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Persuasion

  • TV Mini Series
  • 1971
  • 3h 45m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
626
YOUR RATING
Ann Firbank in Persuasion (1971)
HistoryRomance

Anne Elliot is convinced to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth. When her father rents the family estate to Admiral Croft, Anne is forced to accompany Frederick. Will he and Anne... Read allAnne Elliot is convinced to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth. When her father rents the family estate to Admiral Croft, Anne is forced to accompany Frederick. Will he and Anne rekindle the old flame?Anne Elliot is convinced to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth. When her father rents the family estate to Admiral Croft, Anne is forced to accompany Frederick. Will he and Anne rekindle the old flame?

  • Stars
    • Ann Firbank
    • Bryan Marshall
    • Marian Spencer
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    626
    YOUR RATING
    • Stars
      • Ann Firbank
      • Bryan Marshall
      • Marian Spencer
    • 26User reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Episodes5

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    TopTop-rated1 season1971

    Photos6

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    Top cast33

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    Ann Firbank
    Ann Firbank
    • Anne Elliot
    • 1971
    Bryan Marshall
    Bryan Marshall
    • Captain Wentworth
    • 1971
    Marian Spencer
    • Lady Russell
    • 1971
    Richard Vernon
    Richard Vernon
    • Admiral Croft
    • 1971
    Basil Dignam
    Basil Dignam
    • Sir Walter Elliot
    • 1971
    Valerie Gearon
    Valerie Gearon
    • Elizabeth Elliot
    • 1971
    Georgine Anderson
    Georgine Anderson
    • Mrs. Croft
    • 1971
    Morag Hood
    Morag Hood
    • Mary Musgrove
    • 1971
    Rowland Davies
    • Charles Musgrove
    • 1971
    Mel Martin
    Mel Martin
    • Henrietta Musgrove
    • 1971
    Charlotte Mitchell
    • Mrs. Clay
    • 1971
    Zhivila Roche
    • Louisa Musgrove
    • 1971
    Noel Dyson
    Noel Dyson
    • Mrs. Musgrove
    • 1971
    David Savile
    • Mr. Elliot
    • 1971
    Michael Culver
    Michael Culver
    • Captain Harville
    • 1971
    Ernest Hare
    • Colonel Wallis
    • 1971
    Gabrielle Daye
    Gabrielle Daye
    • Mrs. Rooke
    • 1971
    Polly Murch
    • Mrs. Smith
    • 1971
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews26

    6.5626
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    Featured reviews

    7lehuber

    Odd casting but mostly canon

    Anne: played the part well enough. However, she looked near 40 instead of 27 and had the look of a heavy smoker about her. Her hair also looked like a weird hair helmet the first half of the show and did not fit regency style in the slightest.

    Wentworth: enjoy his portrayal for the most part but disliked some of the directing choices they gave him. He too seemed rather old for the part but not as old as Anne.

    Sir Walter: seemed more angry than annoyed and snobby. He too seemed much much older than than early 50's.

    Admiral & Mrs. Croft: Mr. Croft was downright elderly looking and sounding. Though the acting was good. The screen writers and directors made him come across as a tiresome elderly man.

    Mrs. Croft was acted well enough and neither here or there as memorable.

    Mary: cast very well though they had her sounding VERY harsh.

    Elizabeth: perfectly cast and acted. She played the part of oblivious snob quite well.

    Charles: very well cast and acted. He portrayed the good natured and jovial character with ease.

    Henrietta: also perfectly cast as a sweet, happy girl with pleasant manners and an open countenance.

    Louisa: very poorly cast, acted and directed. She practically shouted all her lines, even her incessant giggling. She comes across as ditsy rather than just good humoured.

    Mrs. Clay: perfectly smarmy and

    Mr. Elliot: very charming. Too charming. Just as this character is intended. This was so well acted that he was the best casting choice for the whole movie. My new favourite Mr. Elliot across all 4 adaptations.

    Lady Russel: acted just fine though not very memorably on the whole.

    Mrs. Smith: also acted well and seemed a good choice for the role.

    This adaptation is the most book accurate as far as story goes. Typical stiff aching transitions of the 70's and very 70's styled regency decor for the sets. Many of the dress fabric patterns were also very 70's feeling. None of this is a negative as it IS '71 BBC! I still prefer the '95, but this is a close 2nd! Leaps above '07. Leaps AND bounds above '22 which was trash.
    6mickman91-1

    Very early extant BBC period adaptation. Slow and low production value however with half decent theatrical style acting. Its merit is that it is the most faithful version.

