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Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones star as Jane Austen’s thwarted lovers in ITV1’s adaptation of Persuasion.

The two hour drama, filmed on location in Bath and Lyme Regis, is part of ITV1’s season of Jane Austen classics.

Sally Hawkins (Fingersmith, Tipping the Velvet, Woody Allen’s untitled film) plays the heroine, Anne Elliot, who was persuaded by her family to break off her engagement to the man she loved; penniless sailor, Frederick Wentworth.

Rupert Penry-Jones (Spooks, North Square, Poirot) plays the handsome Captain Frederick Wentworth, who walks back into Anne’s life eight years later, having made his fortune.

Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Macbeth, Monarch of the Glen) stars as Anne’s father, the vain and snobbish Sir Walter Elliot, whose reckless spending brings the family to the brink of financial ruin, and forces them to move out of their beloved home, Kellynch Hall, and go to Bath.

Julia Davis (Nighty Night, Fear of Fanny, Confetti) plays Anne’s elder sister Elizabeth, who shares her father’s vanity and class consciousness, and has no respect for Anne or her opinions. Amanda Hale (Our Daughter’s Future, Nostradamus) plays Anne’s younger sister Mary, who is too preoccupied by her own hypochondria to pay any attention to Anne. Sam Hazeldine (Midsomer Murders, Robin Hood, Foyle’s War), son of the late actor James Hazeldine who starred in ITV’s Emma, plays Mary’s husband Charles Musgrove.

Alice Krige (Deadwood, The Line of Beauty, Six Feet Under) stars as close family friend and confidante Lady Russell. Peter Wight (EastEnders, Waking the Dead) and Marion Bailey (Cherished, Micawber) play Admiral Croft and his wife, who become the new tenants of Kellynch Hall. Mrs Croft is Wentworth’s sister, which brings back bittersweet memories of her lost love for Anne.

The drama follows this poignant tale of lost love and second chances of happiness, set in the world of country gentry in Regency England.

The return of the spurned Wentworth makes Anne realise what a mistake she made in being persuaded to reject him all those years ago. Wentworth is still bitter at her rejection, and Anne fears it may be too late to rekindle their love.

Wentworth becomes entangled with Louisa Musgrove, played by Jennifer Higham (Born and Bred, Ella Enchanted, Star) while Anne is pursued by her cousin William Elliot, played by Tobias Menzies, (Casino Royale, Rome, A Very Social Secretary) who is intent on securing the baronetcy from Sir Walter Elliot.

Persuasion was Jane Austen’s last completed novel before her death in July 1817. It was published in 1818 by her brother Henry Austen. Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bath’s many famous residents. She lived in Bath in the early 1800s, and her intimate knowledge of the city is reflected in Persuasion.

Locations in and around Bath are being used for the drama, including the famous Pump Rooms.

The screenplay for Persuasion was written by Simon Burke (NY-LON, Sons and Lovers, White Teeth). It is being produced by David Snodin (Real Men, Passerby, Riot at the Rite, Great Expectations) and directed by Adrian Shergold (Pierrepoint, Low Winter Sun, Ahead of the Class, Dirty Filthy Love). The executive producer is Murray Ferguson (afterlife, Losing It).

Producer David Snodin says: “Persuasion is probably Jane Austen’s most grown-up novel. It is about rediscovering love when it might be too late, and the fragility of happiness. This new version concentrates on those serious themes, but in the hands of Simon Burke and Adrian Shergold and a terrific cast it is also an energetic narrative of snobbery and almost farcical missed opportunities. Being able to film in the beautiful surroundings in which the story is actually set is a truly breathtaking experience.”

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ITV1’s Jane Austen Season…Behind the Scenes

JANE AUSTEN SEASON…BEHIND THE SCENES is brand new and exclusive to ITV3.

JANE AUSTEN SEASON…BEHIND THE SCENES is a peek behind the cameras on ITV1’s unprecedented three film adaptation series of Jane Austen’s most celebrated novels, offering exclusive access to the sets of MANSFIELD PARK, PERSUASION and NORTHANGER ABBEY.

This one hour documentary is being shown to coincide with the premiere of these lavish costume dramas. Combining footage from location filming and interviews with cast and crew JANE AUSTEN SEASON…BEHIND THE SCENES will reveal in compelling detail how these classic novels are transformed into stunning television drama.

The ITV3 show reveals the untold tales behind some of the most dramatic and challenging scenes in the Austen season plus selected highlights from across the three films.

With exclusive on set access we’ll find out about the challenges of period drama first hand. Cast and crew will share the secrets of the sumptuous locations, and elaborate costumes.

Viewers will see how a huge ballroom scene is brought vividly to life from the pages of NORTHANGER ABBEY. We discover the behind the scenes story of Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram’s wedding in MANSFIELD PARK and the dramatic location filming on the storm-lashed Cobb at Lyme for PERSUASION.

JANE AUSTEN SEASON…BEHIND THE SCENES features an array of interviews with the stars of these three films. From PERSUASION we get the inside story from Anthony Head (Little Britain), Julia Davis (Nighty Night) and Rupert Penry Jones (Spooks); NORTHANGER ABBEY is represented by Felicity Jones (Cape Wrath), JJ Feild (The Ruby In The Smoke) and Carey Mulligan (Bleak House); and from the set of MANSFIELD PARK we speak to National Television Awards Actress of the Year, Billie Piper.

