The Guardian asked several writers, directors, and actors of period adaptations which one they liked best–and Persuasion 1995 proved a popular choice.

Sue Birtwistle Producer

Persuasion (1995)

I remember it well, not just because it was very well done but also because it was made at exactly the same time as we were filming Pride and Prejudice and there was a friendly rivalry. They were in Bath and we were up the road in Wiltshire and whenever a plane came over we used to shout: ‘Go and buzz over Persuasion and spoil their filming instead.’

Nick Dear’s adaptation was so fresh and Roger Michell directed it in a very fresh way. It was about real people, which is what we were trying to do with Pride and Prejudice. I love the book, it is very mature and it has got some fantastic lines. When Anne Elliot overhears Captain Wentworth say: ‘I wouldn’t have known her’ after they have been separated for seven years, it is a heart-stopping moment. Amanda Root played Anne Elliot and you could see what she was thinking, her hopes disappearing. It is a very good moment in drama.

We concur!

Olivia Williams Actress

Persuasion (1995)

I know the book embarrassingly well and the adaptation just nailed it all the way. It seemed to incorporate every important phrase and every performance got the characters as they were written in the book. There’s a tendency with adaptations to lighten things up; the perception is that people don’t want to watch something depressing on a Sunday evening. But here it was uncompromisingly horrible when it needed to be; Anne Elliot’s father and sister are truly unpleasant. And visually, the characters’ hair was falling down, men had a five o’clock shadow and the scenes were dark and shadowy - you felt they were genuinely operating in candlelight.

They were, actually.

Recently, there has been a move to embrace the fantasy side of adaptations and become very filmic, using flashback and special effects. It’s a tough one: are you trying to present the book? Are you saying this is a separate entity? And there will always be people who have got the book open on their lap. But I think that anything that shakes up the genre is good.

It occurs to us that Olivia Williams would have been a wonderful choice to play Anne Elliot.

Imelda Staunton Actress

Persuasion (1995)

It was shown on an Easter Sunday and I had had a lot of people over and I thought: ‘I’m knackered. I’ll watch the first few minutes and then record it.’ And within the first five minutes, I was hooked. It was extremely passionate and a bit messy. There was something earthy about it, unusually because we’d been fed a lot of perfect chocolate-box costume dramas. I like nothing better than a really good adaptation. I always get proud of seeing all these wonderful actors doing this sort of work because I think we do it really well in this country. We don’t do The Sopranos, but we do this and it is equally potent.

Hear, hear!

Thanks to Alert Janeite Lisa for the link.