Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Have you heard the news? Netherfield Park is-- oh, wait.

As much as I had hoped that the year 2014 would inspire somebody to make a new—and worthy—version of Mansfield Park (because it is the 200th anniversary), and as disappointing as it is that that doesn’t seem to be happening, there are at least some delights in store, one of which is an old BBC radio version from 2003 of the story being rebroadcast.


Not quite interesting enough for you?  Okay, well, Felicity Jones, who plays Catherine Morland in the 2007 version of Northanger Abbey, will be Fanny Price.  Julia McKenzie, who is in a number of period dramas including Cranford and Little Dorrit will be Mrs. Norris… and, which seem to be the most popular names at the moment... wait for iiiit... our hero Edmund Bertram’s voice will be nobody’s but everyone’s favorite Benedict Cumberbatch (or maybe that should be ‘The One and Only’), while his older brother Tom is David Tennant.  (They’ve both been in period dramas, too… Amazing Grace and He Knew He Was Right, for example, but everyone seems to know them better from Sherlock and Doctor Who.)

I’m not really the Actor Fangirl type, but the fact that those gentlemen were going to be those characters DID excite me greatly, and I do think they’re quite superb actors, sooo… I’m looking forward to this.  Muchly.  Especially since there’s such a lack of good versions of this story.
(And I was a bit of a rebel, I suppose, putting a picture of Felicity Jones and not either of the guys, but... well, that's what everyone else is doing, and besides, we have HER in Regency costume. ;) )

The first broadcast will be May 12th, and every successive weekday for the nine following, and each installment will be fifteen minutes.

This is where you'll be able to listen; the first episode (and probably all of them) will be from 2-2:15 pm their time, which would be 6 am PST and 9 am EST for us Americans.  (If you're in-between, you can figure it out. Heehee.) Which could mean getting up pretty early for some of us, but from the looks of it, the radio at that link seems to have old broadcasts from the last week or so, so we'll probably be able to listen to it afterwards. 

Anybody else tuning in? :D 

*Update: Here is where you can get started, and here is a list of all the episodes.  They're available for seven days from when they were first broadcast, so don't get too far behind!

8 comments:

Lydia said...

I will be tuning in! If I miss a day can i listen to it somewhere else?

Caroline L. said...

YES YES YES YES YEEEEEEEES I AM!!!

Hayden said...

oooohhhh! I SO want to listen to this!

Marie said...

I will definitely be listening to this! I've never seen or heard an adaptation of Mansfield Park before but I enjoyed the book very much. And Benedict Cumberbatch AND David Tennant? Wow. I quite liked Felicity Jones in Northanger Abbey, too (I thought she was a good actress) so I'll be looking forward to her performance as well.

And as a fellow non-Actor Fangirl I quite approve of your picture. :) I love her dress there!

Kara said...

Now that sounds pretty awesome! Thanks for sharing! :)

Melody said...

Lydia,
Yes! I've posted an update on the bottom of the post that will direct you. :)

Caroline L.,
YAY! :)

Hayden,
Isn't it just the coolest? :D

Marie,
I knowww! And then I found out Amanda Root was narrating and that was just... yeah. So fun to hear recognizable voices and kind of picture the people. :)
Oh, and thank you. I always appreciate finding like-minded not so much of the Actor Craze kind of people. Hahaha. :D And some of her dresses are so cute! And something Fanny would wear, so I found it quite Appropriate. :)

Kara,
You're welcome! :)

Charming! said...

Thanks for telling about this!

Emily Blakeney said...

Hello! I'm just letting you know that I've tagged you for the Sunflower Blogger Award. You can find my post for it here: http://janeaustenmad.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/sunflower-award.html

~Emily

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