King of costume drama Andrew Davies (Pride & Prejudice, Tipping The Velvet) is also on hand to explain how he has made NORTHANGER ABBEY leap from page to screen and also why he believes Austen’s literary classics make such compelling television. Andrew also talks about his 1997 adaptation of EMMA (starring Kate Beckinsale, Mark Strong and Samantha Morton) which ITV1 viewers have the chance to see again as part of the season.

JANE AUSTEN SEASON: BEHIND THE SCENES visits the incredible locations that provide the backdrop for these dramas. We see how a 21st century Dublin street doubles for an early 19th century Bath avenue on NORTHANGER ABBEY. We join the cast and crew of PERSUASION in the real Bath as they take over the stunning Royal Crescent. Finally we discover the amazing country house which for four weeks became the Regency period mansion MANSFIELD PARK.

JANE AUSTEN SEASON…BEHIND THE SCENES is produced and
directed by Richard Makinson for ITV3. The executive producer is Sarah Murch.

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Sally Hawkins plays Anne Elliot

Sally Hawkins is set to break the hearts of thousands of women when she kisses the hero of Persuasion, Captain Frederick Wentworth, played by Rupert Penry-Jones.

Although the thwarted lovers never kissed in public in Jane Austen’s celebrated classic, Sally says the kiss is essential in a modern telling of the story.

“I think everyone is desperate for Anne and the captain to kiss. You wouldn’t have seen them kissing in public in Jane Austen’s book, but I think it’s great that it happens because you need that release. It is good that we are telling a classic story in a modern way.

“This adaptation is pretty much loyal to the book, but I think we are allowed a few liberties. Perhaps we need the kiss as a generation. I know if I was watching this at home I would be shouting at the telly for them to kiss.

“Adrian Shergold, the director, left it up to me about the kiss. We did versions when they did kiss and versions when they didn’t, and I didn’t know which they would go with in the final edit.

“It was very exciting getting to kiss Rupert Penry Jones,” she swoons.

“I am very envious of Dervla Kirwin( Rupert’s partner) having the opportunity to do it every day! He is beautiful to work with. He is very generous. He looked after me. And yes it’s very easy to fall in love with him as every woman across the UK and probably across the world will do.”

Sally says she loved playing Anne Elliot.

“I play Anne Elliot who is 27 and is in the supposed Autumn years of her life- they saw it as the autumn years at that time.

“You meet her in the story, almost like a prequel to the actual story, because you meet her when she has accepted her fate, accepted the fact that she thinks she is not going to find love again. It’s quite sad.

It’s about a woman in the later years of her life who finds love again and is reconciled with the love of her life who she rejected eight years ago. Through taking Lady Russell’s advice, she didn’t accept his proposal of marriage.

“She has spent the last eight years regretting that. Lady Russell suggested that Wentworth’s family were not particularly wealthy and it was thought that Anne could find a more suitable match. Lady Russell says she would be throwing herself away at such an early age when she has not experienced life.

“But Anne knew then that she did not need to experience any more of life or meet anyone else. It has always troubled her that she didn’t have the strength of character to see that through. There is that guilt that she carries through at her treatment of Wentworth.

“She is the kind of woman I would love to be. I think she is extraordinarily bright and witty in her diary entries and in her internal dialogue. She is not regarded as witty by her family but she could be extraordinarily so. I loved that about her.

“She could adapt to whoever she was with. She is quietly brilliant. She is understated, modest, and has incredible integrity. She has high moral values and she has learnt now to be true to herself.

“That is why I think it is lovely. It is about that maturing. You meet a woman who has matured, who knows herself very well. I think she has got presence of mind and she has also got a great ability to speak her mind. She can be a formidable presence. She can be a very strong woman if she wants to be. But she can forgive people and her heart is huge.

“If there is any character I want to be overtaken by, it’s Anne. I would just love to be like her. I learnt a lot from her about being true to yourself. She knows herself and is happy in her skin.

“Although, when you meet her, she feels she has lost her love and she quietly accepts that fact. You are always learning, and I learnt a lot from reading Jane Austen’s work.

“I don’t think it actually changed me. Perhaps I have just matured over the last year or so.”

When Sally was filming Persuasion she kept a copy of Jane Austen’s novel on set so she could refer to the author’s words before each scene.

“I really liked referring back to what the book said about a particular scene, just to re-read Anne’s thoughts of a particular moment.

“It was important to me to keep going back to Jane’s (Austen) words, particularly in the scenes with Wentworth because a lot of Anne’s words to Wentworth are supposed to be in code. So to go back to what was underneath, it was useful for me. It was a quick way of accessing that world.”

Sally originally read the book when she was at school, and fell in love with it again when she read it for this role. She says she found it easy to understand why Anne fell for Wentworth.

“I think Anne and Wentworth have always loved each other from the moment they saw each other eight years ago. It’s a real uniting of two souls.

“It’s a beautiful love story. They know each other so well. They speak their own language. They understand each other; whether that is through the tiniest look or touch. They were extraordinarily close when they were young. And that will never leave them.

