6 Reworkings Of Pride And Prejudice (That Are Better Than Pride And Prejudice And Zombies)

3. Lost In Austen

An ITV fantasy about an ordinary woman of today switching places with Lizzie Bennet didn't sound like a terribly promising prospect. Creator Guy Andrews being best known for the channel's endless stream of inoffensive mystery dramas (Rosemary & Thyme, Poirot, Lewis etc.), meanwhile, suggested a competent writer, but hardly one likely to push any boundaries. What we got, however, was a genuinely smart, witty, charming romantic comedy fantasy that knew just how seriously to take both its source and its slightly preposterous premise. It would never really work with something that wasn't this universally known and loved, but that's just what means that Andrews can mess around with the story and see where it goes. The concept, in which Jemima Rooper's modern day Janeite finds a secret doorway into the world of Pride And Prejudice, only for the super fan to accidentally screw up the events of the narrative, bears some similarities with Jasper Fforde's novel The Eyre Affair. But a more focused storytelling approach here allows for something more engaging than that rather slapdash book. The only real complaint is that it spends far more time with Rooper in Pride And Prejudice than with the possibly more interesting plot of Gemma Arterton's Lizzie enjoying herself in our world. A Hollywood adaptation has been mooted for years, with Portlandia's Carrie Brownstein currently attached and Sam Mendes involved as producer.