This week’s edition of BBC2′s The Culture Show, presented by the delicious Andrew Graham-Dixon, has a wonderful, small section( just over 5 minutes long) presented by Professor John. Filmed on location at Chawton House on a very snowy day, he talks about Pride and Prejudice and the different adaptations that have been made of the novel – all nine of them- and it is a thoughtful, sensible essay, pointing out that the adaptations, in the main, reflect the times in which they were made.
John Mullan at a snowy Chawton House
The whole episode of The Culture Show is available to watch via the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days (and sadly this will only be available to this of you in the UK) here, but… hurrah and huzzah… the BBC has provided a clip of the entire essay on Pride and Prejudice from the programme which can be accessed by everyone ( or so I assume) via this link on their website here , Our Love Affair with Pride and Prejudice. I do hope you will watch it and enjoy it.
15 comments
January 25, 2013 at 11:24 am
Julie P.
I did manage to see the entire episode. It was very interesting. As an aside, I’d love to see more of the 1967 production. I seem to recall that it was available for UK IP addresses only. Would you happen to know if that is still the case?
January 25, 2013 at 1:18 pm
jfwakefield
It is only available to access (from the British Film Insitute in the UK) from computers in Libraries, colleges and universities. Go here to see. It would be rather lovely if the BBC released a DVD of it. I can vaguely remember Vivian Pickles as Mrs Bennet, but that’s about it.
January 25, 2013 at 1:12 pm
Tycelia Santoro
“Media selection request failed” is all I could receive on my computer for the clip. Sigh…
January 25, 2013 at 1:14 pm
jfwakefield
Ah, the clip won’t work on iPads etc..it does work on my iMac, but that may explain why you can’t access it.
January 25, 2013 at 7:10 pm
Cathy Allen
Sadly, I can’t get it either; I’m sure I’d have enjoyed it, so thanks for the link, Julie.
January 25, 2013 at 11:56 pm
dianabirchall
It’s not available for viewers in the US, alas…
January 26, 2013 at 12:15 am
jfwakefield
How strange…Julie, who commented first, is in the USA, and yet stephe was able to access the essay. Ah, well…
January 26, 2013 at 12:23 am
dianabirchall
You get a “only available in the UK” notice when you click. Seems like the people who were able to see it in the U.S. either had a wizard son (like Hazel) or some other means of bypass. However, I don’t despair; Janeites are clever elves with a growing lobby, and most of the “blocked” programs eventually find their way to us by some means or other!
January 26, 2013 at 12:28 am
jfwakefield
Ah,..Hazl is in the UK, but I do sympathise. Why BBC radio programmes are available worldwide but not these types of clips is beyond me.
January 25, 2013 at 10:57 pm
Tycelia Santoro
No, it won’t work on my MacBook but maybe it will turn up on another venue. I was finally able to see The Many Lovers of Jane Austen on youtube in the states.
January 25, 2013 at 4:30 pm
Hazel Mills
Thanks to my son’s IT wizardry, I was able to watch it. Chawton House was also a star in the snow! Thank you.
January 29, 2013 at 1:18 am
Julie
I’m not an IT wizard, but there are ways to watch programs that are not supposed to be available outside the UK.
Thanks for the heads-up Julie. I will check it out. Maybe I’ll be able to watch it.
-Julie P.
January 29, 2013 at 9:43 am
Jan Clemson
I was not able to watch it [Canberra, Australia]. I made several attempts from different access points but it denied me access. Being a John Mullan fan I’d love to have heard his comments.
January 29, 2013 at 2:06 pm
Julie
I watched a couple of P&P67 clips at YouTube. I didn’t have time to watch them all, but there are several available there. My “connections” did not allow me to watch them at BFI — I don’t have an IP address from a university, and I am far from being a tech wizard. Alas.
And (this is not a non sequitur — trust me!) there is a reason why so many early adaptations are lost to us. The BBC videotaped many of these programs and, to save money, erased them and used them again. A major reason we still have Monty Python is because the Pythons themselves bought the episodes from the BBC. Some old adaptations (including a 1960 version of Dr Zhivago starring Sean Connery) were recently found in the US. Here is an article on the subject: http://www.tvobscurities.com/2010/09/lost-british-dramas-found-at-library-of-congress/ It links to a couple of other articles.
Another of these “lost” programs was a version of Wuthering Heights starring Ian McShane. This was recently released on DVD. It would be great if the Library of Congress found some other programs that the Beeb seems not to have cared very much about.
-Julie P.
January 29, 2013 at 2:10 pm
jfwakefield
In the 1950s,60s and 70s BBC didn’t seem to realise that they had produced many, many treasures,and should have been building up an archive, and did indeed reuse the tapes for other programmes. This would never be the case today, but it is tragic. Well than goodness for there Library of Congress! We might be able to see some of these lost productions after all!