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Escapist froth

James Delingpole

Wednesday, 3rd September 2008

Lost in Austen (ITV1)

Take the time travel into Austen’s England example: if it happened to you, how do you reckon you’d behave? I reckon, first, you wouldn’t question it, because you’d be enjoying the fantasy too much; and, second, that you’d tread on eggshells in order to fit in as well and as quickly as possible. You wouldn’t do as Amanda does and keep on your leather jacket, tunic-style dress and jarringly modern, helmet-headed hair-style, nor before you were about to go to a ball would you be slapping on some last-minute red lippy from a tube.

But does any of this matter? I’d say not a jot, for in the end this is irresistable, funny, and jolly-well-done escapist froth.

Clearly — let’s not give scriptwriter Guy Andrews too hard a time — Amanda has to do stupid, anachronistic, shocking, implausible things because otherwise there’d be no drama and no fun. The cast is top notch — an especially fanciable clutch of Bennet girls methinks, with everyone acting as perfectly 18th/19th century as if it were a real, high-grade Austen adaptation; and it’s always nice to see the splendid Hugh Bonneville in period mode, though I’m still not altogether convinced that in all decency he shouldn’t have topped himself after Bonekickers. But perhaps Lost in Austen was made before Bonekickers came out and he has since done so. In which case, I apologise most sincerely to his grieving relatives.