Sense & Sensibility (2008– )

Widow Dashwood and her three unmarried daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, inherit only a tiny allowance. So they move out of their grand Sussex home to a more modest cottage in ... See full summary »

Stars:

Hattie Morahan, Charity Wakefield, David Morrissey

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Hattie Morahan	...	Elinor Dashwood (3 episodes, 2008)
Charity Wakefield	...	Marianne Dashwood (3 episodes, 2008)
David Morrissey	...	Colonel Brandon (3 episodes, 2008)
Janet McTeer	...	Mrs. Dashwood (3 episodes, 2008)
Dan Stevens	...	Edward Ferrars (3 episodes, 2008)
Dominic Cooper	...	Willoughby (3 episodes, 2008)
Lucy Boynton	...	Margaret Dashwood (3 episodes, 2008)
Mark Williams	...	Sir John Middleton (3 episodes, 2008)
Linda Bassett	...	Mrs. Jennings (3 episodes, 2008)
Claire Skinner	...	Fanny Dashwood (3 episodes, 2008)
Rosanna Lavelle	...	Lady Middleton (3 episodes, 2008)
Mark Gatiss	...	John Dashwood (2 episodes, 2008)
Caroline Hayes	...	Eliza (2 episodes, 2008)
David S. Glover	...	Foot (2 episodes, 2008)
Daisy Haggard	...	Miss Steele (2 episodes, 2008)
Anna Madeley	...	Lucy Steele (2 episodes, 2008)
Leo Bill	...	Robert Ferrars (2 episodes, 2008)
Morgan Overton	...	Little Henry (2 episodes, 2008)
Tim McMullan	...	Mr. Palmer (2 episodes, 2008)
Tabitha Wady	...	Charlotte Palmer (2 episodes, 2008)
Roy Holder	...	Thomas (2 episodes, 2008)

Storyline

Widow Dashwood and her three unmarried daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, inherit only a tiny allowance. So they move out of their grand Sussex home to a more modest cottage in Devonshire. There, the prevailing ambition is to find suitable husbands for the girls. With help from wealthy neighbor Sir John Middleton, suitors for Elinor and Marianne are soon found, but not landed. They include dashing Willoughby, future vicar Edward Ferrars and retired colonial gentleman Colonel Brandon.

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Plot Keywords:

colonel | cottage | doctor | britain | class differences | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

BBC [uk] PBS [us]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 March 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Logiki kai synaisthima

Filming Locations:

Berkshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

180 min 180 min (2 parts) 180 min (3 parts)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The green linen coat with pink flowers at the waist Daisy Haggard (Anne Steele) wears in London is the same costume Morven Christie (Jane Bennet) wears at Longbourn in Lost in Austen, Lucy Davis (Maria Lucas) wears leaving Hunsford in Pride and Prejudice, and Amanda Hale (Mary Musgrove) wears on the long walk to Winthrop in Persuasion.

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Goofs

The scene: Elinor finds Edward chopping wood in the rain. We see Elinor approaching with her arms holding the shawl over her head and shoulders. When the shot shifts and we see Elinor from her back, the shawl is covering only her head, with arms over the shawl.

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Connections

Featured in The Story of the Costume Drama: Picture Perfect (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain"
Traditional
Words by William Shakespeare
Performed by Charity Wakefield

User Reviews

Good looking, well -acted but over-compressed

Perhaps we are getting used to Andrew Davies's adaptations but I think he was below par here, perhaps because of the short duration. This version had what are known as "high production values", ie it looked good and was well-acted. However Jane Austen's dialogue and characterisation really lost out when compressed into three episodes. Andrew Davies would rightly say that 21st century television is a very different medium from an early nineteenth century novel. In its own terms, therefore, as a TV drama it was quite good, as bonnet-fests go. However if you had never read the book, you would have probably thought that much fuss has been made over a fairly uninteresting story. I guess you could compress Sense & Sensibility still further until people would believe that Jane Austen was first published by Mills and Boon.

On the plus side at least they got the characters' ages right. In the 1995 version Emma Thompson was 36 but playing a nineteen year old. However good she was, she was far too old for the part.