Welcome to the Jane Austen Movie Club! On the first Tuesday of each month, we at Risky Regencies discuss a different Jane Austen adaptation.
This month: the 1986 BBC version of Northanger Abbey!
As I mentioned last month during our Jane Austen Novel discussions, Northanger Abbey is one of my favorite Austens. The wit, the liveliness, the Bath background — I love to read it again and again.
(That is, I love to read the first half of the novel. Sometimes I stop there. Sometimes I go on. I do like the second half, but for me, it comes nowhere near the exuberantly silly Bath bits.)
So… Have you ever seen this adaptation?
If so, what did you think?
To aid the discussion, here’s the cast (etc) info on the movie, courtesy imdb, plus a few interesting cast tidbits (in green):
DIRECTOR: Giles Foster
SCREENPLAY: Maggie Wadey
CAST:
Katharine Schlesinger … Catherine Morland
Peter Firth played Joseph Andrews in 1977 — I’d love to see that!
Robert Hardy … General Tilney
Robert Hardy played Sir John Middleton in the Ang Lee Sense & Sensibility, and more recently has portrayed Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter movies.
Geoffrey Chater … Mr. Allen
Cassie Stuart … Isabella Thorpe
Jonathan Coy … John Thorpe
Jonathan Coy played the Prince of Wales in the Richard E. Grant versions of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and was also in one of the Gruffudd Horatio Hornblowers.
Ingrid Lacey … Eleanor Tilney
Philip Bird … James Morland
Elvi Hale … Mrs. Thorpe
Helen Fraser … Mrs. Morland
David Rolfe … Mr. Morland
So…good, bad, or ugly? Did you like it, or did you not?
Two notes: first, I will be out most of today; I’m seeing the Rose Parade this morning (first time ever!), and in the evening I’ll be attending a going away dinner for my mother, who’s setting off on a round-the-world cruise. But I’ll check in whenever I get a moment!
Note 2: In the US, PBS will start showing the new Jane Austen adaptations this month. And on the Tuesday following each of these new Austens, we’ll have an extra Jane Austen Movie Club here, to talk about it! So the January schedule will be:
Persuasion: airs January 13; discussion January 15
Northanger Abbey: airs January 20; discussion January 22
Mansfield Park: airs January 27; discussion January 29
So… What did you think of the 1986 Northanger Abbey?
Cara
Cara King, who thinks this will be a very exciting January
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