Alert Janeite Cinthia sent a link to a review of the Region 1 DVD of Lost in Austen, due to be released next Tuesday, and added a small report that she felt those about to purchase the DVD should know.

This is not mentioned in the review, but I’ve contacted the critic and his answer has been:

“This version does not have Amanda actually singing “Downtown,” just the “reaction” from Bingley and Darcy.”

The reviewer seems to think it’s okay. We thought our readers would like to make an informed choice about their entertainment purchases.

ABC in Australia will broadcast Lost in Austen over two Sunday nights, March 8 and 15, at 8:30 p.m.

Alert Janeite Cinthia let us know that Lost in Austen will be broadcast in the U.S. on Sundays at 9 p.m. beginning this weekend, with a couple of rebroadcasts of each episode later in the week. The show will be broadcast on the Ovation cable channel.

ETA: We’re dopey. The first episode will be broadcast Sunday, January 11 at 8 p.m. and the second at 9 p.m. the same night. Episodes 3 and 4 will be broadcast on Monday, January 12, at 8 and 9 p.m. respectively. Just go to the links and read more carefully than we did! Thanks to Alert Janeite Marietta for oh-so-gently pointing out our boo-boo.

ETA the Second: OCTOBER? Oh, just GO TO THE LINKS! We don’t have cable or satellite and in many ways just don’t care, so maybe we shouldn’t be posting about it anyway.

Episode 1 info – Episode 2 info – Episode 3 info – Episode 4 info

Still doesn’t seem to be any info about a Region 1 DVD release, though.

TV One in New Zealand will broadcast Lost in Austen on December 28 and 29. Let us know if the “Downtown” scene makes it or if ITV cheaped out on paying the royalties again.

Also, there’s an interview with Jemima Rooper, including a couple of audio clips.

A new women’s specialty channel, VIVA, will broadcast the Canadian premiere of Lost in Austen beginning on Sunday, November 9 at 8 p.m. followed by a “classic” adaptation of a Jane Austen novel. It appears from the press release that subsequent episodes and films will be broadcast over four Sunday nights.

One of the highlights of VIVA’s fall lineup is the Canadian premiere of Lost in Austen, a deftly post-modern four-part tale of a woman who worships the novels of Jane Austen and is suddenly transported one day to the world of Pride and Prejudice, swapping places with Elizabeth Bennet. A critical triumph in the U.K., Lost in Austen premieres on Sunday, November 9 at 8 p.m. ET. Each episode will be followed by a classic Jane Austen movie, starting with Sense and Sensibility, then Mansfield Park, Emma and Pride and Prejudice on the following Sundays.

In other words, who knows which version…but if we were a betting Editrix, our money would be on 95, 99, 97-Paltrow and 05, respectively.

The station is targeting women 40-64 (aka Middle Aged Austen Whores), who no doubt will find Mary Sue fan fiction featuring dimbulb twenty-something British women right up their alley. Oh, wait, it’s a critical triumph. Our bad.

Episode four winds up this…drama. We would like to point out, perhaps for the last time (but not likely so), that four episodes would be three more than ITV gave either Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, or Persuasion. 178 minutes vs. 93 each for more complex, more interesting, and infinitely more clever stories that actually, you know, make sense. We despair, we really do.

Gentle Readers on the big damp foggy island nor-nor’east of Ushant, let us know what you think of Episode Three of Lost in Austen. Feel free to liveblog (post comments during the broadcast) if the spirit moves you.

ETA: Alert Janeite Valerie wrote to ITV asking why one cannot watch the episodes on ITV Rewind or whatever it is called. She received this response:

ITV are only licensed to broadcast in the UK.

Image Entertainment has the North American DVD rights but we have no information when they will release the DVD commercially.

So there you go.

Gentle Readers in the UK, let us know what you think of the second episode of Lost in Austen (or feel free to liveblog–post comments during the broadcast–if you like.)

Professor Kathryn Sutherland wrote a bit about LiA in The Guardian:

I don’t mind if Elizabeth stays out of it, but I wonder how she will cope with the 21st century. What happens when she goes into Boots for some birch twigs to clean her teeth?

She’ll probably just ASK FOR A TOOTHBRUSH. (Bring the dead horse over here and let us beat it some more! more! more!)

I’m worried about how they will deal with the deeper parts of the novel – the relationship between Jane and Mr Bingley, and Lydia’s elopement with Wickham.

Erm…clearly somebody hasn’t read the spoilers. 😉

Thanks to Alert Janeite Laurel Ann for the link!

No, that’s not a smutty reference in next week’s episode of Lost in Austen (at least we don’t think it is). For all those who have rhapsodized over the door in the bathroom, the Twisted Physics blog at discovery.com explains that the doors probably separate a wormhole.

Commenters here have given mixed reviews, tending more to the positive side. Viewership-wise, the show came in second to BBC One for the time period.

The first quarter-hour of ‘Lost in Austen’ drew 4.2m viewers, while 5.7m tuned in to BBC One’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ with Esther Rantzen.

But after that ITV1’s audience dropped down to 3.6m and BBC One’s climbed to 6.5m, as some viewers decided this Austen wasn’t their cup of tea.

The result was that BBC One earned 6.2m and a 27% share across the 9pm-10pm slot to ITV1’s 3.8m and 16.6% share.

The Stage thinks all those who turned it off are nuts.

Stephen Brook at the Guardian’s Organgrinder blog does a review roundup so we don’t have to. Cheers, mate! Do NOT miss the comments section; the snark, she is tender and delicious.

We found a couple more reviews, in the Metro and the Herald.