Georgette Heyer Film Petition now over 1000 names!

So here I am, flogging my Georgette Heyer Film Petition again. However, since we now have over 1000 names from all over the world on the petition (and lots of pleading and suggestions for which books to adapt and casting ideas) it was time to thank you all for your support. And obviously to beat the bushes for more Heyer fans who are aching for a really great film adaptation of one of her charming, hilarious novels.

Now if you have never read a Georgette Heyer book, you must purchase one instantly. And I can confidently say purchase because you will want to read these over and over again. OK, fine, I suppose you can also check them out of the library again and again as well. I have one or two on my e-reader but the beautiful covers of the new editions are so lovely on a bedside table that I think all future purchases will be of the paperback variety. My sister assures me that Georgette Heyer is one of the hottest sellers at used book stores world-wide, so they may be hard to find there however!

Alison Flood of The Guardian says of Georgette Heyer, "Just picking up one of the many battered paperbacks stashed around the house is like snuggling up in front of the fire with a mug of hot chocolate. Comfort reading, times a thousand."

So if there are so many Heyer fans from all over the world that have read the books to tatters and now would really like a film adaptation, where are the BBC, ITV and even Hollywood? What the heck is going on in the world of entertainment? The novels are almost film scripts already!

Well, apparently they don't realize that we are a large group of people with disposable incomes who will gladly part with some of it to see and purchase some quality film adaptations of Georgette Heyer's books. Money on the table people!!!

I suppose my next task will be to send the petition to some executives at the BBC and ITV and try to convince them of the financial viability of a film. I wonder if the fact that the books are still under copyright protection and can't be purloined gratis has some bearing on this. Hmmmmm.

So here is the link for the Georgette Heyer Film Petition again. And if you have already signed it, you nay want to go back and read some of the comments left by other fans. Countries represented include: The UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Spain, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Poland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, France, Argentina, Croatia...well, you get the idea.

Perhaps I should drop off a copy of the petition to ITV and BBC when I am in London in a few weeks time. What say fellow fans?

Cheers and have a great summer. And take a few Heyer paperbacks to the beach!!!!

Fanny Price the introvert; is she unfilmable?

I recently put the question out there on Twitter- Is Fanny Price unfilmable? By which I mean the REAL Fanny Price. In the latest two film adaptations of the novel Mansfield Park from 1999 and 2007 she is made very different from how she reads on the page in order to have the viewer sympathize more readily with the character of Fanny.

In the former, she gets a good dose of spunky Jane Austen, writing her cheeky, nutty juvenilia and in the latter she just gets a dose of crazy boisterousness.

I had a few people on Twitter and on my MP blog post point out that the 1983 BBC miniseries has a truer take on Fanny's introverted personality than the more recent versions. I am working my way through it on YouTube (link here). The characters of Fanny (Sylvestra Le Touzel) and Maria (Samantha Bond) are fairly well played but Lady Bertram is soooooooo awful, I mean so truly awful that you have to check it out. It is just unbelievable!

Sorry if you love this version but although Fanny is more introverted, the entire production is now dated and flawed by today's production standards. It is however worth viewing, if only to see a very young Jonny Lee Miller as Fanny's little brother Charles. His mop of hair is adorable!

But what is it about Fanny Price which makes her the least lovable of Jane Austen's heroines? Is it her introversion, which masks her massive teenage crush on Edmund and just makes her seem like a cold fish? Or is it the fact that she seems convinced she is always right, which makes her appear judgmental and sanctimonious, when in reality she is constantly doubting herself?

I think that a nice long miniseries adaptation of Mansfield Park (sympathetic to the character and personality of Fanny which Jane Austen intended) is truly called for!

And really, don't we introverted readers deserve a character we can relate to? I mean, I love Lizzy and Emma, but if I am honest with myself, I was much closer in disposition to Fanny when I was 18 years old.

There is also an argument for a longer version of Mansfield Park in that there are so many subplots and minor characters which deserve a truly wonderful film treatment. Both Susan and William Price deserve lots of screen time so that we can see how Fanny relates to her siblings. And the trip to Sotherton? It just has to be in there doesn't it? And Lover's Vows? I don't know about you, but I want to see a few scenes of that in rehearsal!

So let me know your thoughts on Mansfield Park in general, and Fanny Price in particular. And if anyone reading this has pull with BBC or ITV, please send them here!!!


Cheers!

N.B. A couple of astute readers have commented below that of course Anne Elliot from Persuasion is an introvert and yet is well loved by Austen fans. So it is not entirely her introversion. Rather the kind of introvert she is. I have run across a few internet sites recently where literary characters have been evaluated as to their Myers Briggs Personality Types (here is a link to Harry Potter Characters' Myers Briggs Types). Would readers like a blog post where I compare Anne and Fanny on the Myers Briggs scale? I think this would help explain the lack of love for Fanny!

My Reality TV Pitch- The REAL Austenland!

Who else thinks they would like to spend a bit of time in a REAL Austenland? You know, go to England, and truly immerse yourself in the day to day "reality" of life 200 years ago. I would love to and I rather think that you would too. But how costly would it be to make a theme park and who could afford to go there? So here is my pitch to BBC or ITV or whoever has the ability to make this happen.

