Radio Head - Mary, Mary by Martin Sorrel Radio Review

I'm always amazed by the number of Jane Austen spin-offs.

Apart from the obviously ironic ones, it's interesting that people can't let even the smallest characters go. There's even an anecdote from her family that they asked Austen what happened to Kitty after the end of Pride and Prejudice. I think she replied that Kitty married a clergyman. But even her family couldn't quite let go.

As part of my Austen immersion, I listened to an old radio play I had recorded - Mary, Mary by Martin Sorrel, that explored the life of Mary, the most ignored Bennet daughter, during the events of Austen's novel.

It was definitely clever - there are numerous references to things like de Clérambault's syndrome (Mary believes the men in P&P are all madly in love with her), and the treatment of female psychiatric disorders in Georgian Britain (yes, it's a comedy), but it felt a bit hollow for me.

Clever, I thought, but not good.

Radio Head - Pride and Prejudice

As part of my panic over my OU degree I am trying the path of total immersion. If I'm not reading OU texts then I have to be watching/listening to them in some capacity.

I'm not sure if this will lead me to a 2500 word essay, but we'll see.

Step in the BBC Classic Serial adaptation of Pride and Prejudice from 2014.

Pippa Nixon and Jamie Parker

Surprisingly I can't see another radio adaptation of it from the BBC, which is just mad, and I have done all of 5 minutes of research.

It's got a ridiculously great cast -  David Troughton, Lydia Wilson, Fenella Woolgar, Toby Jones - but the knock-outs are Samantha Spiro as the ridiculous Mrs Bennet, and Michelle Terry is particularly affecting as Charlotte Lucas.

The leads (Jamie Parker and Pippa Nixon) are excellent too - hearing Nixon's voice on radio is always magic.

And yet... the adaptation does seems to miss the facetiousness Elizabeth. Here she is bright, but not so cheeky. Darcy is nice but a little dull (but that seems a perennial problem).

Austen adaptations always struggle to get the silliness of her work (with the exception of Emma Thompson and Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility). Remove the irony and absurdity, and you're left with a mildly smart romantic comedy, and that's just not enough.

It's a shame especially with such rocking BBC radio adaptations as Gaskell's Mr Harrison's Confessions.

Ah well, we get a lovely cast, and nice music to pass the time, and - the more it stays on my mp3 player, the more I find myself going back to listen to bits.


It's like permanently being able to visit Spring in this shining novel.


To buy:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pride-Prejudice-Dramatisation-Jane-Austen/dp/191028131X
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jane-Austen-Radio-Drama-Collection/dp/1785292692