Lost in Austen mini-series (Jemima Rooper)

(Amazon UK link)

'Lost in Austen' is a DVD - or rather a DVD set, as there are two discs in the box - which I think I must have bought on special offer, or even at a charity shop some time ago. It has been in our to-be-watched drawer for some years, but we finally decided to watch it on Monday. We did not realise at first that it was in four episodes originally shown on independent television in the UK. The whole is three hours in length. So we watched the final episode the following evening.

The star of this drama is a young woman called Amanda (Jemima Rooper) who is obsessed with Jane Austen books. She loves ‘Pride and Prejudice’ best of all. So when, one day, she discovers Elizabeth Bennett (Gemma Arterton) in her bathroom, she thinks she must be dreaming…

However, a portal has appeared which enables Amanda to enter the world of the Bennets two hundred years earlier, leaving Lizzie to cope with the 21st century…

On the whole, we thought it very well done. The Bennett sisters are well cast, as are their parents. Hugh Bonneville makes a delightfully acerbic (but kind-hearted) Mr Bennett, and Alex Kingston is wonderful as a rather younger, considerably slimmer and less fluffy Mrs Bennett than I am used to. It took me until the end of the first episode to realise why she looked so familiar. Mrs Bennett is really nothing like Doctor Who’s ‘River Song’ where I first came across the actress.

The whole is somewhat surreal. It's even more so than ‘normal’ time-travel stories, since ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is, of course, entirely fictional. So when Amanda’s appearance starts to mess up the expected relationships and storyline of her favourite book, she tries to put things right. Inevitably things go wrong...

It’s a light-hearted story, and somewhat crude in places. But there’s plenty that’s amusing too, and we found ourselves smiling more than once. Amanda begins to realise that things are not as idyllic in the late 18th century as her imagination suggested. And while she attempts to fit in with the period and culture, she makes rather a lot of mistakes, which don’t quite fit with her being such a fan of the books.

We had no idea where the story was going to go, and thought the fourth episode particularly well done. There are some excellent scenes when we finally learn how Lizzie has got on in the 21st century, and some romantic tension as Amanda struggles to know what to do for the best.

On the whole we thought it very enjoyable. The rating of 12 seems about right to me. There are plenty of innuendoes, some which are decidedly not Austen, but nothing overt. However this would not make much sense to anyone who has not read (or at least seen the films of) Jane Austen’s books.

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews