Revolutionary Rants

After the comfy delights of Cranford on a Sunday evening the Beeb has now given us it’s latest period drama (as per usual by Andrew Davies) Sense and Sensibility. I enjoyed the Emma Thompson film and of course Davies is most infamous for his 1995 adaption of Pride and Prejudice so this is inevitably going to be compared - so I’ll just carry on and compare it, too…

So far this version looks very sumptuous, with real Devon scenes and stately homes. Charity Wakefield, with the obligatory perfect curled hair (which, by the way, does not really happen) and eyes like a dog from The Tinderbox is a pleasantly obsessive Marianne, intense but slightly lighter than the Winslett version. Dominic Cooper, formally Dakin in The History Boys, fails to have the depth of a good Willoughby; he seems just a little bit sleazy without the shallowness and sense of hidden character that one feels Willoughby should have. David Morrissy is not Alan Rickman and comes across as a bit pompous…

However, it is Hattie Morahan who really misses the mark as Elinor. She has so much emotion written all over her face constantly that she could hardly be said to be repressing her feelings as Elinor does in the book. She occasionally heads off to caves in order to sigh a few times, but quite why she needs to when she moons around ofter Edward more than Marianne does after Willoughby and when she isn’t mooning she’s talking about Edward all the time. OK, so Dan Stevens is a very easy on the eye Edward Ferrars, but the role is so small and undemanding that it really only matters that he is the Davies piece of male mea, busily axing things in the pouring rain.

I short, it is watchable, pleasant enough Sunday evening telly, but is does not have the passion either of the earlier film or even of the sedate Cranford.