Everything old is new again
August 17, 2009
Here’s something to while away your Monday blues. We were delighted by a British television production called Presumption, a biographical overview of Jane Austen’s life and work first broadcast on the BBC in 1995, just at the time when all the new film versions were coming out. It’s loaded with famous Austen authors, including Elizabeth Jenkins and Deirdre Le Faye, the authors of the Editrix’s two favorite Austen biographies, as well as David Nokes and Claire Tomalin, both described as “writing” biographies. (How far we’ve come!) The film has been uploaded to YouTube in five parts; see the AuthorScoop blog, where we found it, for handy links to all five parts. Enjoy!
ETA: Video removed. ARGH.
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Thanks!
Thank you for this, Mags!
This is precisely the one I had in mind when Natalie, back in May ( link to the Documentarily ) was searching for a documentary on JA’s life. This is the one I recalled to have seen in Canal 22 Mexico some years ago.
So now the question remains, was this the one that Natalie was looking for?
The *spoilsports* have removed the links to this.
Yes they did — very unfair !
Thanks for telling us about this documentary. I found it and watched it on YouTube. The most exciting thing about it for me was to see Elizabeth Jenkins, as hers was the first biography of Austen that I ever read, many years ago.
Hmm…I’ll see if I can find it on YouTube tonight and repost the links.
It should be pointed out that Elizabeth Jenkins was about 90 years old when this was made. She is now about 103.
Unfortunately the clips are not longer available on YouTube either, that is why they do not longer appear at the Authorscoop blog.
They had been posted by “inmypooropinion” and her/his account has been deleted there with the argument that she/he uploaded material under copyright. She/he had many other interesting clips available, including the original Making of P&P2 that aired when the miniseries premiered in 1995, the First Impressions documentary, The Real JA one and also some about the Brontes.
I’m afraid that we so publicly mentioned their were there that some people reported them
.
It is also provoking because if BBC would make all those documentaries available in DVD I am sure we would buy them, but now we only know they existed but we cannot get them. Agrrr!!!!
Reading over the comments, I feel fortunate to have watched this immediately on learning of it, before the links disappeared. For me the most interesting part of this very enjoyable documentary was actually seeing the authors of so many wonderful books about JA. I had not realized I had a mental image of the sort of person my heroine Deidre LeFaye would be — how she would look and talk — but as soon as she appeared, I knew she was exactly what I had envisioned! I am also glad to know that Elizabeth Jenkins is still among us.
What a pity! I couldn’t see it!
I quickly Googled Elizabeth Jenkins – she is 105! and received an OBE in 1995. Nice comments about her as an author on writer’s blog below – mentions EJ’s novels as well as her JA bio http://www.amandacraig.com/pages/blog_01/blog_item.asp?Blog_01ID=199
Say it with me: PIRACY IS OUR ONLY OPTION.
Yes! We want it on DVD or else;
PIRACY IS OUR ONLY OPTION!!!!!!
Too late
I was convinced that Elizabeth Jenkins was dead. 105 years old!