“It’s like any real friend or real love of your life - there is affinity there. He has extreme depth of character and soul and intelligence. They are so right for each other.”

Sally admits she would like to find her own Captain Wentworth to fall in love with.

“I would love a romance like Anne’s. Please can I fall in love? A little frisson would be very nice, thank you…let’s make that happen, please!

“I am a real romantic. I cry at films, adverts. But I am also a realist. I am single, but it would be nice to meet someone.

“I’m concentrating on my work, so it’s not really an issue. If it happens that’s great. It is not something which would take over my thoughts and time. But who doesn’t like romance?”

Sally is no stranger to costume drama and loved the outfits that were created for her by award winning designer Andrea Galer.

“I love the chance to dress up, and it’s so romantic. Andrea Galer who did the costumes is a bit of a genius. Her eye for detail is incredible. The costumes were beautiful. I kept saying I wanted to buy everything.

“Wearing her costumes was incredible. She is a real artist. There was a real richness. She really cares about what she does. She puts her heart into it.
 

“She is doing this for other people - helping workers in Sri Lanka hit by the Tsunami to put their lives back together, by giving them lace to make which she uses on the costumes. If we did Persuasion just for that, it was worth it.”

Sally’s recent roles couldn’t be more different to Jane Austen’s heroine. Before filming Persuasion she starred in Woody Allen’s unnamed film made last summer, as Colin Farrell’s girlfriend. Her brown hair was dyed blonde for the role of the happy go lucky Kate, who just wants to marry her boyfriend.

After Persuasion, Sally went straight into filming a new Mike Leigh film.
Her recent television credits include Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith and Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky. Her film credits include Layer Cake and Vera Drake.

“I like to do very different roles. I’m not recognised in the street, and I wouldn’t like to be. I like to take on a different face, learn from that character, and move on to another one.”

Sally also enjoys writing comedy, but is content to pursue her acting career.

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Rupert Penry-Jones Plays Captain Frederick Wentworth

Rupert Penry-Jones confesses he loved the adoration that comes with playing a Jane Austen hero.

In Persuasion he plays the romantic Captain Frederick Wentworth who is determined to win back the love of his life, Anne Elliot, even though she spurned him.

“Captain Wentworth is your classic Jane Austen hero, a young guy in knee length boots who all the girls are fighting to marry,” Rupert explains.

“He has asked Anne to marry him, and at first she says yes and then her friends and family persuade her not to marry him.

“He goes away to sea to make his fortune. He comes back very much marriage material, and they spend most of the story dancing around each other, pretending they don’t love each other when they clearly do, and in the end they get it together.

“Wentworth is a thoroughly good chap. He hasn’t got a bad bone in his body. Wentworth is more interesting than Darcy, because he is romantic and he is fighting against his instincts. So there was a lot going on underneath the character which I enjoyed playing.

“I find, when you play somebody like that, you tend to be much more popular on set than when you play somebody nobody likes. You take on the persona of the character. It’s great to go into work every day and every time somebody says ‘action’ you’ve got four or five girls swooning over you!

“I can remember being on jobs when crowds would gather to watch the filming and be pointing at somebody else, never me. It’s quite nice that it’s now me.

Rupert is aware of his ever growing fan base, with endless space on web sites being devoted to his career and snatched photographs of him during filming. But he’s relieved to be able to walk down the street without being recognised.

“It’s the perfect level where I can go in somewhere and be recognised and people be nice to me. But it’s not at a level where I feel the need to hide. Any more than this would be too much. I can still move around, and if I put my hat on nobody knows who I am,” he says.

Rupert says he thinks this new adaptation will appeal to a new audience because it has a fresh approach to the classic love story.

“The scripts made it much more modern in terms of two people who fancy each other.

“I think everybody can relate to this version. Everybody has been in love with somebody who doesn’t love them. What is great about this is that both of them are in love with each other, and neither of them thinks the other one loves them.

“It’s modern in that way. Just because they are wearing flouncy shirts and flouncy dresses that shouldn’t detract from the fact that people can relate to the situation.

“The way that it is being made, with the expressions on people’s faces; it was all in the look in their eyes. Because it was mine and Sally’s story there are moments when we talk to each other but actually look straight into the camera, which is something new, something I’ve certainly not done before, which will attract people hopefully.”

Rupert found it easy to slip into his character, helped by a wardrobe of dashing costumes and directions to fall in love with his co-star.

“It was the clothes and trying to fall in love with Sally Hawkins and not tell her about it, that got me into the character. That was very easy because Sally was so lovely to work with.

“I loved the costumes. One thing I do like about doing period pieces is the clothes: those big coats and high neck collars. The costumes make you stand in a different way; they make you stand up straight. The trousers are very tight!

“My boots were made especially for me. I am very fussy about my boots because I have got quite big feet and it’s difficult to get boots that fit.

“I had a great time riding a fantastic horse on set. I can look like I know what I am doing on a horse, but I wouldn’t say I am an accomplished rider.”

The lessons of Persuasion, to go with your heart and not be persuaded otherwise, were not lost on Rupert.

