Jane Austen Unwritten

(dramatic orchestral music) - The special thing about Sanditon was that Jane Austen gave us a complete set of characters and a setting and also a premise that it is a story not just about will the heroine find love.

(dramatic orchestral music) In fact, that's almost secondary.

Will these enterprising brothers succeed in making their own fortunes and making Sanditon a popular seaside resort to rival Brighton?

- Wonder if we should have a strategy?

- My strategy principally revolves around not drowning.

- It's written by our national treasure, Andrew Davies, who is sort of the king of adaptations.

- Taking what is really interesting and key about Jane Austen's work and pushing it a little harder, to making it a little grittier, a little dirtier around the edges.

- Andrew's taken the ball and run a long way with it, but kept very faithful to the novel, and used his great imagination to be able to go, "Well this could've gone that way, and that could've gone that way."

- The beauty of this is not only has it not been done before, but literally, Andrew has been given a complete empty palette.

- There's a lot of advantages to a period drama that's unfinished, because we can take this to really wherever it needs to go.

We can explore with it, and actually kind of make it more modern and more relevant to this time.

- I think that's a really great thing to be able to do as a creative person.

- Usually with a Jane Austen novel, of course, you know exactly how it's going to start and finish.

And every episode that's been written and given to us has been a delight, and it's been fascinating 'cause you think, "Oh, I didn't know the story was going that way."

(dramatic piano music) - It's not like anything you've ever seen before.

The costumes are lavish and over-the-top, as is the setting and the characters.

(dramatic piano music) - The roster of actors and cast we have on this is amazing, Theo James, Rose Williams, Annie Reid, Jack Fox.

I think they're cast so brilliantly because they sort of inhabit their characters.

- Well, what is my relationship with Sidney?

How much did we know each other as children, or was it sporadic?

So you have an allowance, which is great fun, to be able to play, and that's what we want to do as actors.

- When I read it, I almost forgot that it was a period drama because you have this strong female lead in the center of it, and all that happens around her happens so quickly, and all these fab, weird, wonderful characters come into the mix and it really gives a sense of place, and it just feels very modern for Jane Austen.

- Miss Lambe's journey is giving us a story you really, really follow, and who's perspective you really get into and you really get to see.

That's really relevant to today.

- I just think it's a world you can escape into.

(hooves clopping) (jaunty music) - [Sidney] Sanditon, the finest seaside resort on the whole of the South Coast.

- [Charlotte] I should very much like to see it, sir.

- We built it all from the ground up, so the actual physical town that you see is a built set.

Sanditon has a vibe of it slightly being a frontier town.

Sanditon House, is of course Lady Denham.

There's a serpent on the floor so you'd kinda know where she's coming from.

When you get to Trafalgar House, it has to reflect Tom's slight megalomania.

- With the regency look, it's very much based on the fashion of the time in 1819.

We wanted to make people look sexy, to make them feel good, to empower them.

You know, the men were very clean-shaven.

The ladies' pairs up with ornaments in the hair, bows, ribbons, feathers.

- They look really good, they're stylish as hell, they live in great places, they're up to some really wild things, and that's a great story.

(jaunty music) (horses running) (piano music) - The wit of it, the comedy, the romance of it, whatever you're into, you'll be able to find a storyline or characters that you can really connect to at Sanditon.

- The themes of it are kind of eternal.

It's about people trying their best to build a new future for themselves, coming up against obstacles, and being beaten by them, and surmounting them.

- [Turlough Convery] I would like audiences to take away from Sanditon the feeling of fun and excitement and aspiration, and to be taken away from their world for a moment, and land in this world filled with characters and filled with intrigue.

- It's Jane Austen, but not as you knew her.

It's several love stories, and it's a story about the making of a town.

(orchestral music)