Latest news with #PrideAndPrejudice
Buzz Feed
10 hours 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
4 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
4 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.
BBC News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Sophie Andrews shares her love of Jane Austen and Regency wear
It's been almost a decade since Sophie Andrews shared her love for author Jane Austen with the world in a 2017, the 27-year-old from Tilehurst appeared in BBC One's My Friend Jane, having become popular for her blog Laughing With Lizzie and founding the Jane Austen Pineapple Appreciation then she's written a book, Be More Jane, and continues to don Regency-era gowns and discuss her passion for the 2025 marking 250 years since Austen was born, Ms Andrews has been talking to BBC Radio Berkshire about why the author remains relevant to her readers. 'Yep, I'm obsessed' The self-proclaimed superfan got into Regency clothing as a teenager, having been inspired after reading Pride and Prejudice at Andrews first read the book as a nine-year-old and watched the 2005 film version - but it wasn't until she was 16 she started to explore the books more."I was always interested in history and how everything went on back then, from the social customs to the clothing and so I think when I read Pride and Prejudice something just clicked," she explained."Everything from the era, the way Jane Austen wrote her novels - the characters, the story, the wit. Something inside me was like 'yep, I'm obsessed'."Mum thought it was a phase, but it's still going 11 years later." Ms Andrews arrived to the radio station dressed in full Regency-era clothing, explaining the multiple layers involved in dressing authentically - from the chemise to the stays, petticoats and continued: "I tried on my first outfit when I was 18 and I can still remember getting that all together and it was very exciting."I think there's a misconception it isn't comfortable, especially as soon as you say corset, but honestly the Regency corsets are fine." Ms Andrews has a friend who makes her outfits for her, but also said there is a lot to be found for why she thinks people keep going back to read Austen's work, Ms Andrews said: "She paints such a brilliant picture of both Regency England and everyday life. "You can really recognise a lot of characters. I know plenty of Lydia Bennet's and I'm sure we all know a Lady Catherine who likes to interfere a little bit too much. "I think that is why she has endured so much and why she speaks to people." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Imagine being the nitwit publisher who rejected Jane Austen's work! CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night's TV
Kate Winslet was told by her drama teacher she'd never get anything but 'fat girl' roles. Oprah Winfrey's boss called her 'unfit for TV news'. Harrison Ford became a carpenter and nearly quit acting for good after the head of Columbia Pictures told him he had 'no future'. The list of hapless nitwits who rejected megastars-to-be is a long one, but none blundered more badly than Thomas Cadell. The publisher fancied himself as an intellectual. He once bragged to his most successful writer, Edward Gibbon, that he would prefer to lose his fortune than publish 'insipid' novelists. But his smugness cost him more than his fortune. Today, Cadell is chiefly remembered as the twit who refused to read even the first page of Pride And Prejudice, when Jane Austen's father sent him the manuscript. The bundle of papers was returned unopened, with a five word note: 'Declined by return of post.' Nobody rejects Jane now. With the 250th anniversary of her birth approaching, a bevy of famous fans queued to contribute to a three-part biographical series, Jane Austen: Rise Of A Genius. Actors Sam West, Charity Wakefield and Tamsin Greig read from her books and few surviving letters. Novelist Helen Fielding confessed her influence on Bridget Jones's Diary. Cherie Blair offered a feminist perspective, and Admiral Lord West explained the importance of the Royal Navy in her family's life. With this year's clever BBC drama Miss Austen still fresh in our minds, millions of viewers are aware that Jane's older sister Cassandra (played by Keeley Hawes in the show) burned most of her letters. Just 160 survive, out of thousands. Cassandra was afraid of the scandal they might cause. Perhaps she was right to worry, gauging by the reaction of writer Bee Rowlatt: 'We know that Jane Austen can be very, very savage, very, very brutal. 'There's an excruciating moment in one of the letters, a searingly cruel comment about a woman who has a miscarriage. Jane Austen commented that the woman miscarried because her husband was so ugly — she took one look at him and aborted. That's horrible.' Calling it 'horrible' seems to miss the point. Jane and Cassandra clearly shared a gallows sense of humour, which is a common form of defence when life is tough. They lived in an era of smallpox and cholera, when a third of children died before their fifth birthday. Set against that world, Jane's quip sounds almost tame. The recreated scenes in this documentary, supplemented with excerpts from film adaptations of the books, give us plenty of soft-focus Georgian romance. Jane, portrayed by Hungarian actress Emoke Zsigmond, is forever musing at her desk or whispering sly asides to Cassandra. It's just picturesque enough to make relaxing TV, and just informative enough to hold your attention. Did you know Jane turned down a marriage proposal from a man named Harris Bigg-Wither? Now that's a wise rejection.