Take your basic English country house. You know the type. Somewhere we would love to poke around in and be genteel for a week or two at least. Then add two or three females who have serious Darcy crushes (and who we can relate to as surrogates for our experience). Give them wardrobes, a ladies maid and a staff of however many it took to run a place like this in the 19th century. And then film them as they go through the day as Elizabeth Bennet would have.

And let it be truly realistic. Take away their smart phones, lace them into corsets, give them only the toiletries that a well heeled Regency lady would have had and let the cameras roll.

Let them use the facilities available for the time (OK, turn the cameras off at this point) so that we can see how it REALLY was. Candles and fires for evening light only. Books and pianoforte as the only entertainment other than walks and morning visits and games of whist. Mutton for dinner. Bring it on BBC!!!

Sooo...we could just leave it there. I mean, there would be plenty for the historians to show us about our misconceptions about how lovely the life of a genteel lady in Regency England would be. And I would love to hear how a modern woman feels like a fish out of water when transplanted a century or two. I think most of us would really enjoy Austenland but then we'd like to come home and have our smartphones and our beauty products back!

But what if we then showed these Darcy-holic women (not so very unlike ourselves) what the life of an average English woman was like? Perhaps the wife or daughter of a coal or tin miner who has to scrape by and make a small wage stretch a long way.

Show them the cooking and cleaning and marketing and gardening involved in the Regency or Victorian life of most of our non-artistocratic ancestors. I don't know about you but I don't have anyone resembling Elizabeth Bennet in my family tree. My ancestors were more like characters out of Oliver Twist or Mary Barton!

And I wouldn't want to see this through the eyes of the ever cheerful and vastly freckled Ruth Goodman, who seems thrilled to scour floors on her hands and knees and milk cows and then make her own cheese/butter/cake/whatever with plenty of energy to spare. Nooooo, that's not what I want to see (I have already watched Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, Victorian Pharmacy and Wartime Farm, so I know this lady cannot be worn down).

No, I want the reality TV version where a few soft 21st Century females are left weeping over laundry day, knowing that they still have to feed a family of 8 at the end of the day and weed the garden, and do the marketing before the day is done so she can then roll up her sleeves to wash up the dishes! I want to vicariously experience the dishpan hands and the communal outhouse behind the cottage!
 

Actually, as long as the working class families had enough to eat, they were probably just as happy as the upper class members of society...just a bit more tired at the end of the day I suppose. But I would miss my dishwasher and my computer a lot more if I were transplanted into the Austenland of my actual ancestors. No aristocracy in my family tree!


Am I alone in wanting to see this? I hope not! But the question is, what will the BBC say to my pitch? Please let me know what you think before I try to figure out who to send my idea to!

Cheers!

Thanks to the person who suggested that what I was pitching sounded like Regency House Party from 2004. I have already lost a few hours watching it on YouTube. Link is here, but beware. Very addictive!

Georgette Heyer- Will the BBC or ITV take her on?

Georgette Heyer Venetia

It occurred to me after some late night Twitter action that there is a distinct lack of Georgette Heyer dramatization. Heyer wrote some absolutely cracking "Regency Romance" during the period of 1921-1972. An obvious fan of Jane Austen, she was a stickler for historical accuracy but also had a wonderful story telling ability.

Georgette Heyer Devil's Cub

If you have never cracked open one of her books, you have a lot of fun ahead of you. If you are already a fan then you probably wonder as I have, why she has been neglected by the venerable BBC and the upstart ITV networks who have done so well with their recent period dramas. Surely her books are ripe for adaptation to the screen! Shall we call Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice 1995, Wives and Daughters) now? Or do you think Sandy Welch (North and South, Emma 2009) would do a better job on the screenplays?

Georgette Heyer Regency Buck

If you think this is a good idea, please leave a comment below, along with your suggestion for the first of her works to be dramatized. I will list her Regency/Georgian novels below to help jog your memory as to which is your fave. And then I'll do some lobbying across the pond!

• The Black Moth (1921)
• The Transformation of Philip Jettan (1923) (later republished as Powder and Patch) (1930)
• These Old Shades (1926)
• The Masqueraders (1928)
• Devil's Cub (1932)
• The Convenient Marriage (1934)
• Regency Buck (1935)
• The Talisman Ring (1936)
• An Infamous Army (1937)
• The Spanish Bride (1940)
• The Corinthian (1940)
• Faro's Daughter (1941)
• Friday's Child (1944)
• The Reluctant Widow (1946)
• The Foundling (1948)
• Arabella (1949)
• The Grand Sophy (1950)
• The Quiet Gentleman (1951)
• Cotillion (1953)
• The Toll-Gate (1954)
• Bath Tangle (1955)
• Sprig Muslin (1956)
• April Lady (1957)
• Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle (1957)
• Venetia (1958)
• The Unknown Ajax (1959)
• A Civil Contract (1961)
• The Nonesuch (1962)
• False Colours (1963)
• Frederica (1965)
• Black Sheep (1966)
• Cousin Kate (1968)
• Charity Girl (1970)
• Lady of Quality (1972)

Thanks for your help, my wonderful readers! (And thanks to C. Allyn Pierson for planting the idea in my head via Twitter)

And here is what we have from 1959 my friends. Enjoy!