“The story is about a woman who is persuaded not to marry the man of her dreams, the man she loves. She learns that lesson. What it teaches you is to go with your heart, and don’t be talked out of things because somebody says that person doesn’t have enough money or is not going to be as responsible. You have got to trust your own instincts.”
 

The romantic finale to the story, when Captain Wentworth takes Anne in his arms at last, gave Rupert and Sally the perfect excuse to rehearse kissing!

“Jane Austen’s characters wouldn’t kiss in public. That was Sally and me being naughty really,” Rupert says.

“In the script they are just about to kiss, and then they realise where they are and they can’t. We thought the way to get that was to just about kiss, and hold it and then actually kiss, but cut the film before we actually kiss.

“But when the producers saw the scene in the rushes they decided the kiss was so good, and we did it so well, they put it in the film. It was never meant to be there. It was just us using it as an excuse to have a kiss,” he jokes.

The handsome hero in Persuasion couldn’t be more different to the character of Adam Carter in Spooks, for which Rupert has become famous.

“Wentworth and Carter couldn’t be more different. Carter is a man I would like to be, but are not allowed to be! It’s a part I have enjoyed playing ever since I started,” says Rupert, who is currently filming his fourth series of Spooks.

After filming Persuasion, Rupert went on to play a politician in a forthcoming Stephen Poliakoff drama for BBC.

“To be able to do Spooks and then do Persuasion and then Poliakoff it was just the perfect year, the best year I have had. They were all so different and all of such a high quality.”

Rupert says he would love to return to the stage, inspired in part by his daughter’s debut in the school nativity play.

“I haven’t had the desire to go back to theatre for a long time but I’m starting to think about it.

“I saw a television programme recently about an amateur dramatics company in a small village and that made me want to get back on stage again. It reminded me of the buzz of it.

“I also saw my daughter Florence in a nativity play before Christmas and to see these kids standing on the stage before an audience for the first time and the look on their faces, and the high, just reminded me of how I miss it.”
 

“Florence was fantastic in the nativity play. She was a sheep! She didn’t have any lines. It was very funny, we were laughing one minute and crying our eyes out the next. It was very moving. It’s magic, I loved it. I knew I would find it fun when Flo was on stage. She is adorable, all the kids were adorable.”

Rupert is the proud father of two children, Florence, who is three in May, and Peter, who is one this April, with his partner Dervla Kirwan.

“The children have changed my life dramatically, but they have done it without me noticing really. I thought it would be a real shock, but actually if you are not sleeping much at night then you don’t want to stay up late.

“When you are awake from the early hours of the morning, life changes and before you know it you are three years down the line, and suddenly you don’t stay up beyond half past nine in the evening. I do miss going out on the town and having a laugh. I was very much a sort of Soho House boy. I still do it once or twice a year!”

Rupert, whose parents are actors Angela Thorne and Peter Penry-Jones, and whose brother Laurence is also an actor, says he’d be happy to see his children follow in their parents’ footsteps.

“If they are any good at it and they want to do it then fine. It would be dreadful if they were rubbish at it and wanted to do it, then I wouldn’t know what to say. I think Flo is going to be good at it.

“If it works out, acting is one of the best ways of life because you get so much time to spend with your family, do other things, live a free life, yet when you are working a lot of the time you are doing really exciting stuff.

“I’ve been filming in Madagascar, Iceland, South Africa, some incredible places. You get to live a life that most people can only dream of. I am a great believer in letting my kids do what they want to do and what they are good at. I wouldn’t want to force them to go to university to study for a degree they are
not interested in, and ten years down the line they give it all up.”

Rupert’s other television credits include Cambridge Spies, North Square and The Student Prince.

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Anthony Head plays Sir Walter Elliot

Anthony Head knows just how his character in Persuasion feels about having daughters on the brink of romance.

The actor is the devoted father of two teenage girls, Emily Rose 18, and 16 year old Daisy, and he says he’d hate to think either of them would bring home an unsuitable partner for him to meet.

But while his character Sir Walter Elliot demonstrates blatant favouritism towards his elder daughter, Elizabeth, Anthony says he would never choose between his girls.

“I’m not at all like Sir Walter. My daughters are equally gorgeous and equally interesting people. They are completely different and it is not hard to give each of them their due.

“I have always wondered about parents who have favourites. It’s extraordinary. How do they think it is not going to rub off on the other children? Sibling rivalry is hard at the best of times. We all have sibling rivalry, I did with my brother, and my girls do, and my partner Sarah and her sister.

“If you have a definite favourite and you shun the others it must be really hard for the others. Especially in the era Persuasion was set, and especially with Anne’s mother dying.

“I adore both my girls. They are very special.

“They are both pretty level headed about dating; they don’t suffer fools gladly. Emily has made more progress there because she is 18. She has absolutely no time for guys who are either cloying or mess her about. They are history.

“She is a level headed girl, she has a good temper. I think she inherits that from me. I know she is going to be OK. I don’t worry abut her in terms of love.”

Anthony admits he is a very protective dad.

“The big test is when one of them walks through the door with someone who is a complete pranny and that’s difficult.

“The only thing that really worries me is the fact that when I first met Sarah I was 28 and she was 18. We went out when she was 19. The thought of someone like me hovering around Emily makes me very anxious!”

