Latest news with #JaneTranter
Buzz Feed
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Historian Says Posh Accents Ruin Period Dramas
At this year's Hay Festival, Jane Tranter – former executive vice-president of programming and production at the BBC and current producer of Austen adaptation The Other Bennet Sister – said actors 'start speaking posh' when they get a Pride And Prejudice -era script in their hands. 'Not everybody spoke posh in those days, so you have to work with that as well,' she shared (via The Times). Pinched voices, fussy hairdos, and 'weird hats' can risk leading to 'such a fetishised approach that it becomes a barrier between the audience and what is going on,' she adds. So, we spoke to author and historian Katie Kennedy (of viral account @TheHistoryGossip and new SKY History series History Crush) about what we lose when costume drama accents all start to sound the same. It's not an isolated trend Kennedy tells us the tendency isn't limited to period costume dramas. 'It is widely known that the acting industry is dominated by the middle and upper classes,' she says. In 2024, the Sutton Trust found that people from working-class backgrounds were four times less likely than their middle-class peers to work in any creative industry. BAFTA-nominated actors are five times more likely to have gone to private school than the general public. 'While this is an issue in itself,' Kennedy continued, 'it also heavily influences how history gets portrayed on screen. 'We've been sold this idea that everyone in the past was super polished and polite, and we've equated that with the classic RP [received pronunciation] accent.' That's not to say you can't change up voices, actors, stories, or perspectives, especially in looser adaptations like Bridget Jones (expertly nicked from Pride And Prejudice) – but would-be 'faithful' adaptations tend to sound distractingly, and sometimes inaccurately, similar. Take, the historian says, the 2022 film Emily. 'The Brontës are portrayed with soft-spoken middle-class voices, even though they most likely would've had an Irish or at least an Irish/Yorkshire mixed accent as their father was Irish,' she shares. Indeed, Charlotte Brontë's friend Mary Taylor said the author 'spoke with a strong Irish accent,' while the British Film Institute admits star Emma Mackey 's 'Yorkshire accent sporadically wanders down the M1″ in the movie. 'A lot of the time' in period dramas, 'the working-class accent has been attributed to comic relief, or a character who has had a troubled life,' she tells HuffPost UK. 'When everyone in a period drama speaks the same, you're not just losing historical accuracy, you're also reinforcing the idea that the only 'serious' or 'worthy' people in history were the ones who 'spoke properly.''
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Not everybody spoke posh' in Jane Austen's era, says top producer
For those looking to perfect their pronunciation, British period dramas are a masterclass in getting to grips with the Queen's English. But – if the wishes of one TV heavyweight come to fruition – future iterations of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and other period classics could adopt a more modern, less posh twang. Speaking at the Hay festival, industry veteran Jane Tranter, who served in top positions at the BBC before co-founding the production company Bad Wolf, called on actors to stop automatically adopting 'posh' accents when starring in period dramas. Tranter, 62, said actors 'start speaking posh' when put in period costume. She said she would be bringing in a movement coach 'to try to get the actors to think past the fact they're in period costume'. 'The other thing with period costumes is you start speaking posh and not everybody spoke posh in those days, so you have to work with that as well,' said Tranter, in comments reported by the Times. 'You have to try to get the actors to think past the fact they're in period costume.' She also commented on the slow speed that extras walk in period dramas, adding: 'It happens time and time again, and every time I think: 'Oh my God, Jane, why didn't you say something?'' The leading producer, who has worked on some of TV's biggest shows including Industry and Succession, was at the book festival to discuss The Other Bennet Sister, a forthcoming BBC period drama she is producing which focuses on Mary Bennet – the 'ugly duckling' middle sister from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Tranter also took aim at the stiff, sculpted hairstyles familiar in such productions and said she had 'loosened the rules' to offer a 'proper welcoming hand to a modern audience' in the upcoming spin on Austen's famous novel, which is due to begin filming in Wales next week. She said: 'If you dress the hair exactly like it is in all those oil paintings, or put the hats on, then actually an audience will not be able to take their eyes off these strange curls or weird hats. 'You have to know what the rules are and then we look to see where we break them in order to build a bridge or offer a proper welcoming hand to a modern audience. 'Because if you do a complete like-for-like, matchy-matchy, here are the exact buttons, here are the exact knickers you're wearing beneath your dress, then it becomes such a fetishised approach that it becomes a barrier between the audience and what is going on.' The Other Bennet Sister is based on Janice Hadlow's acclaimed 2020 novel, which the Guardian called 'immersive and engaging'. 'Janice has expanded the world of Austen,' she said. 'The London is not that classic Regency London, it is nudging towards Dickens's London. There is a tendency with Jane Austen to always make it super-Regency as opposed to a more grounded feel. 'The other brilliant thing is that Janice brings in the Romantic poets and they go to the Lake District.'
