HELLO! Magazine reports in an interview with Billie Piper that Mansfield Park will air 18 March. This differs from reports from some fan sites, which have indicated a start date one week earlier, but 18 March would fit well with Amazon and Play.com’s release dates of 18-19 March.
And speaking of the DVDs, Alert Janeite Helen B. discovered Play.com’s synopses for Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey:
At 10, Fanny Price goes to live at Mansfield Park, the estate of her aunt’s husband, Sir Thomas. Clever, studious, and a writer with an ironic imagination and fine moral compass, she becomes especially close to her cousin Edmund, Thomas’s younger son. Fanny is soon possessed of beauty as well as a keen mind and comes to the attention of a neighbor, Henry Crawford. Thomas promotes this match, but to his displeasure, Fanny has a mind of her own, asking Henry to prove himself worthy. As Edmund courts Henry’s sister and as light shines on the link between Thomas’s fortunes and New World slavery, Fanny must assess Henry’s character and assert her heart as well as her wit.
Helen B. notes, and we agree, that this summary bears a striking resemblance to the 1999 Mansfield Park. A synopsis is sometimes “recycled” between adaptations (we’ve seen the 1986 Northanger Abbey summary turn up in descriptions of stage plays) so that may be what’s happening here. With that, on to the Abbey:
Catherine Moreland [sic] (Felicity Jones,) a spirited young beauty from the country, enters into the depraved society of Bath with dreams and fantasies sparked by her love of gothic romance novels.
There she meets two men vying for her affection - the dashing and jealous John Thorpe (William Beck) and the gentle and sincere Henry Tilney (JJ Feild). Despite the advice of her mischievous new friend Isabella (Carey Mulligan), Catherine treats neither as more than a dear friend.
That is until Catherine accepts an invitation to Northanger Abbey from Henry`s grave and severe father, General Tilney (Liam Cunningham). Her passion for the dark and mysterious feeds her imagination, as tyrannical fathers and diabolical villains work their evil on forelorn heroines trapped in isolated castles, much like Northanger….
Where to begin? Depraved society of Bath? Dashing John Thorpe? Catherine treats John and Henry both as dear friends? (Sounds more like Isabella’s style.) And have they converted Northanger Abbey into a castle again? As stated above, a synopsis is not always the most accurate representation of the film, but … dashing John Thorpe? Better stop; I’m getting a little shrill.
PS: Alert Janeite Sarah G. just now sent us a link to a great photo of Michelle Ryan as Maria Bertram from the UK edition of SKY Magazine. That looks like Julia Bertram behind Maria, and could the sour-faced woman be Mrs. Norris? Thanks, Sarah!
