S&S08 Recap
So the broadcast is over in the UK, and the Telegraph has a last bit of commentary.
Elinor’s wordless expression of pure joy also confirmed that Morahan has now become the latest British actress – after Anna Maxwell Martin in Bleak House and Lisa Dillon in Cranford – to have mastered one of the trickiest of all acting assignments: how to give an utterly gripping performance as somebody flawlessly nice.
On the whole, the rest of the cast were equally strong, especially Charity Wakefield as a believably sexy Marianne. The only false notes were struck by Daisy Haggard playing Anne Steele as if she was a caricature by Dickens, not Austen – and David Morrissey’s peculiar reading of Colonel Brandon as a tight-lipped Scouser.
In the end, this Sense and Sensibility was perhaps brilliantly competent rather than surpassingly brilliant. Nevertheless, it still proved easily good enough to get the costume-drama year off to a hugely enjoyable start.
We’ll see it on this side of the pond soon enough!
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Oh dear lord they got it ALL wrong…well not all…Elinor was fantastic…but Charity Wakefield was terrible, and Anne Steele was pretty good (except the accent) and Brandon was AMAZING!! How could they get it so very wrong!
YES!! HOW COULD THEY???’
Agree on the same points as you do and disagree on the same points.
Charity Wakefield did not have a presence and now that they say, this Brandon *was* often tight lipped with a frown. But still, I really liked him.
FALSE NOTE?!?! COLONEL BRANDON?!?!! He was the best part of this adaptation! He was awesome and so sexy. Andrew Davies’ strategy to make Brandon more manly worked! I was so surprised! David Morrissey used what he had to the limit. The end bit of ep.2 when Marianne faints–so good. And the beginning of ep.3
Charity Wakefield–not really. She was alright, but definitely not stellar. Not passionate enough. When Willoughby sends back the letters, she wasn’t near emtional enough.
I loved Anne Steele. She was so funny! So vulgar
I don’t know about Elinor. She was good, but I just didn’t totally believe in her. Maybe it was the fault of the script, which was bare for her, and, all in all, lacking strength, beauty and style. They made Elinor too open with Marianne too much right away. Her love for Edward was too known. Everyone refers to it with certainty, instead of simply as conjecture. When she revealed her suffering under Lucy and the knowledge she couldn’t have Edward, Elinor was too sedate still–I liked the accusation in ’95 version. Marianne’s self-understanding was not clear or maybe even reached in this one. She wasn’t like, “Elinor dealt with her pain much better than I. I should not have made life so painful for myself and my family and friends. I was foolish.” At least not enough.
I think Morrissey’s portrayal was nigh on brilliant…can’t really flaw much…
Charity, like you said, had no presence….and, maybe this is just me, but since when is Marianne meant to be ‘sexy’?? IMO she’s meant to be passionate, loving, intense, spirited…personally, I wouldn’t say ‘sexy’….and she was anything BUT believable. Did this reporter ever bother reading the book?
I agree this reporter is wrong! Brandon was wonderful-and though I cant bring myself to say he`s better than Alan Rickman`s version, its definately being considered. Charity Wakefield felt way too similar to Kate Winslet without being as good. And I have never thought Marianne should be `sexy` nor did I consider Wakefield`s portrayal of her so.
Still think Anne Steele was the best thing in the series.
hehe Rosalind, Anne Steele was the only comic relief, that’s for sure…she made me chuckle…not laugh but chuckle atleast. The accent was highly annoying but it did add to her ridiculousness
Charity Wakefield has said in an interview that she purposely did not watch the Kate Winslet version because she didn’t want to be influenced by that. So, if she appears to be copying Kate it must be some direction she was given. When you think about it though if three people are trying to copy a character in three different versions I would expect them to be very similiar. After all they’re all playing that one character who is going to have one personality.
I take your point Sylvia, but Marianne in particular is one of those characters that can be interpreted in so many different ways…I mean thats why Austen fans are so bipolar, in that some love her and some hate her. Personally, my opinion and visualisation of her changes everytime I re-read the book.
But if Charity didn’t see the Winslet version, then it must be direction, in that AD saw things he liked in S&S95 and decided to ‘borrow’ those elements…only thing he didn’t factor in was the great difference in acting talent between Charity Wakefield and Kate Winslet.
I heard Charity Wakefield’s acting got worse ! True ?
Although I agree that David Morrissey’s Colonel Brandon is only second in brilliance to sliced bread, I do think Anne Steele’s accent was strange, and also completely different from her sister’s. I think rather than adhering to consistancy they believed the character would be more amusing with the accent, this has some questionable implications – Anne Steele’s ‘vulgarity’ is emphasised by the lack of a middle/upper class accent.
