Jane Austen Aspirations

(piano music) - It's so exciting to be part of a Jane Austen adaptation that hasn't been seen before.

- It's a classic Jane Austen period drama.

But it's a little gritty, a little dirty around the edges.

And also pushing boundaries in terms of the type of stories it's telling.

- Miss Heywood.

- Oh.

- Good morning Mr Parker, Miss Parker.

- And what a splendid morning it is, Miss Heywood.

- The town itself of Sanditon is a principle character in the story.

It's a story about the creation of a new seaside resort in the Regency period in the early 1800s.

It's different.

Mr Darcy, Mr Knightley, all those other heroes were aristocratic gentlemen who lived on their great estates and farmed their land and took rents from their tenants and that was a traditional way of life that was starting to disappear in the Regency period.

Our character, Lady Denham says "Farming won't do anymore."

- [Lady Denham] Where's your father, Miss Heywood?

- He has a small estate in Willingden, marm.

- Farms it I suppose, that won't do anymore.

Land's not what it used to be.

Industry and enterprise, that is the future.

- Indeed it is.

- That world of money and land being associated together is ending, it's coming into a new-phase England where businessmen like Tom Parker are at the forefront of the movement of the country in the Regency period.

- The Regency period is a particularly licentious age.

Something that Jane Austen doesn't usually go in for.

But it's rich territory.

- Really Miss Lambe, This licentious behaviour will not do!.

I should be asking Reverend Hankins to pray for your soul.

(laughing) - He can pray all he likes.

- What makes it relevant to a modern audience is the story lines are of aspiration.

And aspiration is a thing that hasn't gone away.

- And I think most people in an audience would relate to a family that aren't particularly born into money that wants to better themselves.

(dramatic music) - There's something special about the Parker brothers who risk their whole income and their fortune by investing it all in the building of a new seaside resort.

- A popular thing for Regency people to do was to go to resorts for a season in Summertime.

And my eldest brother, Tom Parker, has come up with this fantastic idea of creating a town for that very reason.

- Tom Parker is an architect and a visionary.

- [Kate] Tom wants to build up this town.

- Here we are.

- And for all the people from London to come and have all these restorative health treatments.

- Sea air, better than any medicine or tonic.

He is the Steve Jobs of his time.

Trying to do something completely unknown.

And he's so confident and so committed to this vision, that people when they meet him, they can't help but be drawn in to this world.

- He wants Sanditon to succeed, it's all he needs in his life.

- Sidney is a brother of Tom, but also a business partner.

And his part of the deal is to bring affluent members of society who will come and potentially invest in the town.

He views the town and his family as small and parochial, whereas his ambitions are larger.

He's been to Antigua, to the Americas.

He has a company in London that's successful.

So for him, he's always dragged back to Sanditon.

Again, as it progresses, he understands the importance of family and the importance of the endeavor that his brother is beginning.

- It's not like any other period drama and it really gives a sense of place.

And it just feels very modern for Jane Austen.

- Well I for one, feel utterly invigorated.

I feel as if I'm awakening for the first time.

Sanditon is a vivacious time filled up with people who want to strive for brilliance in whatever they're doing.

Young stringer wanting to be the next big architect.

Charlotte wanting to find herself in a new world.

Tom wanting to create the best possible time.

Arthur and Diana wanting to become better, healthier people.

Sidney wanting to be Sidney.

- Dammit.

(laughing) - It's a time that's just filled with brilliant, mad creators.

And I think it truly is a time that has a will of it's own.

And knows what to do.

(laughing)