Emma

This post clearly has to be about Jane Austen, as the last one suggested. (Regulated Hatred, the title of the last post, is an essay by D.W. Harding, in part about misreadings of Austen).

The new BBC Emma. Hmmm. I'm not sure.

I hated the beginning of the first episode (Jane, Emma and Frank as toddlers, all losing mothers. Jane and Frank sent away, etc. Moralising, unecessary and annoying. But maybe that's just me). And I don't understand why the narrating voiceover is by a bloke who seems to think he's telling us a fairy tale. And Mr Knightley is too young (and not grumpy enough). And the village scenes are far too cosy and costume drama-ish (if you see what I mean). I could go on.

And yet I have to admit it is growing on me. Tamsin Greig makes a fine Miss Bates, and the scene where she tells of Mr Elton's engagement - blurting it out in front of a distraught Harriet - was well done. And the script does point up - and sometimes dramatises - snatches from the book that I had missed or forgotten (eg Jane making lists of books she means to read but doesn't read them).

All in all, however (and this takes me back to the beginning of the post) it just doesn't feel nasty enough. Austen, as Harding spotted, writes beautiful, balanced sentences showing just how stupid people are. Not always very nice at all. The adaptation just feels too, well, happy. Still perhaps it will get better...