Adaptation Week: Mansfield Park

The winner of the Wait and Hope 1000 Giveaway is my good friend and fellow blogger: Cami!  Congrats, Cami, and thanks for everyone who entered.

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Anyone who chats to me long enough is bound to discover I love adaptations.  I simply love classic stories retold well.  Adaptations serve to introduce some to a story for the first time, others get to relive it and rethink their prior assumptions.  What's more, they often prompt great discussion about characters, plot points, and the way in which we understand a narrative. Being that I love adaptation so much, I thought I'd take this week on my blog to hi-light a different adaptation that is new or currently going on.  So, welcome to Adaptation Week!

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To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, the BBC is re-airing a radio drama they recorded initially in 2003.  That's right, before Tennant flew the TARDIS, before Felicity Jones played Northanger Abbey's gullible heroine, and far before Cumberbatch sleuthed in a long overcoat - they all were in a production of Austen's third novel.  Mansfield Park is interesting in that it is the author's most controversial novel as it can be read as exceedingly moralistic or covertly subvertive.  Due to the fact that she sits in the canon between Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse, Fanny Price seems a frail and prudish heroine by comparison - but, this of course depends on how she and the novel is interpreted.

The BBC will be airing 10, 15-minute episodes beginning today, May 12.  You can listen to these episodes within a week of their airing via iPlayer Radio.  The stellar cast includes:

Fanny Price: Felicity Jones  
Sir Thomas Bertram: Tim Pigott-Smith
Lady Bertram: Liza Sadovy 

Tom Bertram: David Tennant  
Edmund Bertram: Benedict Cumberbatch  
Maria Bertram: Kate Fleetwood  
Mrs. Norris: Julia McKenzie  
Mr. Rushworth: Toby Jones  
Henry Crawford: James Callis  
Mary Crawford: Susan Lynch  
Narrator: Amanda Root

1/19/14

They're back...

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Two years and four days after this--

Sherlock Series 3 will air on PBS 1/19/14

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Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

It is hard... even for the Doctor!

Timothy Carlton

So... just found out that this guy, the judge presiding over Bates's trial on the Downton Abbey Christmas Special...

... is Timothy Carlton - the father of Benedict [Timothy Carlton] Cumberbatch.

Craaaaazy! Haha =)

stoked.

Just finished Sense and Sensibility (BBC, 2008) with Miss Charlli =)

Seriously, this film is my favorite Jane Austen adaptation. Period.

I love Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. Of course, I love both of the contemporary Pride and Prejudice adaptations--but this is SO well done and just beautifully cast.

I highly, highly recommend seeing it if you get the chance.

[Love these two as Elinor and Marianne... aka my sister and me]

[Colonel Brandon (David Morrissey), Mariane (Charity Wakefield), and Willoughby (Dominic Cooper)]

and then of course... these two =)

[Elinor (Hattie Morahan) and Edward (Dan Stevens)]

Of course I think he's brilliant in Downton

(see yesterday's post)

But I saw him in S&S first... and actually like his hair darker.

But they're all fabulous!

Also making an appearance in the adaptation: the brrrilliant Mark Gatiss--Sherlock co-creator, writer, and actor.

[Gatiss as Mycroft Holmes]

And to wrap up marvelous British adaptations in a neat package, I give you a little surprise from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. 

There I was, enjoying the film and its incredible cast (Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, etc) when this little scene gave me a nice shock.

Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock) walks into a room and the secretary is played by Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith Crawley, Downton Abbey).

I turned to my friend and said, "My favorite BBC worlds just collided." haha

All that to say... I just love how intertwined British film/tv/stage is!

Cheers ;)

I seriously do not think I can wait until May!

It's official... I need to move to the UK.

Inspired by 221B

Ok... now that my favorite TV show is airing in the UK, I can't stop thinking about Sherlock and trying to catch all the hints I can about this new season.

[BBC Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.
Currently airing in the UK. Set to air in the US May 2012.]

 That being said, I wanted to share one of my favorite aspects of the show: the wallpaper.

I love this wallpaper. 

[Wallpaper by Zoffany]

In re-creating 221 B Baker Street, they did such an incredible job with the ecclectic assortment of wallpaper that, no matter how diverse, work so well together.



[Notice the three different patterns in this one shot alone?]

[Yet another assortment of patterns.
And yes, this is a still from the second season of Irene Adler (Laura Pulver) with Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch).]



[A pattern from Mrs. Hudson's flat, technically speaking, 221 A Baker Street.]

I'd really like to have a bold pattern on at least one of the walls of my future library (preferabbly something like the first one).

But if I did... I might not be able to resist the urge to spray paint a yellow smiley face on it.



[Smiley face courtesy of "The Blind Banker." Gunshot holes courtesy of "The Great Game."]

But don't worry, I wouldn't shoot at such a gorgeous pattern =)

I've been loving this series!

Modern updates can be very... um, interesting. But this is spectacular!

The plot and dialogue is fantastic but nothing beats Cumberbatch and Freeman's portrayals of these timeless characters.

The first season (3 episodes, about 90 minutes each) is available through netflix dvd or streaming.

...and as a sidenote - after seeing Martin Freeman in this, I am even more excited for The Hobbit because I am now confident that he will play an excellent Bilbo =)