Emma (1996)

Emma Woodhouse lives with her father on his Hartfield estate in the small Surrey town of Highbury. Young, pretty, and rich, she nevertheless decides that she will never marry and instead sets about organizing marriages for others, despite friendly warnings from Mr. George Knightley not to meddle. Taking pity on a poor girl, Harriet Smith, she decides to play matchmaker for her new friend, little realizing she is creating far more complications in the process. And all the while she also ignores her own burgeoning feelings for another. Can Emma realize her own true feelings and that of others before it is too late? Starring Kate Beckinsale, Mark Strong, Samantha Morton, Bernard Hepton, Prunella Scales, Olivia Williams, James Hazledine, Samantha Bond, Raymond Coulthard, Dominic Rowan, Lucy Robinson, Sylvia Barter, Guy Henry, Dido Miles, Alistair Petrie, Peter Howell, Judith Coke, Phoebe Welles-Cooper, Tabby Harris, Neville Phillips, Alessandro Nivola and Sunny Jim Dixinson. This was originally broadcast on November 24th 1996 on ITV and was adapted by Andrew Davies from the original novel by Jane Austen. Davies had originally wanted to adapt Emma after the huge success of Pride and Prejudice the year before and approached the BBC, but they had already chosen someone to adapt it. Undetered, Davies then approached ITV who agreed to make it and upon hearing that Davies was to write ITV's version the entire production team fro Pride and Prejudice jumped ship and went and joined the ITV team. The resulting adaptation gained positive reviews, in particular compared to the film version starring Gwyneth Paltrow that same year, and also proved a crucial star role for Kate Beckinsale. This comes from one of my charity shop finds and is one I've also got uploaded on my Internet Archive account. I've not got much on there at the moment, but I am hoping to get most of my videos on there as am alternative site and for storing anything that gets blocked here. More of my videos to follow later this afternoon, so until then enjoy.