"Is she mad, in a bonnet or back in time?"
ITV clearly think they have a huge hit on their hands here, based on the constant promotion it's been getting in their ad breaks and across their chat shows and morning TV thingies. And it's easy to see why, considering the mix of formulas they've concocted.
Period drama? Always popular -- just look at the recent success of series like
Cranford and
Lark Rise to Candleford, as well as innumerable others in the history of television.
Jane Austen? Especially popular -- look at the esteem in which the
1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice is still held, the financial and critical success of the
recent Pride & Prej film, and again the success of ITV's even more recent adaptations of Austen's three lesser-done novels; not to mention the
two biopics in the past year (or so),
Becoming Jane and
Miss Austen Regrets.
Time travel? Most definitely popular -- look at the ratings-dominating success of the revived
Doctor Who, the more moderate but not irrelevant success of
Primeval, and, most pertinent to this example, the critical and ratings success of
Life On Mars and it's sequel/spin-off,
Ashes to Ashes.
Put all these together -- with a dash of
Bridget Jones for good measure -- and you get
Lost in Austen, which mixes a cut-price Austen-esque cast (this is ITV rather than the BBC, after all) and all the popular tropes of traditional costume dramas, with time travel tomfoolery and jokes about reality TV and pubic hair styles (I kid you not). Plot-wise, it comes across a bit like they wanted to do an adaptation of
Pride & Prej, but thought it was either too soon (considering the film was all of three years ago, and that felt hot on the heels of the then-10-years-old TV series) or that an ITV audience wouldn't be all that interested, so have given it a big twist.
After the first, largely entertaining, episode (of four), it remains to be seen if it can pass beyond being a
LOM rip-off / yet another Austen adaptation to become something of its own.