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
BBC Jane Austen drama won't have posh accents, makers say
The BBC's new Jane Austen drama will not feature 'fetishised' posh accents, its makers have said. The corporation is adapting The Other Bennet Sister, a work of fiction by Janice Hadlow which imagines a happier ending for Mary Bennet, Elizabeth's overlooked sibling in Pride and Prejudice. Producer Jane Tranter, who said she had noted Austen's popularity with young people on TikTok, told an audience at the Hay Festival: 'The other thing with period costumes is, you start speaking posh, and not everybody spoke posh in those days. You have to work with that as well. So sometimes it's about a loosening around the fetishisation of a period.' Traditionally, dramas set in Austen's world also feature women in bonnets and the curled hairstyles of the era. The Other Bennet Sister will not because viewers could find such details weird, Tranter added. 'I always say to costume and hair and make-up and production design: you have to know what the rules are and then we look to see where we break them in order to build a bridge and offer a proper, welcoming hand to a modern audience.' Being a stickler for period details in costume and hair can alienate viewers and make the actors feel constrained, Tranter explained. 'A fetishised approach' 'If you do a complete like-for-like, matchy-matchy, here are the exact buttons, here are the exact knickers beneath the dress, that becomes such a fetishised approach that it becomes a barrier in between the audience and what's going on. 'It means the actors are so enclosed in these costumes they are wearing that it becomes a costume, rather than what their characters are wearing to eat breakfast that morning. 'We [will] dress the hair slightly differently because if you dress the hair exactly like it is in all those oil paintings, or put the hats on, actually an audience will not be able to take their eyes off these strange curls or weird-y hats.' Elsewhere, Tranter said she wanted to hire movement coaches to stop extras moving too slowly in their costumes in the background. She added. 'One of the things I'm always very keen on when doing a period drama is getting a movement coach in, because one of the things that tends to happen is how slowly all the extras walk in period dramas. 'We will have a movement coach in to get the Bennet family to move like a family. You can try and get a sense of authenticity and emotional relationships, and try to get the actors to think past the fact they're in period costume.' Tranter is the co-founder of Bad Wolf, the production company behind Doctor Who, Industry and the BBC's adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Work begins on the Austen drama next week and it will air on the BBC next year. It will star Ella Bruccoleri, best known for her role as Sister Frances in Call the Midwife, as Mary. Hadlow, who was controller of BBC Two before leaving the corporation to become a full-time author, said the story would be full of authentic period detail – suggesting that previous period dramas featuring mannered ballroom scenes were historically inaccurate. 'These things are often too sedate,' Hadlow said. 'They were a moment to let off steam, with a sense of release and excitement and everybody piling in and having a really good time.' Hadlow said she wrote the book because she felt that Mary had been unfairly maligned as 'the ugly sister in a family of swans, always somehow outside the family circle'. The first part of The Other Bennet Sister retells the Pride and Prejudice story from Mary's point of view, while the second part follows Mary to London and the Lake District.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Escort Boys' Producer on Taking the Raunchy French Comedy to ‘Darker' Ground in Season 2 and Developing Projects with Amanda Sthers, Olivier Abbou (EXCLUSIVE)
