Northanger news roundup
Check out two advance reviews: first, a very favorable one from TV Scoop:
… trust TV Scoop, [Northanger Abbey]’s the best of the lot.
Both Mansfield Park and Persuasion are filmed with hand-held cameras, presumably to make them look more *real*, but neither this production, nor the novel it is based on, are interested in reality. And you know what? It makes for a fabulously fun two hours’ worth of television.
… All in all, this is a beautiful, imaginative and engaging production, and you really should Set The Video.
Next, a positive but less enthusiastic summary and review from Radio Times (click on the program title to open the review in a new window):
Andrew Davies wrote the screenplay for this latest Austen dramatisation, and you can tell, notably by some very racy, un-Austen-like scenes with strong suggestions of sexual awakening and (whisper it) actual sex.
… Jones makes a chirpy, if vaguely annoying heroine, but the whole thing lacks charm.
Classic FM’s behind-the-scenes NA podcast is up, featuring interviews with William Beck (John Thorpe), JJ Feild (Henry Tilney) and Charles Elton (executive producer). We were delighted to hear that JJ Feild read the book and liked it! (The West Coast Bureau also finds the ears-poking-out-under-the-hat rather adorable and Tilneyesque, but opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of the management.) We are less certain that we read the same Northanger Abbey, Udolpho, and The Monk as Mr. Elton apparently did …
Felicity Jones doesn’t plan to read the reviews, which spares Those Nasty Janeites the trouble of discussing her performance for good or ill, and frees up our day to corral the flying monkeys. (And you thought boiling kittens was time-consuming.)
Northanger Abbey airs on ITV1 this Sunday night, 25 March, from 9:00 — 11:00 pm.
March 22nd, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Fly, my pretties, fly! </Wilhemina Slater>
And her life is complicated further when two men end up vying for her attention - the dashing cad John Thorpe (William Beck) and gentle, sincere Henry Tilney (JJ Field).
“Catherine is so willing to please, she gets carried away with both of them for different reasons,” Felicity says. “Henry Tilney is someone who has quite a paternal role in her life, whereas John is much more the bad boy. But once she realises he’s not quite what she wants, she very quickly moves on from John to Henry.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot???
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:35 pm
LOL, Mags! Executive producer = 1 Delta 10 Tango?
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Thank you, as always, for making me laugh!
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:23 pm
It took me several hours, but I got it!! LOL!
I’m still reserving judgement until I see the final product.
March 24th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
“and JJ Feild’s Henry Tilney is the pick of the love-interests, yes, even up against Penry-Jones’s Wentworth next week (and it pains me to say that, but it’s true). He makes Tilney the anti-Darcy in every way other than attractiveness: he’s warm, witty and open-hearted, just proving that you don’t need to be stomping around in a huff to be the perfect Austen hero…”
Finally, someone understands why Henry Tilney will always be my favorite Austen hero. Bring on JJ Feild!! I’m ready to swoon!
March 24th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Whoa, Darcy does not huff….nor stomp. Sulk, okay. Brood, well, yeah.
John Thorpe is good for a laugh, nothing more. To set him up as a rival to Henry Tilney is absurd, but I am sure Jane would find a way to laugh at it.
March 25th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Well in his own mind he might have been a rival. But then his ego would had to have allowed him to consider our dear Mr. Tilney as competition.