still wandering around in Austen…
…while waiting for a DVD to arrive so I can appraise another, different TV programme. It’s a hard life, this media freelancing.
Thanks to the marvels of the ITV.com catch up TV service, which wasn’t too stuttery except when I tried to print a picture-heavy document at the same time as watching (just because I almost can), I have now watched the first ep of Lost in Austen properly.
Journalistic integrity binds me to post, therefore, that there is in fact some comment about “the extraordinary fit” of Miss Price’s britches (or is it breeches? difficult to transcribe) and that Mrs Bennett does endeavour to find “something less provoking of attention” for Miss Price (Amanda, played by Jemima Rooper) to wear. But the gaze of the camera and therefore us is very definitely on her bust, not legs, so I feel I can accuse ITV and producer Mammoth of going for the obvious gag about loose 21st dress codes via the bust, not the behind.
And it’s Bingley, not Darcey, who catches Amanda having a crafty fag. But I still don’t think she would have thrown it away if it really was her last smoke for 100 years and wouldn’t he have had something to say about her nicotine breath in the snog that ensued?
I guess I’m saying I’m suspending my disbelief for some things in this nicely shot drama (the idea that Amanda can step into 1813 via a swing door in her bathroom) but not for others which would have made the action a bit richer, a bit more layered.
Having said all that and having watched the whole thing twice now which I doubt many, if any, other viewers have bothered to do, it’s quite a nice piece of drama which ticks the costume drama box and, yes, I will be watching again next week because, like the rest of the country, I’m still a slave to the real-time ITV schedule unless they send me a preview DVD. Meanwhile the DVD I’m waiting for today is still stuck on the A303 somewhere, probably in torrential rain and heavy traffic.