Lost in Austen

I loved this series. The scene where Amanda sings "down town" was the funniest thing i've seen all year! I have to say that my favourite scene through out the series was the lake scene. When Mr Darcy declared his love for Amanda gave me goosebumps! The chemistry between the two main characters was such a joy to watch every week. I really enjoyed this series, right from episode one till episode four! I strongly recommend this! The storyline, acting from the crew, and the scenery are all equally fantastic. For me its Elliot Cowen vs Matthew Mcfadyen in the role of Darcy. I know that Colin Firth is said to be the best Darcy, but for me... its just not there. Jemima Rooper was great too. I expected to be jealous of Amanda at the end, but I just ended up going "awwwwwwwwwww" and also played it back at least twenty times! Loved it, loved it, loved it!

Hard to imagine how this could be better. The casting is close to perfect. Mr and Mrs Bennet as played by Hugh Bonneville and Alex Kingston quickly outshine previous inhabitants of these roles. This Mrs Bennet is neurotic but also strong, and Mr Bennet is suitably acidic but also very affable and easy to like. The Bennet sisters are very well presented. Jane has a very gentle quality. Kitty and Lydia and Mary are a pleasure to see on screen. Gemma Arterton is as impressive as we would expect in the role of Lizzie. Best of all is Jemima Rooper as Amanda, a fine young actress who here gets the chance to take centre stage and to properly show us what she can do. The men inhabit their parts well - some very good work from Tom Riley as Wickhan, Eliot Cowan as a smouldering Mr Darcy and Tom Mison as a very winning Mr Bingley. Christina Cole is on great icy form as Mr Bingley's sister. And Mr Collins is truly repulsive as played by Guy Henry, looking like the grim reaper and finding a grotesque comedy in this very oily character. But what is most clever about this new 'spin' on Pride and Prejudice is the way it takes a story we all think we know and then turns it upside down. Guy Andrews writes very funny dialogue for both Amanda as a modern woman and the characters we know from Jane Austen. The comic set pieces are directed with real aplomb by Dan Zeff, but it's also surprisingly moving at times. Costumes and sets all look good. Having seen this I don't know how we'll take another 'straight' Austen adaptation seriously again!

I'm not generally a fan of period dramas. I've never read "Pride And Prejudice" and I'm not sure if I've ever seen any adaptations. I was intrigued, however, with the premise of this series. Partly because it seemed similar to one of my favourite books of recent years: "The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde (although this also, conversely, almost stopped me watching it).

I'm glad I did watch it. Right from the beginning, I was enthralled and entertained. The cast were superb. The writing was wonderful. Although it gave a modern twist to the story it was obviously done with great affection for the source novel and the use of language was very clever. It was also very funny in places.

Overall, one of the best TV shows I've seen this year. It's even tempted me to read the book and it's really not the style of book I would usually read.

. . . in Longbourne.

I may be asked to hand in my Austen Purists card but I liked it. And I think ITV are far better advised to try and cash in on the Austen market with this type of product than with the anaemic reproductions of BBC period drama they treated us to last year.

It's limited but it's funny. One of mainstays is that the characters are all subtly different and we are mostly offstage with scenes from the novel happening elsewhere. Lydia is attractively vivacious rather than promiscuously giddy, Jane is not that pretty, Darcy is not offensively haughty, the stranger from the future is not offensively gauche, and Mrs Bennett who has been very quick to understand the threat the newcomer poses to her daughters AND take action, is set up for very interesting developments - more a fearsome adversary so far than a cringing embarrassment.

Lizzie even looks like Lizzie should, but since she's hardly been in it so far, we'll have to wait and see what Gemma Arterton comes up with when she gets a few lines. It's a big ask, so I'll be interested to see whether she and Jemima Rooper can carry it off.

But you can count me in. Definitely.

I didn't make the mistake of reading reviews before watching this so I went in with no expectations. Before going any further I have to admit to having watched the 90's version of P & P and read the novel dozens of times. A true Austen freak, I am.

Like other reviewers, at first I was offended by the crudeness and lack of tact displayed by the Amanda character when she entered the world of the novel. How dare any true Austen fan behave in a way that displays such ignorance of Lizzie's world? She should have fit right in. But then I realized the choice to NOT make Amanda a perfect Eliza Bennet clone made for a much more dynamic story and more amusing moments between the characters. Instead of giving her the perfect accent, the perfect deportment, and the perfect manners right from the start, it took her some time to fit in. Her clumsy manner and bluntness caused her to make some mistakes that would seem impossible for a true Austen fan but enabled unexpected twists and turns in the story. And its these twists and the what ifs that I loved. I loved that the wrong people fell in love. I love that everything she thought was supposed to happen didn't happen. If I wanted to watch a P & P imitation, I would just watch the real thing again. I found the movie Becoming Jane, which attempted to follow a truer Jane Austen style, to be a sappy and insipid imitation that was truly forgettable and predictable. No one else can do Jane Austen and Lost in Austen doesn't try to. Instead, its fun and impertinent in a way that I think Jane herself would appreciate.