Lost in Austen (2008) (Episode 1)

Part 1 of 4 of the 2008 period drama "twist" on the Jane Austen classic. Amanda Price, a young woman living in Hammersmith, London, spends her evenings reading her beloved Pride and Prejudice. Stuck in the modern world with a slob of a boyfriend, she yearns for more gentile times. However one evening she hears a sound in her bathroom and going to investigate, Amanda finds herself face to face with one of her treasured protagonists, Elizabeth Bennet. Quite how she seems to of appeared in her world is somewhat of a mystery, but upon being told that she came through a previously unusable door in the bathroom, Amanda decides to investigate. But things get decidedly tricky when she finds herself in Elizabeth's world of Pride & Prejudice among the Bennett family and discovers she cannot get back! Starring Jemima Rooper, Gemma Arterton, Hugh Bonneville, Alex Kingston, Morvern Christie, Perdita Weeks, Florence Hoath, Ruby Bentall, Tom Mison, Eliot Cowan, Christina Cole, Sarah Emmett, Pippa Heywood, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Daniel Percival. This was an intriguing take on the Pride & Prejudice by Guy Andrews, who came to fame writing such stuff as Chancer (1990-91) and All or Nothing at All (1993), a fantasy period drama where an ordinary girl from 2008 ends up in Pride & Prejudice country and discovers she will have to bluff it out as she figures out how to get back. Usually I dislike this sort of thing, but I remember seeing it on TV when it was originally broadcast on September 3rd 2008 and loving it. Part of the charm is that it ISN'T a adaptation of the novel, just a story of a girl somehow trapped in her favourite novel trying to get out. And what makes this so enjoyable is Jemima Rooper's performance as Amanda Price (an in joke there, perhaps?) who is hugely amusing as the 19th century interloper with none of the grace and manners of ladies of the era - which makes it all the more funny. I did ponder where to put this series, but felt that as the vast majority of the series is in the 1800's it suited the Period Drama album best of all. Enjoy.