All in all, I really enjoyed it, I didn’t think the big clamour made about ‘sexing’ up Austen was necessary, the audience to which this would have any difference was (alas) probably watching the football on another channel. I was initially worried that Davies would string out a horde of out-of-context nudity, fabricated afternoon romps etc. which the opening scene only seemed to confirm (and the show could have easily done away with). The rest, however, was good – it bared greater similarity to the film version of Pride and Prejudice than the BBC adaption – as in more pretty pictures than witty conversation, although it is done relatively well. One thing for certain, I am completely sold on the Dashwood’s idyllic cottage the and would fight tooth and nail to spend a holiday there, apparently the show has already raised a lot of interest in the cottage which is originally a holiday home.
In my opinion, Mandy, yes it did. But some people think it got better. Personally I didn’t like her acting in ANY of the parts, and I don’t think her acting was actively worse, just that part 3′s plotline requires a lot more from the actress playing Marianne because it deals with the characters emotional climax in the book….just my opinion though
Thanks Ally.
Maybe a more experienced actor was required for Marieanne… Great scenery may visually represent Marieanne’s taste for the Picturesque, but I like lots of JA dialogue in adaptations as well.
I totally agree that Brandon was the best part of the adaptation! He got better and better as the episodes went on. I found Anne Steele so funny, even if the accent was a bit OTT. Her facial expression when she realises she’s revealed Lucy’s secret: priceless!!
I did think that Elinor could have been more emotional when she told Marianne of her broken heart. Was a bit too sedate: the ’95 version was better for that I think.
Mandy: you’re welcome and I do agree, as to needing JA’s actual words in an adaptation.
Bethany: I’m so glad someone else picked up on Anne Steele’s face when she realises what she’s said…and then her breakdown was hysterical! And I agree that Elinor needed a little bit more emotion in that scene…it’s like she’s dammed her emotions through the whole painful experience but finally the waters flood…but this wasn’t portayed very well by Hattie. Given the rest of her performance though throughout the adaptation, I’m willing to overlook a few niggles.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, can I just add my praise of the portrayals of Elinor and Brandon in this adaptation. And thank goodness for Anne Steele, or there wouldn’t have been a laugh in the whole three episodes, although I did like the depiction of Harry Dashwood. I agree with one of the reviews above, competent but not brilliant. Not a fan of Willoughby in this version, he looked shifty right from the word go IMO and wasn’t a fan of Marianne either, too stiff and restrained for my liking. Dan Stevens is extremely good looking and dashing, shame the character he was playing bore no resemblance to that of the book. And as for the wood chopping in the rain scene..Guffaw!!
>And as for the wood chopping in the rain scene..Guffaw!!
Yeah!! AD perhaps thought he’d make Edward look as sexy as Darcy with a sword in hand.
Actually, I’m afraid I just found it very boring. Anne Steele was the only thing that made me laugh (I don’t expect there to be any other GreenWing fans here, though), and they were really struggling to stretch it to three hours. Now, if they’d just taken out all those lovely picturesque shots of the sea and the hills and put back the dialogue from the book, that wouldn’t have been a problem.
I really did like Elinor, although her part was badly written, and she wasn’t disapproving enough. But she was very well played despite that (and looked closer to nineteen than Emma Thompson).
I wouldn’t have said Marianne was beautiful, but that’s just my opinion. She certainly wasn’t passionate enough, and didn’t act it well, even though she was ten years older than her character (and looked it).
I am annoyed when actors are the wrong age for the part. The ages are so important – Elinor, at nineteen, acting with more maturity, sense and propriety than her mother, as though she were years older then she really is. And Marianne saying she thinks she’ll never find a man she could love, when Mrs Dashwood reminds her that she is still only sixteen. Well, I can relate better to Marianne myself. I may be seventeen (and a bit romantic?), but there are plenty of good actors around who are still in their thirties, so could they possibly have found a Brandon who looked a bit closer to thirty-five? I think this one was a bit too comfortable in his flannel waistcoats!
Oh, correction: Anne Steele wasn’t the only thing that made me laugh, there was also chopping wood in the rain…
You are all full of crap- and sound incredibly bitter people. Charity has the best agent in the country, she got this straight out of drama school. She is a very experienced actress who is classy, beautiful and very talented. Even if you do not agree with this statement why be so nasty? have you done three BBC drama’s in one year? Though I doubt she would be bothered as she’s probably a million times more succesful than you will all ever be. I suppose that’s why yo have the time to write on stupid sites like this one?!
I thought it was taking an awfully long time for the fangirls to show up. And we got our first invocation of Ebert’s Law into the bargain! A twofer!
Ebert’s Law. Cool, I learned something!
>Ebert’s Law.
A great Law!!
otherwise Andrew Davies would be the only one seeing through his scripts, for what they are, or the only one enjoying them and writing great reviews 
LOL!!!
I am so glad it’s there
I dislike Andrew Davies and his obsession with sex, but I really liked this version of S&S. OK, I didn’t like the opening scene (very gratuitous) but I thoroughly enjoyed this. Perhaps it’s because I went in with such low expectations, but the fact remains that, of the 4 new adaptations, this is my favorite.