    This is one of the earlier extant BBC period adaptations. The production value is very low. However, what is great about these adaptations is that their mission was to make thorough and faithful screen versions of the novels. Creative licence is very rarely made and frowned upon. So it is very slow and clunky but if faithful is what you are after then this is the best version of Persuasion that there is so far. It runs at 3 hours and 40 mins in total with a couple minutes of credits. The acting was actually pretty decent, it felt very much like watching a theatre performance. Indeed this is how television of this time was made. It was pretty much recorded theatre in a television studio. The casting perhaps is what lets this one down. Anne is way too old and some of the family members are too similar looking so you have to keep reminding yourself who is who. Overall 6/10.
    10syerramia-61598

    Fantastic adaptation of the Jane Austen novel

    It is the best adaptation of Persuasion that I have seen. It balances all the key plot points so well.
    superterri128

    The movie "Persuasion" was very true to the novel, but that doesn't mean it was any good.

    When it comes to most movies made about classic novels, most people complain that it wasn't true to the novel. You can't say that about this. That's the one (and only) good point about this movie. I couldn't stand the woman who played Anne. I know she was supposed to be older, but not THAT old! She looked like she was 40! Anne's only supposed to be 27 or something like that. And I could NOT stand how she did her hair. Captain Wentworth was ok, but no where near as dashing as you imagine him when you read the book, and Captain Benwick was just plain frightening. I thought the girl who played Louisa Musgrove was really good, the same with the woman who played Mary. I don't remember having any specific complaints with any of the other characters, so I suppose they did well enough. The script was very close, sometimes word for word, with the book. However, this did make the movie rather boring. I thoroughly enjoyed the book...every time i read it. I never was bored at all throughout the entire novel, so I'm blaming my boredom on the movie's direction and acting. The character of Anne was supposed to be calm, not completely dull...which is what this actress was. Overall I must say i was disappointed with this movie. Compared to the newer version I preferred the newer one, mainly because of the actress who played Anne. This movies wasn't completely terrible, but it wasn't any good either.
    5LouE15

    Interesting curio, but vastly inferior to the 1995 film

    How unfortunate for this 70's effort that it's been eclipsed by the superior 1995 Roger Michell film. So OK, this TV dramatisation was made nearly 40 years ago (practically TVs infancy in the grand scheme of things). That duly said, really, the sheer murky brown 1970's-ness of it seriously detracts from the drama. "Persuasion" was the autumn of Jane Austen's sadly short writing career. Both the book and its central character, Anne Eliot, are her most mature, thoughtful and wise, in poignant contrast to the vivacity and spirit of her early work "Pride & Prejudice". This dramatisation certainly echoes that more sedate pace, but they failed to understand in 1971 that pace is everything, even in a story as gentle as this.

    A motherless, unloved Anne Eliot, unmarried at 27, is forced into renewed acquaintance with the man she rejected at 18, on the advice, the 'persuasion,' of her older family friend. Her lasting affection is tried to the utmost as she must watch him court the attention of younger, prettier girls, while she herself has lost her bloom. Then, an accident shifts the balance of the drama.

    This 1971 BBC TV drama takes its ample – perhaps too ample – time to tell the story. This allows for the characters to be very true to the original, but paler, less rich in tone than the 1995 film, which made considerable, but intelligent, time cuts. Despite suitably lavish sets, the costumes are a fright: each unfortunate lady is enveloped in typically high 70s sludge-coloured over-patterned vileness (highlights have to be Mrs Clay in a green velvet and slimy GOLD dress, I ask you! – and Anne Eliot's Jackson Pollock of a green, brown and yellow curtain or whatever sofa it was ripped from). This may sound trivial but with such understated fare as this, the look of the piece is important. Don't get me started on the mad towering bouffant hairdos. Of course each age loves to revile the taste of the previous, but emerging from that dark decade myself, I'm quite sure that the 70's will continue to linger on in people's minds as a benchmark for the very, very bad.

    Still, Anne Firbank's somewhat too old Anne Eliot is subtle and elegant, and her slightly haughty ripostes are very much in keeping with her station - this I've never seen before, and I think Austen would approve. Emma Thompson was too old to play Elinor Dashwood in Ang Lee's "Sense & Sensibility", but her extraordinary ability to portray pathos overcame that single defect, while Firbank isn't quite as good as that. But Louisa Musgrove is a triumph of hammy overacting; and Mr Eliot is utterly unlikeable. The leads generated no chemistry whatever – quite unlike Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root in the 1995 film.

    One for the Austen fans only, who won't mind any of the above in the sheer pleasure of hearing those wonderful lines again and again.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Though Anne Elliot is Jane Austen's oldest female protagonist, she was only 27 years old during the period of the novel, while Ann Firbank who plays her here was 38 years old at the time of the release of this miniseries.
    • Goofs
      Walking down country lane, actors pass WWII tank traps.
    • Connections
      Version of Persuasion (1960)
    • Soundtracks
      A Downland Suite: III - Minuet: Allegretto grazioso
      (uncredited)

      By John Ireland

      [theme]

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    FAQ13

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 18, 1971 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • 勸服
    • Filming locations
      • Bath, Somerset, England, UK
    • Production company
      • Granada Television
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      3 hours 45 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 4:3

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