Screen Two - Persuasion (1995)

The 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's last completed work, which was published after her death. Anne Elliott is sent to nurse her invalid sister after her widowed father has to let the family home to strangers to pay for debts he owes. The family home is taken up by Admiral Croft and his wife, back from the Napoleanic Wars, who Anne knows well. For it was his brother in law Frederick Wentworth who she was forced to reject for marriage years before due to advice from another. Then unexpectedly Frederick returns into her life - will she have a second chance of the happiniess she missed out on all those years ago? Starring Amanda Root, Ciaran Hinds, Sophie Thompson, Susan Fleetwood, John Woodvine, Fiona Shaw, Felicity Dean, Phoebe Nicholls, Corin Redgrave, Samuel West, Judy Cornwall, Simon Rusell Beale, Roger Hammond, Victoria Hamilton, Emma Roberts and Robert Glenister to name but a few. This was broadcast a few months before Pride and Prejudice on April 16th 1995 on BBC2, and heralded a number of Jane Austen TV adaptations over the next couple of years. Interestingly Victoria Hamilton appeared in both adaptations as she began to make a name for herself. This drama - which is from an old recording of mine - also made stars of it's two leads Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. As far as I'm aware, it has only been repeated once before on TV, so a rare drama indeed.