Complete Jane Austen”
Sundays, beginning January 13, 2008
9:00 p.m. ET
– New Adaptations of “Mansfield Park,” “Northanger Abbey,” “Persuasion” and “Sense and Sensibility”; “Emma” with Kate Beckinsale and Emmy-Winning “Pride and Prejudice”; and Biopic “Miss Austen Regrets” –
How many ways can a young woman find true love amid the dinner parties, balls, carriage rides, picnics and other picturesque opportunities to meet the opposite sex in turn-of-the-19th-century England? There are six transcendently satisfying scenarios, as told in a half-dozen enchanting novels by Jane Austen — one of the most beloved writers in all of literature.
For the first time on television, Austen fans can now sit down to a weekly feast of all of her immortal plots, presented by MASTERPIECE THEATRE® over the course of four months in beautifully acted, lavishly set and gorgeously costumed adaptations. As a bonus, viewers will be treated to a new drama based on Austen’s own bittersweet love life.
“The Complete Jane Austen,” beginning Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS, features all-new productions of “Persuasion,” “Northanger Abbey,” “Mansfield Park” and “Sense and Sensibility.” The lineup also includes the acclaimed “Emma” starring Kate Beckinsale, the Emmy Award-winning “Pride and Prejudice” that made Colin Firth a leading man and the new biopic, “Miss Austen Regrets.”
Four of the titles — “Emma,” “Northanger Abbey,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility” — were adapted by celebrated screenwriter Andrew Davies, whose “Bleak House” on MASTERPIECE was one of the most highly praised television dramas of 2006.
The Austen extravaganza includes:
• “Persuasion” (1/13, 9-10:30) Sally Hawkins (Little Britain) appears as Anne Elliot, destined for spinsterhood at age 27 after being persuaded eight years earlier to refuse the proposal of dashing Captain Wentworth (Rupert Penry-Jones, “Casanova”). Then chance brings them together again. While her better days are past, his are definitely ahead, as he’s now rich and free to play the field among eligible young beauties. Anthony Head (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) co-stars as Anne’s spendthrift father. Adapted by Simon Burke. Directed by Adrian Shergold. Executive producer, Murray Ferguson. Executive producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. Produced by David Snodin. A Clerkenwell Films production for ITV in association with WGBH/Boston.
• “Northanger Abbey” (1/20, 9-10:30) In Austen’s gentle parody of gothic fiction, Felicity Jones (Meadowlands) plays romance-addict Catherine Morland. Invited to a medieval country house that appeals to her most lurid fantasies, she forms a close friendship with the younger son on the estate, Henry Tilney (JJ Feild, “The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton”), but their budding romance is mysteriously cut short. Adapted by Andrew Davies. Directed by Jon Jones. Executive producers, Andy Harries, Charles Elton. Executive producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. Produced by Keith Thompson. A co-production of Granada and WGBH/Boston.
• “Mansfield Park” (1/27, 9-10:30) Austen’s most complex plot stars Billie Piper (“Doctor Who,” “The Ruby in the Smoke”) as Fanny Price, who goes to live with prosperous relatives at Mansfield Park. Fanny navigates a labyrinth of intrigues and affairs among the occupants of the house, while her cousin Edmund Bertram (Blake Ritson, “Inspector Lynley Mysteries”) remains her stalwart confidant. Also starring Jemma Redgrave (“Bramwell”) as Fanny’s observant aunt. Adapted by Maggie Wadey. Directed by Iain B. MacDonald. Executive producers, George Faber, Charles Pattinson. Executive producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. Produced by Suzan Harrison. A co-production of Company Productions and WGBH/Boston.
• “Miss Austen Regrets” (2/3, 9-10:30) If nothing else, Jane Austen wrote from personal experience. Courtship she knew well; only the last act eluded her. This film biography dramatizes Austen’s lost loves: Harris Bigg, whose proposal she accepted and then rejected; Edward Brydges, whom she also refused; the tongue-tied vicar she teased mercilessly; and the young surgeon who arrived on the scene too late to steal her heart. Starring Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense), Greta Scacchi (The Player) and Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill). Written by Gwyneth Hughes. Directed by Jeremy Lovering. Executive producer, Laura Mackie. Executive producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. Produced by Anne Pivcevic. A BBC and WGBH/Boston co-production.
• “Pride and Prejudice” (2/10-2/24, 9-11) Colin Firth (Bridget Jones’ Diary) is Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Ehle (The Coast of Utopia) is Elizabeth Bennet in the definitive adaptation of the most-loved of all Austen novels. With five daughters, no sons and an entailed estate, the elder Bennets are in dire straits as they try to arrange advantageous marriages. Wedding bells ring three times, but the path to true love is tortuous indeed. Adapted by Andrew Davies. Directed by Simon Langton. Executive producer, Michael Wearing. Produced by Sue Birtwistle. A production of BBC Television and BBC Worldwide Americas, Inc. in association with A&E Television Networks. The MASTERPIECE THEATRE broadcast of “Pride and Prejudice” is the first in the U.S. other than on A&E Television Networks.
• “Emma” (3/23, 9-11) The New York Times praised this production as “smart and spirited … understated and sly.” Kate Beckinsale (The Aviator) stars in the title role as the tireless matchmaker who professes no interest in matrimony for herself, only for her orphaned protégée, Harriet Smith (Samantha Morton, Longford). Still, Emma does feel a certain twinge for Frank Churchill (Raymond Coulthard, “He Knew He Was Right”) and a brotherly regard for Mr. Knightley (Mark Strong, “Prime Suspect 6”). Adapted by Andrew Davies. Directed by Diarmuid Lawrence. Executive producers, Delia Fine, Simon Lewis. Produced by Sue Birtwistle. Produced by United Film and Television Productions in association with Chestermead Ltd and A&E Networks. Originally broadcast in February 1997.
• “Sense and Sensibility” (3/30 and 4/6, 9-10:30) Hattie Morahan (The Golden Compass) plays levelheaded Elinor Dashwood and Charity Wakefield (“Jane Eyre”) her impulsive sister Marianne. Though poor, they attract a trio of very promising gentlemen: soon-to-be wealthy Edward Ferrars (Dan Stevens, The Line of Beauty), heroic Colonel Brandon (David Morrissey, State of Play) and Byronic John Willoughby (Dominic Cooper, The History Boys). Adapted by Andrew Davies. Directed by John Alexander. Produced by Anne Pivcevic. Executive producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. A BBC and WGBH/Boston co-production.
Underwriters: Public Television Viewers and PBS. Presenter: WGBH Boston. Series executive producer: Rebecca Eaton. Format: CC Stereo DVI. Online: pbs.org
– PBS –
CONTACT: Ellen Dockser, WGBH, Tel.: 617/300-5338; ellen_dockser@wgbh.org
Olivia Wong, WGBH, Tel.: 617/300-5349; olivia_wong@wgbh.org
Christina Pan (photography), WGBH, Tel.: 617/300-5340; christina_pan@wgbh.org
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