Jane Austen Season in New Zealand
Mansfield Park will be on New Zealand’s TV One today, Sunday, at 8:30 p.m. We’re not too swift on the time zones, hope we didn’t miss it! The other three films of ITV’s Jane Austen Season, including Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Emma, will be shown as well, but we don’t know when. Let us know what you think!
July 1st, 2007 at 4:37 pm
One a week over the next few. I taped MP, I haven’t watched it yet, and I will let you know what I think.
July 1st, 2007 at 6:48 pm
NZ always seems to get things before we Aussies! Hasn’t the 2006 Jane Eyre already screened there? (Thank heavens for Sendit.com, which means I’m not always at the mercy of Australian programmers.)
July 1st, 2007 at 8:20 pm
True. We have had Jane Eyre.
Well, I watched MP, and it wasn’t bad. They did a good job of making Fanny interesting without being hoydenish, Edmund was a lot less annoying than usual, and Gemma Redgrave an excellent Lady Bertram, although perhaps not really indolent enough. My major problem with it was the omission of the Southerton and Portsmouth episodes and even the ball. As no JA adaptation is complete without an assembly scene, and JA heroines, even Fanny in the end, take considerable pleasure in dancing, I was suprised they didn’t grab the opportunity. Watching them cavort outside, I observed to the cat: “Every savage can dance”, and goodness didn’t they look like they needed a maypole.
I suspect budgetary constraints, since all the scenes took place at the stately home-maybe they got a package deal or something. The thing I love about MP the book is the combination of moral seriousness and mellowness-the book has a cello-like lyricism which was entirely absent from the script, although the actors hinted at it. The whole thing was unduly rushed. Fanny the Explainer is very irritating “Now I’m going to explain to you that I’m a poor cinderella, oh, that’s my cousin and only real friend, did I mention Tom is very ill?” Miss Bates eat your heart out.
But in general, a definite pass mark. They hinted at some of the book’s main themes (notably order), nothing was unduly out of place. Mr. C. was dashing, Mary Crawford amoral, Edmund earnest and Fanny gentle, so all’s quiet on the characterisation front. See what happens when you actually read the book? Not bad, I thought.
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:29 am
I’m so frustrated, they’re not showing Northanger Abbey next week as I’d anticipated - presumably to break it up for the viewers not keen on Jane.
Also, it is so terrible but I couldn’t watch it without ‘Honey to the Bee’ as my internal soundtrack.
July 4th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Or to increase the suspense for those of us who are keen on her. I am suddenly thinking of Mr. Collins, and damning those “elegant females” at TVNZ!
July 17th, 2007 at 5:04 am
Just a heads up - Northanger Abbey is screening on TV ONE in New Zealand on Sunday 22 July. http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/886251