Persuasion (Amanda Root)

(Amazon UK link)

It had been over ten years since we watched the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel ‘Persuasion’. When we last saw it, I had read ‘Persuasion’ just a few years earlier, so was mostly familiar with the story. However I had not re-read it in the intervening years so had almost entirely forgotten the characters and the plot.

Not that there’s a great deal of plot, and very little action. As with most of Austen’s classics, this is a social satire, a character-based story where genuine love triumphs in the end. The main character is Anne Elliot, the quiet, likeable (and rather put upon) middle daughter of an impoverished upper class family. Amanda Root is excellent in this role.

Anne’s father is extravagant, snobbish and selfish. Her sister Elizabeth is similar. Debts force the family to move to Bath for a while, and rent out their huge stately home to a friend’s brother. Anne - whose feelings are rarely considered - has to visit her youngest sister Mary instead. Mary is married with two sons, but she is a hypochondriac, and as selfish as her father.

There are some mildly amusing and brief scenes where Mary, her husband Charles, and his likeable mother and sisters confide in Anne, all hoping she can do something to calm her nephews and persuade her sister to complain less…

Anne herself is nursing a broken heart; at nineteen she turned down an offer of marriage from someone with no prospects and no real background. It’s evident that she was persuaded to do this by well-meaning friends, but wishes she has followed her heart. And the young man, Edward Wentworth (Ciaron Hinds) comes back from the war, and reappears into her life….

I found some of the short scenes at sea a tad confusing. They were not part of the book, but then again, they show the background for a couple of the characters, contrasting their courage and integrity with the selfish Mr Elliot. For modern viewers, particularly those unfamiliar with the novel and perhaps unaware of the history of the era, they add some realism.

‘Persuasion’ is inevitably a bit slow-moving in storyline; it doesn’t have the gorgeous scenery of the adaptations of some of Austen’s other books, but the settings nonetheless seemed authentic. The acting is excellent, and on the whole we enjoyed it.

Other recommended adaptations of Jane Austen books include:

• Sense and Sensibility
• Pride and Prejudice (BBC series)
• Pride and Prejudice (2005 film)
• Emma (ITV version)

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews