"Sunday's with Jane" Premiering in the United States January 2008

"Sunday's with Jane PBS' MASTERPIECE THEATRE TO PRESENT "THE COMPLETE JANE AUSTEN"

Premieres January 13, 2008 on PBS

How many ways can a young woman find true love amid the balls, dinner parties, carriage rides, and other picturesque occasions to meet the opposite sex in turn-of-the-19th-century England? There are six transcendently satisfying scenarios, as told in a half-dozen enchanting novels by Jane Austen—one of the most beloved writers in all of literature.

For the first time on television, Austen fans can now sit down to a weekly feast of all of her immortal plots, presented by Masterpiece Theatre, over the course of four months in beautifully acted, lavishly set, and gorgeously costumed adaptations. As a bonus, viewers will be treated to a new drama, Miss Austen Regrets, based on Austen’s own bittersweet love life.

Airing Sundays at 9pm ET, starting January 13, 2008, “The Complete Jane Austen” features all-new productions of Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Sense and Sensibility. The lineup also includes the acclaimed Emma starring Kate Beckinsale, and the Emmy award-winning Pride and Prejudice that made Colin Firth a drop-dead leading man.

Four of the titles—Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Pride and Prejudice—were adapted by celebrated screenwriter Andrew Davies, whose Bleak House on Masterpiece Theatre was one of the most highly praised television dramas of 2006.

The Austen extravaganza will include:

Persuasion (90 minutes) January 13


Sally Hawkins (Little Britain) appears as Anne Elliot, destined for spinsterhood at age 27 after being persuaded eight years earlier to refuse the proposal of dashing Captain Wentworth (Rupert Penry-Jones, Casanova). Then chance brings them together again, but now he is now rich and free to play the field among eligible young beauties. Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) co-stars as Anne’s spendthrift father. Adapted by Simon Burke. Directed by Adrian Shergold. Executive Producer Murray Ferguson. Executive Producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. Produced by David Snodin. A Clerkenwell Films production for ITV in association with WGBH/Boston.

Northanger Abbey (90 minutes) January 20

In Austen’s gentle parody of gothic fiction, Felicity Jones (Meadowlands) plays romance addict Catherine Morland. Invited to a medieval country house that appeals to her most -more- lurid fantasies, she forms a close friendship with the younger son on the estate, Henry Tilney (JJ Feild, The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton), but their budding romance is mysteriously cut short. Adapted by Andrew Davies. Directed by Jon Jones. Executive Producers Andy Harries, Charles Elton. Executive Producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. Produced by Keith Thompson. A Co-Production of Granada and WGBH/Boston




Mansfield Park (90 minutes) January 27

In one of Austen’s most complex plots, Billie Piper (Doctor Who, The Ruby in the Smoke) stars as Fanny Price, who goes to live with prosperous relatives at Mansfield Park. Fanny navigates a labyrinth of intrigues and affairs among the occupants of the house, while her cousin Edmund Bertram (Blake Ritson, Inspector Lynley Mysteries) remains her stalwart confidant. Also starring Jemma Redgrave (Bramwell) as Fanny’s observant aunt. Adapted by Maggie Wadey. Directed by Iain B. MacDonald. Executive Producers George Faber, Charles Pattinson. Executive Producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. Produced by Suzan Harrison. A Co-Production of Company Productions and WGBH/Boston


Miss Austen Regrets (90 minutes) February 3

Jane Austen wrote about romance and courtship from personal experience, so it is hard to believe that she never married. This biopic dramatizes Austen’s lost loves: Harris Bigg, whose proposal she accepted and then rejected; Edward Brydges, whom she also refused; the tongue-tied vicar she teased mercilessly; and the young surgeon who arrived on the scene too late to steal her heart. Starring Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense), Greta Scacchi (The Player) and Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill). Written by Gwyneth Hughes. Directed by Jeremy Lovering. Executive Producer Laura Mackie. Executive Producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. Produced by Anne Pivcevic. A BBC and WGBH/Boston Co-Production

Pride and Prejudice (three two-hour episodes) February 10 – 24

Colin Firth (Bridget Jones’s Diary) is Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Ehle (The Coast of Utopia) is Elizabeth Bennet in the definitive adaptation of the most-loved of all Austen novels. With five daughters, no sons, and an entailed estate, the elder Bennets are in dire straits to arrange advantageous marriages. Wedding bells ring three times, but the path to true love is tortuous indeed. Adapted by Andrew Davies. Directed by Simon Langton. Executive Producer Michael Wearing. Produced by Sue Birtwistle. A Production of BBC Television and BBC Worldwide Americas, Inc. in association with A&E Television Networks. The Masterpiece Theatre broadcast of Pride and Prejudice is the first in the U.S. other than on A&E Television Networks.


Emma (107 minutes) March 23

The New York Times praised this production as “smart and spirited…understated and sly.” Kate Beckinsale (The Aviator) stars in the title role as the tireless matchmaker who professes no interest in matrimony for herself, only for her orphaned protégée, Harriet Smith (Samantha Morton, Longford). Still, Emma does feel a certain twinge for Frank Churchill (Raymond Coulthard, He Knew He Was Right) and a brotherly regard for Mr. Knightley (Mark Strong, Prime Suspect 6). Adapted by Andrew Davies. Directed by Diarmuid Lawrence. Executive Producers Delia Fine, Simon Lewis. Produced by Sue Birtwistle. Produced by United Film and Television Productions in association with Chestermead Ltd and A&E Networks. Originally broadcast in February 1997.



Sense and Sensibility (two 90 minute episodes) March 30- April 6

Hattie Morahan (The Golden Compass) plays levelheaded Elinor Dashwood and Charity Wakefield (Jane Eyre) is her impulsive sister Marianne. Though poor, they attract a trio of very promising gentlemen: soon-to-be wealthy Edward Ferrars (Dan Stevens, The Line of Beauty), heroic Colonel Brandon (David Morrissey, Meadowlands and State of Play), and Byronic John Willoughby (Dominic Cooper, The History Boys). Adapted by Andrew Davies. Directed by John Alexander. Produced by Anne Pivcevic. Executive Producer for WGBH, Rebecca Eaton. A BBC and WGBH/Boston Co-Production



What a fantastic line-up for American fans! I am slightly jealous! This Press Release follows the anouncement that The Jane Austen Season will screen in Canada in December 2007.


Pic 1: Persuasion from: royalcrescentbath
Pic 2: Northanger Abbey from: JASNA
Pic 3: Mansfield Park from: The Guardian
Pic 4: Olivia Williams from: IMDB
Pic 5: Pride & Prejudice from: Images
Pic 6: Emma from: Selu
Pic 7: Sense & Sensibility from: LadyBlueLake