Mansfield Park BBC very old adaptation…

I’ve just watched the BBC 2008 adaptation of Emma. Really wonderful with a fine cast. It made such a welcome change from the usual fare on the streaming platforms.

Northanger Abbey and Persuasion next week,.

I watched the BBC doc, on Jane Austen and apparently Mansfield Park did not sell well at the time to JA's chagrin, The problem is the downbeat Fanny and I think the reading public would have liked another Lizzie Bennett. When this is taught now, the emphasis is on the family money from slavery.

I rather enjoyed it although I didn't care for Mary Crawford's obvious wig! The adaptation kept very closely to the book. Excellent cast and I liked Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fanny - she gave the part spirit and character.

Caleo

It's best to judge an adaptation on its own merits. Nobody is going to be Jane Austen so every production is of time.

But there is a difference between a modern dramatisation and the wholesale rejigging of a book to make it look as if the society then was governed by the same rules that govern us now.

Thank you for this. I love the old BBC adaptations of the classics and am always looking for decent things to watch.

Anna Massey is always Anna Massey isn’t she! In The Mayor of Casterbridge Alan Bates et al soon fell into their parts but Anna Massey was Anna Massey! I was amused by one scene in which Pug started struggling to get out of Mrs Bertram’s (sp) arms and for the rest of the scene you only saw peoples heads because Pug was probably running around causing havoc out of camera shot!p

I watched it all as I love Jane Austen. Thankfully it stayed close to the book, but the acting was … actorly . Anna Massey was dreadful, terrible overacting.

Witzend

Saw this when it first aired ages ago. I didn’t think the main character was well cast at all, and TBH although I’m a great fan of the rest of JA’s novels, Mansfield Park is the last I’d ever choose to re read.

I enjoyed it because, as with the wonderful adaptation of Bleak House a few years ago, it was a story that I knew nothing about. I have to say that I found Fanny and Edmund totally dreary. Then again, reviews that I’ve read since, point out that the book isn’t actually about two central characters but about all of the inhabitants of Mansfield Park.

of its time

It's best to judge an adaptation on its own merits. Nobody is going to be Jane Austen so every production is of time.

Saw this when it first aired ages ago. I didn’t think the main character was well cast at all, and TBH although I’m a great fan of the rest of JA’s novels, Mansfield Park is the last I’d ever choose to re read.

I much prefer the older series of almost any classical book, to anything done recently.

For example I much prefer the Pride and Prejudice dramatised by Fay Weldon and starring (I think) David Rintoul as Mr Darcy to the dreadful sexed up and marmelised version starring Colin Firth.

A book is a product of its period and that should be reflected in its dramatisation. It should not be sexed up ans generally restructured to reflect current changed attitudes, or to make it easy for young people to understand.

Just finished episode 1. So enjoyable.

I remember the Mayor of Casterbridge. I shall watch that next - if possible.

The Mansfield Park adapatation starring Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fanny Price is from 1983!

Sometimes that feels like yesterday and then I realise it was over 40 years ago.

Nevertheless it's good to see all those actors in their youth or prime: Anna Massey, Angela Pleasance, Bernard Hepton, Nicholas Farrell, Samantha Bond etc.

The Mayor of Casterbridge is even older, from 1978, dramatised by Dennis Potter.