Sir Walter Elliot is a widower, and the father of three daughters: Elizabeth, Anne and Mary.

“To say Sir Walter is a dandy is not quite correct. I did a bit of research and dandies were people who pretended to have a higher class. But Sir Walter has class, he is a knight, but has basically got no money, “Anthony explains. “He has spent all his money on clothes and partying. And he is just an incorrigible pranny, a wally.

“He has absolutely no time for his one daughter who is actually worth her salt: Anne, who is a lovely soul. She is not on his radar because she is not interested in partying. She was very fond of her mum, who is now dead, so she is not interested in clothes or balls. She keeps trying to stop her father spending money, which is like a red rag to a bull.

“One daughter who he is passionately fond of is Elizabeth, played by Julia Davis, who does like partying and who does like clothes. So Julia and I just had a lot of fun swanning around in the best clothes. When you get a costume drama where your character has spent an enormous amount of money on clothes, where you have the nicest clothes going, that’s cool. Julia and I had a lot of laughs.”

“Sir Walter has no time for Anne. She is not remotely interested in any thing he is interested in and all she actually wants to do after her mother died is to curtail his interests.

“He is a spendthrift. He spends money on twaddle. When Anne tells him he has to leave the house- Kellynch Hall – that is just appalling. She is hoping they will go off to a smaller house, basically downsize. But, oh no, Sir Walter has better ideas and swans off to Bath where he can spend more money and go partying.

“I wouldn’t have liked Sir Walter if I’d met him, he is such a twerp! He is really full of himself and I don’t think he’s a very nice man. He shouts at Anne a lot and he is very pompous and very status driven and I am not, and none of my friends are. So I don’t think I would have gravitated towards him.”

Anthony was delighted to be filming Persuasion so close to his home, which is near Bath where much of the action is set.

“It was fantastic to be filming in Bath. What I found really interesting when I was reading the script, then the original book, was the references to the streets that I know.

“Queen’s Square, for instance. I have always known that it was popular, but it was the older neck of the woods in Bath so it was frowned upon by the more la mode clientele, the gentry, because it was slightly dowdy. I had no idea.

“The areas of Bath that she talks about it suddenly became very real. When one was wandering around in costume, it made the town come to life.

“It is the first time I have ever seen the Pump Rooms in Bath used for this huge promenade we did. It felt fantastic with hundreds of extras promenading around this vast Georgian building.”

Anthony said he enjoyed wearing the flamboyant costumes, and living the high life of his hedonistic character.

“The costumes were beautifully made. I was fitted for most of them. The colours and material were beautiful and exceedingly comfortable. That happens to be a staggeringly beautiful period, especially for men.

“I particularly liked the high boots. It was great fun stomping around in those. Actually, on film, the more successful look for me is the cream stockings and slip on shoes, because they make Sir Walter look like a bit of a pranny!

“The party scenes were fun. There was one scene which made us all laugh.
The great scene with the concert was wonderful except there was one violinist, a mad violinist, who was sawing away to a completely different tune to everybody else. I don’t think he realised, and we were all absolutely transfixed by him. I think he was playing Beethoven and everybody else was playing Mozart.”

Anthony is best known for his roles as Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Prime Minister in Little Britain. His other television credits include Manchild, Spooks and Dr Who.

Recently, Anthony played Joanna Lumley’s lover in two episodes of Sensitive Skin. He also starred as Stockard Channing’s brother in a comedy film called Sparkle. He has just returned from Australia where he was playing the Prime Minister in Little Britain Live, and he shortly begins work on the new Sweeney Todd film.

He says he would jump at the chance to resurrect the role of Giles if the opportunity arose.

Anthony also runs a thriving business with his wife Sarah, TTeam and TTouch: training, handling and rehabilitating animals.

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Julia Davis plays Elizabeth Elliot

Julia Davis landed her dream role when she was asked to play Elizabeth Elliot in Persuasion.

The actress who is best known for her comedy roles admits she’s had a burning ambition to appear in a costume drama.

“I have been dying to be in a period drama for ages. I just love them. I love watching them. I love reading all that kind of thing. I like the repressed nature of those stories, and I like the romance of it all”, says Julia.

“I had also wanted to work with Adrian Shergold the director, for ages, and it all came together; to be able to play a part in a period piece, but playing to my strengths which is the sort of comical nasty woman”.

Julia loved the costumes she was given to wear in Persuasion, but is glad not to have to squeeze into the corsets again, as she is pregnant with twins, due in May.

“I think it is a real cliché that all actresses say, but while costumes in period dramas are absolutely gorgeous to look at, because you have to wear these corsets underneath they are agony. I am not used to that.

“Because of the empire line of those dresses, you wonder why you need to wear a corset because it is not really emphasising the shape of the dress. But that is what they wore so you have to wear it.”

“I thought just the other day how glad I was not to have to wear those corsets now that I’m pregnant with twins. That would just have been awful.

“I’m delighted to be expecting twins but the pregnancy has taken over my life a bit and it has slowed me down. I don’t know whether they are boys, girls or one of each. I think we will wait and see,” says Julia, whose partner is comedian Julian Barratt.

Julia plays Elizabeth Elliot, the eldest of Sir Walter Elliot’s three daughters, who has inherited his love of the high life and reckless spending.

