Are you feeling sad that you won’t be able to join the Jane Austen 250th Birthday festivities in England next year? Fear not! You can celebrate here in the US, since PBS has just announced an air date for its latest Austen-themed offering.
Miss Austen, a four-part mini-series based on Gill Hornby’s 2020 novel, will air on PBS’s Masterpiece beginning May 4. “The timing is nothing less than thrilling as 2025 also marks 250 years since Jane Austen was born,” the network’s press release exults.
“Thrilling” seems like a stretch, unless we’re talking about the marketing department’s reaction to the tie-in opportunities, but I certainly plan to tune in. I’m a sucker for both period drama and Austen-related screen adaptations, and this show checks both those boxes.
Hornby’s novel, set in 1840, more than twenty years after Austen’s death, centers on Cassandra Austen’s quest to find a set of problematic letters from her famous sister. The plot is inspired by real-life events: As Janeites never cease to lament, before her own death, Cassandra burned many of Jane’s letters, depriving future generations of either priceless biographical insights or a lot of snarky gossip about now-forgotten Hampshire acquaintances.
I found Hornby's book rather flat, but with the wonderful Keeley Hawes playing Cassandra, it’s certainly possible that the adaptation will catch fire. Just like Jane’s letters did, once Cassandra got her hands on them! (Sorry, couldn’t resist. Just color me thrilled.)
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