Downton Abbey Season 2: Episode two

The Great War arrives at Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey has been converted into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. Isobel is thrilled to be bossing people around and it is fun to see her lock horns with not only Violet, the Dowager Countess but with Cora, the lady of the house herself. Poor Robert is trying to keep the peace as is Dr. Clarkson, now a military doctor in charge of both the hospital and the new convalescent home at Downton.

Footman Thomas has now been promoted to Acting Sgt. Barrow

Horrid Thomas is back after "getting wounded" in the trenches while working as a medic. Trust Thomas to figure out a scheme to get home and trust O'Brien to be his devious assistant. Harrumph!

Captain Matthew Crawley and Lady Mary

Matthew has come back from the war in France and has been asked to do a tour of England with a General in order to improve morale on the home front. He welcomes this as a break from the horrors of the trenches as well as a chance to visit with his fiancee Lavinia and his family at Downton. I'm so glad Lavinia's secret is out now. She and Mary are both true ladies.

The housemaids of Downton- Anna and cheeky new maid Ethel

We saw a lot of our beloved Anna in this episode and Ethel is determined to get herself out of service even if it means using her feminine wiles! Be careful Ethel...

So many good story lines and hilarious lines in this episode. We find out about the secret between Lavinia and Sir Richard Carlisle. How will this affect Mary's relationship with both Sir Richard and with Matthew? We see Lady Edith finally come in to her own and show a bit of self respect instead of just flinging herself at every eligible (and NOT eligible) man in England. We see some tender moments between Anna and her Bates. Longing looks and hand squeezing abound. We find out that Lady Rosamund has a fair bit of her mother Violet in her (or worse!). And what does Mrs. Patmore think she's doing? Poor Daisy is going to be married against her wishes if someone doesn't stop this nonsense! And between Lang and Molesley, the valets and butlers have our heads spinning. Poor Branson the Irish chauffeur after being rebuffed by a shocked Lady Sybil, has his attempt to make a political statement (in slop) stopped. Whew! All that in one hour. I can't wait until next week!

By the way, did anyone else notice that screenwriter Julian Fellowes is trying to get a few history lessons into the script? The Tsar of Russia being imprisoned with his family in the Alexander palace (and an allusion to the subsequent murders). Home Rule and rebellion in Ireland? Even an allusion to Robespierre's beheading of Marie Antoinette by the Dowager Duchess. He is trying to use the influence of Downton Abbey for good as well as for sheer entertainment. Not a bad thing I believe.

P.S. Congrats to Downton Abbey for winning the Golden Globe for best miniseries or television movie! Yay! (did you see Elizabeth McGovern trip up the stairs? Very graceful recovery!)

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Violet: There is no need for you to sound so gleeful Rosamund. You sound like Robespierre lopping off the head of Marie Antoinette.

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Mary: You sound as if you're going to gobble  (Lavinia) up.

Violet: If only we could! (giggling)

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See you next week for episode 3!

ITV Meridian 'Downton Abbey' Feature

Downton Abbey is a new ITV television series from England, which alas, we have not yet received on this side of the pond.  Thankfully, we have this teaser to whet our appetites which is a "making of" piece by Helen James.  It explains that Downton Abbey is an English Country Home, the seat of the Earl and Countess of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern).  The Earl and Countess, otherwise known as Robert and Cora Crawley, are the head of this aristocratic family.  Cora was an American heiress who marries into the English aristocracy, bringing her fortune to help sustain her husband's costly estate.

This Post-Edwardian drama begins in 1912 just after the sinking of the Titanic, and the first season ends at the beginning of the Great War.  It is written by Julian Fellowes, who wrote the screenplay for Gosford Park, and has some similarities to that wonderful film, in that it has the contrast between the servants downstairs and the moneyed family upstairs, with the twist of having an American lady of the house.

Some standouts are Dame Maggie Smith, who plays Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Cora's mother-in-law), Hugh Bonneville as the Earl and Brendan Coyle, who plays John Bates, the newly hired valet who was injured in the Boer War. 

Maggie Smith as Violet, the Dowager Countess

Elizabeth McGovern as Cora, the Countess

Brendan Coyle as Bates the lame Valet

Hugh Bonneville as Robert, Earl of Grantham

The location, also a standout, is Highclere Castle, in Hampshire England and the series is worth watching for the gorgeous scenery alone.  The home of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, Highclere Castle is open to visitors during summer weekends and select holidays during the year.  It is also available for weddings and events, presumably in order to assist the owners in the expensive upkeep of such a magnificent house and grounds.  I'm sure the income from the filming of this series will help with a few repairs around the place too...

Highclere Castle with the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon

If you want a taste of the actual series, my sister has informed me that it has been uploaded onto YouTube and the opening of the series can be found here.  This link may not work down the road, as ITV may remove it from YouTube, but enjoy it while you can.  My sis says the 10 minute bits are perfect for a lunchtime distraction, but are sort of like potato chips in that you may be unable to stop at one!