Persuasion

I watched a fairly good dramatisation of Jane Austen's Persuasion on ITV last night. Decent acting, nothing over-the-top or anachronistic - though I did wonder how they would manage to film sequences in Bath without including parking meters and signs to the Motorway. All went well by shooting with extremely tight restraint on peripheral vision, and nothing in long shot except a view up to the Crescent. However, I did spot the momentary appearance of an anti-burglar device on a window as Anne Elliot sprinted (rather athletically I thought) to intercept her hero Captain Wentworth before he got away a second time. This has always been my favourite Austen novel - largely because the heroine suffers the usual damsel-in-distress moments of being socially misinterpreted and finding herself in the wrong place at the right time, yet she goes against all the prevailing (yet flawed) advice of her peers and elders to win through for what she believes to be right. Cameo appearance from one of my favourite comic actors too - Julia Davies in a wimple. Hope she'll soon get back into that little red dress she wore in Nighty-Night.

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