Andrew Davies – Bonnet Drama King of the World Honored by the WGGB

Screenwriter Andrew Davies has been honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. Quite an honor for the bonnet drama King of the UK – and the world.

Davies can thank Jane Austen for really putting the shine on his career. I still think that after fifteen years his adaptation of Pride and Prejudice still reigns supreme primarily because he did not muck about with Austen’s dialogue or plot too much and he had five hours to unfold the narrative. Having Mr. Darcy dive into the Pemberley pond did not hurt matters either, even though it was completely his invention.

The BBC announced last January that they had axed future plans for bonnet drama's in favor of contemporary fare. Davies has expressed his opinion decidely about period drama's going downmarket. None-the-less, he is presently working on a new screenplay for Middlemarch which he previously adapted in 1994. Now that the BBC has put a nix on future bonnet dramas, he must feel like a man without a country, forced to rehash a novel that he dramatised before. How sad and a bloody waste of talent. I think that the BBC has lost their heads and are running scared, hoping to appeal to a different audience. I hope that they find their footing again before Davies is gone. I am still patiently waiting for a great adaptation of Quality Street, anything by Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth or Georgette Heyer and top on my list is Lady Susan. What great classics would you like to see on tellie?

Congrats Andie! Thanks for the hours of great entertainment.

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Sexing Up Mr. Darcy: Did Andrew Davies Do Him Justice?

Andrew Davies will probably go down in history as the man who had the epoch-makingly brilliant idea of putting Mr. Darcy into a wet and thus clingily transparent blouse. Laura Carroll

Did the wet shirt Darcy scene in Pride and Prejudice 1995 launch the Jane Austen Renaissance that we are still enjoying after fourteen years? Was it indeed a brilliant idea to put Mr. Darcy in a wet shirt? Do we like our Austen staid and buttoned up, or sexed up and sassy?

In her thoughtful essay Darcy and Davies: Adapting Mr. Darcy from the Novel to the Screen, lit student and Jane Austen enthusiasts Virginia Claire shares her feeling on Davies version of Mr. Darcy vs. Jane Austen’s original and asks some interesting questions about our modern interpretations of this iconic romantic hero an how they are changing the way he is remembered.

Other views

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose

WINNERS of The Jane Austen Regency World Awards

Winners announced at the first annual

Jane Austen Regency World Awards

Presented last night at a ceremony in Bath, there are (in our minds) some surprises. Janeites had their say, and the votes have been tallied, and the winners are



BEST NEW FILM: Becoming Jane

BEST ACTOR: James McAvoy



BEST ACTRESS: Anne Hathaway



OUTSTANDING JANE AUSTEN CONTRIBUTION: Andrew Davies



BEST ‘KNOW HOW’ BOOK:

101 Things You Didn’t Know About Jane Austen,

by Patricia Hannon

BEST NEW FICTION: Me and Mr. Darcy, by Alexandra Potter

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

PBS to Air Emma in Two Weeks

By now my PBS Complete Jane Austen withdrawal symptoms are becoming serious indeed. The airing of Emma, directed by Diarmuid Lawrence and starring Kate Beckinsale is still a little over two weeks away. Until that happy event, we must "make do" and discuss various aspects about the movie instead.

Andrew Davies wrote the screenplay for this 1996 A&E adaptation. In an interview on PBS's Masterpiece website, he says of Emma:

Emma is an interesting one because Jane Austen said of the heroine, "She is a heroine who no one but myself will much like." And you can see why she said it because Emma is so arrogant and snobbish. She treats other people like toys, or pieces on a chessboard. She moves them around saying, You've got to go with that one, and you've got to go with that one as if they've got no will or taste or imagination of their own. The only person she has got any respect for really is Mr. Knightly and she never thinks that she herself will fall in love with anybody. So she has got some hard lessons to learn in the book."

Click here to read the rest of his assessment of Emma and hear his other interviews.

As with Pride and Prejudice, Davies also takes some liberties with Emma's script. According to Screen Online, "In Davies' adaptation, Emma becomes not only a reformed person, but a reformed snob. He appends a new ending, which shows Emma welcoming Mr Martin as Harriet's fiancée and inviting the couple to visit her; this is in direct contrast to the novel, where her friendship with Harriet fades."

In another interesting aside, The Loiterer awards the best Country Dance Scene to the last dance in Emma, 1996, particularly mentioning Kate Beckinsale's and Mark Strong's moves. The "Hole in the Wall" dance scene (below) is not the one that The Loiterer referred to, but it is interesting to watch nevertheless.

Read details about the movie on IMBd

Lismore Castle: Setting for Northanger Abbey

Andrew Davies chose ancient and cavernous Lismore Castle for the setting of Northanger Abbey because “Northanger Abbey, the physical place, has to be very important in the film because it’s called Northanger Abbey yet we spend the first half of the film just having lots of references to it. So it can’t be a disappointment. Lismore Castle is a wonderful, splendid, rather scary building. It delivers all the promise of creaking ghosts in the corridors and strange things hidden in the dungeons. All the things you expect with a romantic castle.”


Indeed its atmosphere is wonderfully gothic. The castle, located in Ireland, was once owned by the Duke of Devonshire, who also owned Chatsworth, the setting for Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice, 2005. In another interesting twist, Fred Astaire's sister Adele married the brother of the ninth Duke of Devonshire, Lord Charles Cavendish.

• Lismore Castle's official page

• Northanger Abbey: The Complete Guide.
  

• Check here for all the locations in Northanger Abbey

• Visit Lismore Castle and see the gardens in this link.
  

Posted by Laurel Ann and Ms. Place