“Elizabeth Elliot is the least pleasant one of the three sisters, to put it mildly. She is very spoilt. She is the father’s favourite daughter and she is kind of too old to get married.
 

“Elizabeth is very vain like the father and is still trying to compete with her younger sisters, especially with Anne, who is the nicest, purest one. She is very ruthless and slightly comical without realising it.”

Julia is best known for her role as Jill Tyrrell, in Nighty, Night, the sitcom she wrote for the BBC, and has won her the accolade of the new first lady of British comedy. She had already won a Royal Television Society Award for the BBC2 comedy Human Remains.

She has a reputation for producing some of the darkest comedy ever seen on television. A common theme of her characters has been that they are spiteful, rude and cruel.

“I enjoy playing nasty characters because I like to think I am not remotely like that in real life. It’s a nice release to play people like that. They are good fun. I think it is harder to play purer roles like Sally Hawkins role as Anne.”

Filming Persuasion meant a return to her home city of Bath for Julia.

“It was really nice to be working in my home city, and to see it from a tourist perspective. It was where I was at school and where I grew up. I lived in a village just outside Bath. When I was filming Persuasion, I was staying in a hotel in Bath and visited places I hadn’t seen before.

“It was also a good chance to see a lot of my family and catch up with my best friends.”

Julia says she studied two Austen novels at school, Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, and read Persuasion just before she began filming.

She admits she was never caught up in the Jane Austen fever in Bath when she was growing up.

“I’m afraid I probably wasn’t that interested! I was more interested in drinking cider when I was at school! I enjoyed reading Jane Austen but I don’t think I was aware of how important she is in Bath.”

Julia says she would love to do more serious drama.

“I would certainly like to do more of that sort of thing, but I don’t think I am ever going to be some incredibly serious actress. I am always going to veer towards the comedy side. It is what I am better at really.”

Julia starred as the original celebrity chef Fanny Craddock in Fear of Fanny, after filming Persuasion. She has since been concentrating on her writing, including a comedy drama for Channel 4.

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Costume designer Andrea Galer

Award winning costume and fashion designer Andrea Galer has brought much needed help to struggling lace makers in Sri Lanka with her creations for period dramas like Persuasion.

Moved by the plight of the skilled workers in the country devastated by the Tsunami, Andrea launched the Galle Lace Project aimed at providing them with work to restore their livelihoods.

The intricate silk lace they make is used to adorn the costumes for Sally Hawkins for her role as the heroine in Persuasion, and was seen in the recent production of Jane Eyre, as well as on Andrea’s contemporary couture designs.

“After the Tsunami happened, I went to Sri Lanka, and made a film to raise awareness and start a think tank about the skills that are dying.

“I decided to see what I could do to help. The shock was that I thought there would be other people in Sri Lanka helping to rebuild their lives through their crafts. But it is not anything anybody is tackling except me. That was mind-blowing.

“The longer I have been involved the more I understand how difficult it is. It is a group of people who have been used to selling to tourists. They’ve never had money; nobody particularly wants to give them money. These people cannot rebuild their lives without the money.”

Through Andrea’s fund raising efforts – she sells the lace as well as using it in costumes for television and film and for designer outfits – a group of lace makers now have a place to work, and are able to start to re-build their lives.

Andrea says that lace making is one of number of dying skills in Britain, and it is often difficult to purchase the correct lace to recreate period costumes here.
She is passionate about preserving traditional crafts, and she set up the Power of Hands Foundation (www.powerofhandsfoundation.org) to raise awareness of traditional and dying crafts which are being replaced by mass production.

With her precise attention to detail Andrea tries to ensure every costume is as authentic as she can make it. She even used original 19th century woollen shawls to make a coat for Sally Hawkins which she is seen wearing in a scene filmed on the famous Cobb at Lyme Regis, and a Spencer (a small tailored jacket).

“I had two 19th century shawls and took the whole colour palette for Anne Elliot’s wardrobe from them. The shawls were originally woven in the 19th century, around the time the book was written.

“When I am sourcing for productions I look for original things. They are inspiring. The shawls were mainly rotting. So for the last few years I have taken to fusing them and embroidering them.

“I know the history of these shawls and the history of the weavers in the 19th century. But they have had their day and having had a very long life, I decided to cut them up, which is a pretty drastic thing to do. I made them into Anne’s coat which she wears on the Cobb at Lyme Regis, which is like a shawl coat, and another jacket which is much more structured.

“There are so many things like this stuck in museums that we don’t ever get to see. People have made fantastic things over the centuries.

“At the moment there is no demand for them, wonderful as they are. So they are either antiques which you can either lock them away in a cupboard or as in my case, decide to exhibit, so you can give them an extended life .We do need to celebrate that these things do still exist and it’s my way of sharing them.

“To get the look right you have to use original things, otherwise you get a factory look.”

Andre has thirty years of experience in creating costumes for film and television, and offering a couture service to the public with her own fashion label.

She won a BAFTA for best costume design on the recent adaptation of Bleak House, and designed the famous Withnail coat worn by Richard E. Grant in Withnail and I. Her recent television credits include Jane Eyre and Blackpool.

