"Emma" (1972) TV mini-series

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

20 July 1972 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

This BBC production, set in the small town of Highbury depicts the often hilarious attempts of Miss...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Gentleman | Unrequited Love | Church | Hypochondriac

Cast

Doran Godwin	...	Emma Woodhouse (6 episodes, 1972)
John Carson	...	Mr. Knightley (6 episodes, 1972)
Donald Eccles	...	Mr. Woodhouse (6 episodes, 1972)
Constance Chapman	...	Miss Bates (6 episodes, 1972)
Ellen Dryden	...	Mrs. Weston (6 episodes, 1972)
Raymond Adamson	...	Mr. Weston (6 episodes, 1972)
Debbie Bowen	...	Harriet Smith (6 episodes, 1972)
Timothy Peters	...	Mr. Elton (5 episodes, 1972)
Vivienne Moore	...	Williams (5 episodes, 1972)
Robert East	...	Frank Churchill (4 episodes, 1972)
Ania Marson	...	Jane Fairfax (4 episodes, 1972)
Fiona Walker	...	Mrs. Elton (3 episodes, 1972)
John Alkin	...	Robert Martin (2 episodes, 1972)
Mollie Sugden	...	Mrs. Goddard (2 episodes, 1972)
Mary Holder	...	Mrs. Bates (2 episodes, 1972)
Amber Thomas	...	Patty (2 episodes, 1972)

Runtime:

UK:240 min (6 parts)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Finland:K-3 (DVD) (2007) | New Zealand:G

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

The caped burgundy velvet coat Ellen Dryden (Mrs. Weston) wears to visit the Bateses is the same costume Priscilla Morgan (Mrs. Bennet) wears to Netherfield to check on Jane in "Pride and Prejudice" (1980).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The characters are seen playing cards with a modern deck of cards that show both the suit symbol (hearts, clubs, spades, clubs) and a number on each corner. During the time period the movie was set in, playing cards did not show the number of the card in the corners.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Funny Women: Mollie Sugden (#3.1)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

The Twenty-ninth of May

Exasperating script and dreadful acting

This is what period adaptations used to be like in the Dark Ages.

I checked this out in preparation for the eagerly awaited Sandy-Welch-plotted version due from the BBC later this year.

Ouch! This version takes frightening liberties with the script, not only by creating all the narrative events of the novel in new dialogue between the main characters but inventing new and alarming chapters in the drama, not all of which are at all helpful and some of which are downright indigestible. The dialogue runs on and on at 100 mph, no breath for a pause, no respect whatsoever for Austen's original language, and worse, no sign of its author getting anywhere near Austen's wavelength. Mr Woodhouse, for example, trolls about at a large party at Hartfield (26!!) snatching plates of food out of his guests hand and behaves so like a nutter that it seems quite appropriate for Knightley to rudely ignore him as he stomps off after the row with Emma about Robert Martin.

Dorin Godwin is not nearly talented enough to produce a multi-faceted Emma and the rest of the cast are dull, mechanical and under-rehearsed. I was so put off I had to stop before getting as far as the party at Randalls. I simply couldn't take any more.