More Lost in Austen Ideas

Now that the ITV1 drama Lost in Austen is finished, I was trying to think of some other Lost In… ideas for a spin-off/sequel series. Here are a few I have come up with:

Lost in Where’s Wally:

Amanda’s new boyfriend Wally accidentally travels through the portal in her bathroom and ends up in a crowded fictional land. Each week Amanda travels through the portal to look for her boyfriend in a woolly hat.

Lost in Green Eggs and Ham:

Amanda travels through the portal to a strange land where she is constantly hounded by a rhyming weirdo and a plate of green eggs.

Lost in A Clockwork Orange:

Amanda becomes an English teacher and takes her bad-ass class through the portal for a bit of behavioural conditioning ‘Clockwork style’.

Lost in Austen… the trouble with inter-dimensional travel

If you ever find a portal into the world of your favourite classical chick/lit book in your bathroom, and you find yourself actually thinking about entering into it; please remember not to ruin too many of the love lives of the characters you meet. If you do you may find yourself scurrying about trying to fix things and muttering the immortal words of Amanda Price; “I’ve buggered up thisstory… and now I have to un-bugger it!”

Faces: JEMIMA ROOPER

If Lost in Austen is to be remembered for one thing, it will probably be for highlighting the talents of the wonderful English actress Jemima Rooper.

Born in Hammersmith in London, in 1981, Jemima first caught my eye in the 2005 Sky One series Hex in which she played a ghost. A quick scan of her CV though shows she has been working as an actress since the age of twelve when she appeared in the film The Higher Mortals. Since then Jemima has carved out a pretty impressive acting career on both television and in films.

Jemima’s television roles include impressive appearances in Sinchronicity, The Time of Your Life, and currently in the ITV series Lost in Austen. Her film roles includes appearances in Kinky Boots, The Black Dahlia, and the soon to be released British horror/comedy Hotel Caledonia.

Lost in Austen: getting lost in a book…

When I first saw the promotional material for the new ITV series Lost in Austen, I cringed… “Oh no, another Jane Austen period drama, how terribly dreadful!” However, when you live in a house full of women, occasionally you need to indulge in a bit of television involving people who wear silly frocks, drink copious amounts of tea, and say “one lump or two daaaarrrlinng”, a bit more often then one can easily stomach.

Lucky for me though, Lost is Austen is much more then just another drama filled with people speaking ‘proper’ and wearing petticoats. No Lost in Austen is to period dramas what Life on Mars was to cop shows… sounds pretty crazy? Well it is, but sometimes crazy is fun, a bit stupid but fun!

 

Our heroine, our Sam Tyler, is Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper), a boozy slapper with a passion for, yes, Pride and Prejudice. She smokes and drinks and has a beer-soaked boyfriend, but actually she likes nothing more than curling up with the same English A- level set text and reading it over and over again, every night. Implausible? You think? Well, maybe that’s because you don’t work in telly, and all your friends aren’t dreadful. Anyway, one day, and for no reason we will ever know, she finds Elizabeth Bennet standing in her bathroom. Then, as you would, she enters the portal under her shower head to the 18th century English countryside, and gets trapped by a strange twist of television fate.

Now, if you are not up to date with the plot details of Pride and Prejudice, this is where you might get a little lost. You need to know details: that Bingley is supposed to fancy Jane; that stuff happens at a dance; that Jane sets off for Netherfield in the rain; that people in the days of Jane Austen would not be so rude to question the presence of a girl dressed in a black leather jacket with Maroon coloured hair arriving unannounced… I guess though if you are willing to accept that a girl can travel through time and space, to a fictional land, then the little details don’t really matter – besides it is wonderful fun to watch a girl sent out of her time discussing her pubic topiary with some stuffy people in the past.

The only thing I think that is missing from this crazy adventure though is some views of how Miss Bennett is getting on in our time… perhaps that will come in the next three episodes, or perhaps I have just given ITV an idea for an entire other show!

Lost in Austen is available on ITV Catch-up

Shocking News – ITV announces shows people might actually watch!

Wow some amazing news coming from the ITV press office, they have developed some shows people might actually watch!

Starting tonight, is the first of the shows developed for ITV’s new Autumn schedule, The Children. Described as by the ITV Press Office;

as a “provocative three-part drama is about step families and our messy modern lives. It explores the upheaval and excitement of new relationships, and how the emotional turmoil can lead to the unthinkable happening.

An eight year old girl is found murdered on the patio of her home. Any one of the adults who care for her could have killed her, but which one?”

… sounds like some good thought provoking and entertaining TV, which is something that has been missing from the ITV schedule for some time.

This will be followed on Wednesday by Lost in Austen, which at first had me a bit horrified with the thought of yet another Jane Austen production clogging up valuable television schedules, but after reading the shows synopsis, I am actually quite interested to discover if this show is as good as it sounds.

“Disillusioned with her life in London and disenchanted with her boyfriend, Amanda Price discovers Elizabeth Bennet in her bathroom. Soon she finds herself swapping places with Lizzie, and entering the ‘real’ fictional world of Pride and Prejudice. Amanda arrives at Longbourn, the home of the Bennet family, and realises she’s joined the action at the very start of the story, she gets to know the remaining Bennet sisters, and prepares to meet Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan). How will she keep the greatest love story of all time on track when Elizabeth Bennet is stuck in the modern world?”

Sounds a bit like a cross between Life on Mars and well… Jane Austen, which puts me off a bit, but it still has my interest perked up a bit!