After tackling gender power dynamics in the post #MeToo era, Prime Video's raunchy comedy series 'Escort Boys' is returning for a second season that's several shades darker and is world premiering today at Canneseries. Adapted from the Israeli show 'Johnny and the Knights of Galilee' ('Milk and Honey') and directed by Ruben Alves, the half-hour comedy series portrays four young men who become escorts to make ends meet and save their family business in a picturesque town in Southern France. More from Variety 'Industry' Producer Jane Tranter on How Late James Gandolfini Friendship Changed Her Career: 'First Time I Had Someone Who Was on My Side' 'Skam' Producer and NRK Drama Boss Unveils 2025-26 Lineup, With Canneseries' 'A Better Man' Among Stories That Matter (EXCLUSIVE) APOS 2025 Draws Top Media Execs to Bali for 15th Edition Boldly addressing timely themes such as romantic love, female sexuality and toxic masculinity, Season 1 was a hit, even luring Wild Bunch TV which acquired international sales (to seasons 1 and 2), and France's leading commercial channel TF1 which bought second-window rights. Myriam Gharbi-de Vasselot at Mediawan-owned Oberkampf Productions '('Les Papillons Noirs') who produced the series with Charlotte Toledano-Detaille and RTL TVI, said Season 2 is taking a departure from the original format. 'It's a true creation,' she says, and one that reteams Alves with Yaël Lebrati ('Dear You'), joined by Louis Pénicaut ('Le Bureau des Legendes'). Season 2 picks up six months after the end of Season 1 which saw the main characters deciding to stop escorting to start a hotel venture. 'They're forced back into it due to a failed hotel venture which turned into a fiasco: they were ripped off and faced subsequent debt, leading them to lose their domain,' says de Vasselot, who also previously produced a documentary about male escorts which Wild Bunch TV picked up alongside the first two seasons of 'Escort Boys.' 'We're going to look at the consequences and limitations of prostitution, since it's a subject that can't be taken lightly and that we're treating as realistically as possible,' she says, adding that the plot will deal with the 'sex addiction of one of its main characters, Ludo, who is the father figure,' as well as introduces 'a woman who has been beaten by her husband and attempts to overcome her trauma and reconnect with her body with the help of an escort.' 'That's Ruben Alves's signature style, always oscillating between drama and laughter,' she says. While the show will be definitely more dramatic in its second season, she says it will nevertheless boast 'moments of comedy, sometimes burlesque, sometimes funny and touching, with a diverse range of clients, always played by exceptional guest stars.' These include Josiane Balasko, Marisa Berenson ('Barry Lyndon'), Thibault De Montalembert ('Call My Agent!'), Margot Bancilhon ('Machine'), Cristiana Reali ('Camping 3') and Afida Turner ('LOL'), who will star alongside the key cast of Guillaume Labbé, Thibaut Evrard, Simon Ehrlacher, Corentin Fila and Marysole Fertard. Prime Video will premiere the series on June 13 in France, followed by Italy, Spain, Germany and the U.K. De Vasselot is also developing a raft of internationally driven projects with different partners and talent, including Olivier Abbou with whom she previously collaborated on the Netflix serial killer thriller 'Les Papillons Noirs.' She's teamed up with Nathalie Perus at Atlantique Productions, another Mediawan label, to acquired rights to a bestselling U.S. book whose adaptation is being penned by Abbou and Laura Fontaine ('Research Unit'). She's also working with 'Vortex' co-creator Sarah Farkas and Marjorie Bosch ('Sam') on a female-led series project in advanced development at a streamer, and 'Holy Lands' filmmaker-screenwriter Amanda Sthers' first series which will be based on an original story revolving around two journalists hired to create fake news. Best of Variety All the Godzilla Movies Ranked Final Oscar Predictions: International Feature – United Kingdom to Win Its First Statuette With 'The Zone of Interest' 'Game of Thrones' Filming Locations in Northern Ireland to Open as Tourist Attractions
