Miss Austen Regrets

I watched this last night, being unable to resist costume dramas, and it was the BBC, so my expectations were pretty high. I though it was excellent, on the whole, though with a few caveats. There seems to be a costume drama template these days - persistent, lush music, long shots of country houses, most of which are surely too grand for their inhabitants, and nice costumes (of course). Productions which diverge from this pattern, such as the recent Bleak House, stand out startlingly, and I wish there was a bit more innovation and imagination. It's as if the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, which was such a stunning success, has redefined cotume drama for ever, and that model has become set in stone.
Anyway, this wasn't bad - I was intrigued and attracted by the casting of Olivia Williams, an actress who I think is shamefully underused. I remember her in Rushmore, and The Sixth Sense, an interesting British presence in these 2 US films, and she's been in several films since, but nothing prominent. I see on the IMDB that she's had 2 children in the last 3 years, so that would explain quite a bit. Maybe she has one of those interesting faces that looks better in middle age, and as I see she's nearly 40 I suspect we may see more from her.
She was excellent, I thought - endowing Jane Austen with wit, character and intelligence. Her sister Cassandra was played by Greta Scacchi - unrecognisable. I didn't realise it was her until I read an article in the paper. She's aged with dignity as well, and it was nice to see a programme with 2 middle-aged, Botox-free women in starring roles.
Both women reinvented their characters for the 21st century, but there's nothing wrong with that, period productions have done it since the dawn of cinematic time. But what's refreshing is to see actresses with intelligence and lack of vanity, making their characters spring to life for us. It's not new, but it's not always the case. It's essential, for period drama to work, that we can believe in the characters, and this production succeeded admirably.