Sense and Sensibility

I really enjoyed the music in this (1970s) adaptation - many newer ones have a soundtrack that's not of the era / too much that it distracts from the actors.

The writing is a pretty faithful version, and much longer than other productions. Mrs Jennings has a bigger part, which is quite surreal for those of us familiar with Patricia Routledge's iconic role as Hyacynth Bucket in 'Keeping Up Appearances' - which I now feel was at least 20 years in the making. And Mrs Palmer is a chip off the block too.

Clive Francis as Willoughby is also a precursor to his later performance as Miles in 'May To December'. With these comedy connections and the good use of original dialogue, there's much in common with Emma Thompson's (1990s) movie.

This early colour production of Jane Austen's novel has some strong casting (Joanna David as Elinor, Robin Ellis as Edward Ferrars, Clive Francis as Willoughby, Patricia Routledge as Mrs Jennings) and stays reasonably close to the novel, although the third Dashwood daughter, Margaret, does not appear.

All the main events of the novel are here, and portrayed very well; despite the low budget this production also boasts some effective costumes and uses colour well. In comparison to other versions, this stands up well but perhaps the most recent television version is stronger, and the Emma Thompson film more sumptuous.

If you like Austen adaptations this is certainly worth a look, and is available in the USA and in the Netherlands on DVD.

I enjoyed this miniseries; as usual, the Brits make you feel like you've traveled back in time, everything looks, and everyone sounds so authentic.

I especially liked Joanna David as Elinor Dashwood, she was perfect for the role and played it very well. I also liked Ciaran Madden as Marianne, though I think she was a bit over the top in some scenes.

I also liked seeing two familiar faces from two of my fav British shows: Robin Ellis, the original Ross Poldark (and in my opinion, the best), as Edward Ferrers, and Patricia Routledge, better known as Hyacinth Bucket (pardon me, that's "Bouquet"!), playing Mrs. Jennings.

The series gives the whole story without getting bogged down with unnecessary detail. Worth watching!

Usually television adaptations of period pieces are better than films for those who like things to be faithful to the text. The classic BBC adaptations are usually steadfast in their respect to and faithfulness to the text. So I really enjoy watching them as they are educational rather than being Hollywoodised and truncated as tends to happen in movies. So I watch a lot of BBC novel adaptations. Most are from 1970 onwards because before this time not a lot of TV was recorded (actors performed live), and that which was has been deleted over the years by the BBC. So this is one of the earlier extant BBC period adaptations. So it is really low budget. At one point Marianne describes that it is raining but it is clearly a sunny day where they are. The BBC budget couldn't stretch at the time for waiting until another day when it is raining to shoot the scene. But the respect for the source material is clear. So it is enjoyable in this regard. However, at 3 hours long I think it packed in far less detail than the shorter 1995 movie. As the 1995 movie was such an unusually good movie adaptation of a period novel, it kind of renders this version useless. However, it does have charm and is perhaps worth a watch for die hard Austen fans. It was remade by the BBC again only 10 years later. Im guessing that this one has higher production values and is more pleasant to watch or I don't know why they would have justified remaking it so soon after this. I will watch that version soon and let you know.

Joanna David (Elinor), Robin Ellis (Edward) Patricia Routledge (Mrs Jennings) and Clive Francis (Willoughby) are good enough actors to bring this clunky version to as much life as possible. Ciaran Madden (as Marianne) is seemingly incapable of portraying her exuberance and youthful silliness as anything other than hysterical insanity. The Misses Steele are like pantomime Ugly Sisters, far too old for a start, and desperately signaling their nastiness because we are not capable of working it out from Austen's writing.All the other characters are instantly forgettable. Large chunks of the story are left out, which makes it a poorer experience, and hard to understand - especially all the unnecessary coyness over Colonel Brandon's "niece". Totally dilutes Willoughby's libertine ways. There seems to be a total ignorance of Regency manners, with lots of emotion very clearly over-enunciated!

It looks as though it has been filmed almost on a stage; glimpses of obvious backdrops though open doors, for example, and the lighting is quite flat. Costumes are irritatingly inaccurate, and hair and make up screams 1970s.

This is worth watching as a comparison to the other adaptations, but it does not come up very well against them.