She designed and made all the costumes for Sally Hawkins to wear for her role as Anne Elliot, and for some of the other leading actors. Anne’s wardrobe included six day dresses, one made from fabric woven on a hand loom in India, and two evening dresses.

Andrea says there was a deliberate decision not to put the female characters in bonnets, and the men in military costumes.

“I preferred to be different with the costumes. We are trying to bring a fresh look to Persuasion.

“I decided it would keep the audience’s attention more if you didn’t put them in uniforms, and the way the script was written the characters didn’t have to be in uniform because they were not on duty.

“There was a deliberate decision for the ladies not to wear bonnets. To a modern audience it can jar a bit. The thing is we cannot recreate the actual past and we are making a statement that it is made today.”

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The Locations

Cameras rolled in fourteen different locations in and around Bath to provide the perfect romantic backdrop to this classic love story.

The famous Pump Rooms and Assembly Rooms were closed to visitors for a day for the cameras to capture a promenade of the gentry. The grand Regency facades of the iconic Royal Crescent, and the Botanical Gardens feature in the film too.

Jane Austen lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806, and set her final novel, Persuasion, in the city, which attracted royalty and fashionable society seeking cures from its natural hot spring water.

Bath celebrates its most famous literary resident with an annual Jane Austen Festival in September with a parade of people in Regency costume through the city centre. The Jane Austen Centre reflects the significance of Bath in the novelist’s life and work. Visitors can re-trace her steps on walking tours of the city, and take tea at the Jane Austen Regency Team Rooms.

Local councillor, and executive member for tourism, leisure and culture, Nicole O’Flaherty says:
“I am delighted that locations which feature in the novel of Persuasion will be seen in the film. The city lends itself to filming thanks to its beautiful and historic buildings.”

The cast and crew travelled from Bath to the Dorset resort of Lyme Regis for the last days of filming on the equally famous Cobb.

Wild storms on the coast brought filming to an abrupt halt as cast and crew were in danger of being swept off the Cobb by the raging waves.

The steps leading to the upper part of the Cobb, where the cast had to walk in the storm, are known locally as the Jane Austen steps because they featured in the novel of Persuasion. The author lodged in the town in 1803 to 1804, and used it and surrounding countryside as part of the setting for her novel.

For further information about:

The Jane Austen Centre: www.janeausten.co.uk
Roman Baths and Pump Rooms: www.romanbaths.co.uk
Assembly Rooms: www.museumofcostume.co.uk
Bath Tourism: www.visitbath.co.uk
 

 

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Synopsis

Anne Elliot (SALLY HAWKINS) is 27 and has rather given up on the idea of ever getting a husband. She lives at Kellynch Hall, a place she loves, with her widower father, the vain and spendthrift Sir Walter Elliot (ANTHONY HEAD), and her older unmarried sister Elizabeth (JULIA DAVIS).

Sir Walter’s costly habits have forced him, most reluctantly, to find a tenant to pay for the upkeep of Kellynch, and he intends to move to a house in Bath, where his expenses might be more manageable. When Anne hears the names of the tenants, Admiral and Mrs. Croft (PETER WIGHT and MARION BAILEY), she is quietly alarmed. She confides in a close friend of the family, Lady Russell (ALICE KRIGE). Mrs. Croft is the sister of Captain Frederick Wentworth (RUPERT PENRY-JONES), whom Anne had once hoped to marry. The relationship was discouraged by Lady Russell, who thought Captain Wentworth too poor and undistinguished for Anne, and so Anne broke it off. She and Wentworth have not seen each other since. Wentworth has now made a fortune through his exploits as a naval officer.

Sir Walter and Elizabeth leave for Bath, taking with them a young widowed neighbour, Mrs. Clay (MARY STOCKLEY), as a companion for Elizabeth. Anne is to remain in the area, staying with her hypochondriac younger sister Mary (AMANDA HALE), and her husband Charles Musgrove (SAM HAZELDINE). Charles’ parents Mr and Mrs. Musgrove (NICHOLAS FARRELL and STELLA GONET) and his younger sisters Louisa (JENNIFER HIGHAM) and Henrietta (ROSAMUND STEPHEN), live in Uppercross House, close to Mary and Charles’ cottage.

News arrives at Uppercross that Captain Wentworth is visiting the Crofts at Kellynch Hall. All the Musgroves, and Anne, are invited over. But Charles’ son has a timely accident. Anne offers to care for the boy, and stays at home. A meeting is inevitable though, because Wentworth becomes friends with Charles, and they go hunting together. When Wentworth and Anne meet for the first time few words are passed between them. And Anne cannot refuse a second invitation to Kellynch. Again they can say very little to each other.

Wentworth seems only to be cold to Anne. When they are out walking with the Musgroves, she falls off a log while crossing a stream. He picks her up, a small gesture from which she gathers some hope, but then he walks away. She miserably watches what seems to be a burgeoning friendship of sorts between Wentworth and Louisa Musgrove.

Wentworth suggests that he and all the younger Musgroves, and Anne, take a refreshing trip to Lyme Regis, where he has a couple of friends, a Captain Harville (JOSEPH MAWLE) and the morose, recently widowed, Captain Benwick (FINLAY ROBERTSON). There is much ribaldry and naval talk at Lyme, but Anne feels left out. She shares her misery to some extent with Benwick.

