Already underway is a series of country-wide exhibitions, festivals and heritage trails, and a new statue is due to be unveiled in Winchester – where she died in 1817 – this October. On TV, we have had Miss Austen, which starred Keeley Hawes as Jane’s sister Cassandra, while filming has begun on The Other Bennett Sister, centred on the overlooked Mary Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. Netflix recently announced another adaptation of that novel, written by Dolly Alderton, whose cast will include Emma Corrin, Jack Lowden and Olivia Colman.
Featuring contributions from writers, academics, actors and experts including Helen Fielding, Candice Carty-Williams, Tamsin Greig, Colm Tóibín and – for reasons unknown – Cherie Blair, the three-part series gleefully delves into the life and work of Austen, “the greatest comic novelist we have ever produced”.
Historian Priya Atwal is one of the documentary contibutors (Photo: BBC/72 Films)The origins of Austen’s exceptional observational skills, dry wit, rebellious streak and ability to mine profound truths from the inner lives of her characters as much as from society itself are attributed variously to being the youngest of eight siblings, to the extensive family library and to the unwavering, and unusual, support of her father George.
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How to illustrate a documentary that largely relies on talking heads is always a challenge when there isn’t obvious footage to fall back on. Rise of a Genius opts for the dramatisation route that ends up in cringeworthy am-dram territory. But although there are too many close-ups of pen nibs scratching out inky cursive script, these scenes aren’t nearly as naff as they might be, largely down to them thankfully remaining free of any dialogue.
Of course much of this is well trodden ground: the desperation to get inside Austen’s own head (as she does her characters’) will seemingly never be sated, especially since Cassandra famously burned thousands of her sister’s letters after her death at 41.
Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius continues next Monday at 9pm on BBC Two
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