Will follow up with some thoughts on this second installment a bit later. May I just say that I love Mr. Knightley? Jonny Lee Miller is super. Yes. And the perfect age. Ha.
From the Episode 3 preview, it’s clear there are gonna be alphabet puzzles. HUZZAH!
Reader Bill kindly informed me that the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in the village of Send, Surrey, stands in for Highbury’s parish church in the new BBC Emma adaptation. Portions of the current church structure date back to as early as 1220! For photographs of the building and historical information, visit the Send Parish official site.
Loseley Park is another Surrey locale utilized in Emma, portraying Mr. Knightley’s Donwell Abbey. An Austen adaptation veteran (featured in the 2008 version of Sense & Sensibility), this Guildford estate has existed since at least the eleventh century. While not an ex-abbey proper, Loseley house apparently deserves honorary abbey status; the current house, built in the 1660s, was partly constructed with stone retrieved from nearby Waverley Abbey! You can read a nineteenth century account of Waverley’s ruins here.
Episode 2 airs on Sunday, October 11 on BBC 1 and should be posted to the site just after. Here’s the schedule, for handy reference.
First, a disclaimer: I wrote this in haste, late sunday night. Since, I’ve been adding thoughts and clarifications as I remember them or as they strike me. So. Bear with me as this thing grows and changes.
Having seen episode one, I want to say that this is gonna be good. So far, it IS good – much better than I expected. Every frame is beautifully composed and shot. The colors and textures are amazing. The writing is solid and the story hangs together well without sacrificing important plot elements from the novel (though some of these elements are somewhat scattered). In fact, at four hours long, this could be the definitive Emma adaptation we’ve all be wishing for (alphabet puzzles, please! So far, only E3 has provided those).