A handsome stranger is also staying in Lyme, apparently on his way to Bath. The group learns, just as he is leaving, that this is WILLIAM ELLIOT, Anne’s immensely rich cousin and the heir to Kellynch Hall (as Sir Walter had no sons of his own). Relations between this gentleman and Sir Walter are reportedly frosty.

An over-excited Louisa, while out walking with the party, jumps from the Cob at Lyme, calling out to Wentworth to catch her. He fails to, and she is knocked unconscious. It has been a bad fall and Louisa cannot be moved from Lyme. Wentworth, filled with guilt, decides to go to Uppercross at once to report on the accident to Louisa’s parents. He takes Henrietta with him, and Anne goes too, because it is on the way to Bath, and that is where Anne has decided to head for, with no hope of rekindling the love that Wentworth once had for her.

In Bath, Anne is coolly received by her father and sister and Mrs Clay, but more amiably welcomed by Lady Russell, who is always at her side in fashionable society. She also visits an old school friend, Mrs. Smith (MAISIE DIMBLEBY), who is a widow and has fallen on hard times. To Anne’s surprise, it seems that William Elliot and Sir Walter have become reconciled, and Mr. Elliott is rarely out of the company of Sir Walter and Elizabeth and Mrs Clay.

Elliot begins to take a sincere interest in Anne, much to the fascination of Lady Russell, who thinks it would be a good match. Anne is not wholly opposed to the idea either, as it would mean that she would be able, as his wife, to return to her beloved Kellynch Hall. Then Anne learns that a wedding is imminent at Upper Cross, and that Louisa is to be the bride. She presumes that the groom will be Captain Wentworth.

Meanwhile, still in Lyme, Wentworth is horrified to learn from his friend Harville that everyone assumes he is soon to become engaged to Louisa, and that Louisa rather expects it too. Wentworth decides to put a distance between himself and Louisa by leaving Lyme for a while. When he returns, he hears from Harville that Louisa has become engaged to the sad Captain Benwick. Wentworth realises, at last, that he is overwhelmingly in love with Anne, as he always has been.

Admiral and Mrs. Croft arrive in Bath and relay the news to Anne, much to her amazement, that Louisa is marrying Captain Benwick and not Wentworth. She also hears that Captain Wentworth has arrived in Bath.

Anne’s first encounter with Wentworth is interrupted by William Elliott, and her next encounter with him, at a concert, is made all the more galling for him when he hears talk of an impending match between Elliott and her. He leaves the concert before she has a chance to explain herself. And William Elliott proposes to her, expecting her answer the next day.

Wentworth pays what he thinks will be a final visit to Anne. He wants to know the truth. She tells him that the rumours of her being about to marry Eliott are entirely unfounded. He is astonished, but still leaves when a flurry of visitors, including Lady Russell, arrives.

Anne pursues him through the streets of Bath. She runs into Mrs. Smith, who tells her what she has learnt about William Elliot and his scheming ways. Despite the genuineness of his feelings for Anne, he has also been courting Mrs. Clay, in an attempt to prise her away from Sir Walter, so that she won’t marry him and therefore possibly produce a new heir to Kellynch, thereby depriving Elliot of his inheritance.

Anne runs on. Captain Wentworth has left her a letter at his lodgings. It at last declares his constant and undying love for her. She runs on, trying to find him. She bumps into the Crofts, who tell her that he is now trying to find her. Finally, they meet in the street. Exhausted but elated, Anne becomes reconciled to the only man she has ever truly loved, and he to her.

Captain Wentworth, an exceedingly wealthy man, buys Kellynch Hall, thereby ensuring Anne’s return to the home she always adored.

 

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CAST

Anne Elliot Sally Hawkins
Captain Frederick Wentworth Rupert Penry-Jones
Sir Walter Elliot Anthony Head
Elizabeth Elliot Julia Davis
Mary Elliot Amanda Hale
Charles Musgrove Sam Hazeldine
Lady Russell Alice Krige
William Elliot Tobias Menzies
Mrs Clay Mary Stockley
Admiral Croft Peter Wight
Mrs Croft Marion Bailey
Louisa Musgrove Jennifer Higham
Henrietta Musgrove Rosamund Stephen
Mrs Musgrove Stella Gonet
Mr Musgrove Nicholas Farrell
James Benwick Finlay Robertson
Harry Harville Joseph Mawle
Mrs Smith Maisie Dimbleby

PRODUCTION

Executive producer Murray Ferguson
Producer David Snodin
Director Adrian Shergold
Writer Simon Burke
Line Producer Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo
Production Co-ordinator Monique Mussell
Production Designer David Roger
Art Director Nicki McCallum
First Assistant Director Finn McGrath
Second Assistant Director Vicki Allen
Director of Photography David Odd
Casting Director Julia Duff
Composer Martin Phipps
Costume Designer Andrea Galer
Make Up Designer Pamela Haddock
Editor Kristina Hetherington
Location Manager Fiona Francombe
Production Sound Mixer Alistair Crocker

 

 

Click here to link to the Jane Austen Centre in Bath

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