A Local-Interest Guide To Jane Austen Novels & Screen Adaptations
Jane Austen's assocations with Bath and east Hampshire are widely promoted, but she also set scenes elsewhere in the south-central region. Many film and TV adaptations have also filmed scenes locally, even when these are set elsewhere.
Jane Austen (1775-1817) lived most of her life in Hampshire.
She was born and raised in eastern Hampshire, her father being rector at Steventon near Basingstoke. This was followed by sojourns in Bath (her father retired there), Southampton, Chawton in East Hampshire, and finally Winchester, where she died and is buried.
Her favoured setting was what she called a "Country Village" where she could focus on the interaction of 3 or 4 families. Her village settings such as 'Meryton' in P&P are fictional (no doubt for legal reasons), but real towns and cities are also used for verisimilitude. Although she is well-known for leading a quiet life living with her family, she did visit with friends and relatives across the south of England, including London and Surrey, and used these trips to work these places into her novels as additional settings. This included a number of the new seaside resorts, from Ramsgate and Brighton to Lyme and the East Devon resorts. In fact she made Lyme an early literary-tourism destination. Over a century before The French Lieutenant's Woman, visitors came to see the spot where, in Austen's 1818 Persuasion, Louisa Musgrave fell from the steps on the Cobb [pictured below].
Altogether she completed 6 novels, and all have been adapted for the screen more than once. There is a comparative evaluation of the TV adaptations on the British Film Institute website, here: Jane Austen On Television
Works are in alphabetical order by novel title below. Only those adaptations with a local aspect are listed.
Screen versions of all Austen's six novels are available on DVD, especially from the BBC, which has produced at least one TV adaptation of each.
The novel is set in Surrey, but at least two screen versions have been filmed more locally.
Emma (ITV dir Diarmuid Lawrence scr Andrew Davies 1996)
This ITV-movie production with Kate Beckinsale used the Wiltshire village of Lacock as Austen's "Highbury," plus Trafalgar Park house by Downtown south of Salisbury.
Emma (Miramax USA scr/dir Douglas McGrath 1996)
This American feature version starring Gwyneth Paltrow as a swan-necked Emma was shot largely in Dorset, which represents a vague southern setting. (It is quite focussed visually - rose coloured when not a summery lush green - in an attempt to match Austen's small social world.) It was mainly filmed in the Sherborne-Dorchester area. The west Dorset village of Evershot was dressed as Austen's "Highbury," with the main street covered in straw, sheep pens, fake vines etc for the market-day scene, and the local Almshouses also appear. Mapperton House in west Dorset is Mrs Weston's house 'Randalls', and Crichel House in east Dorset is Mr Knightley's house (with lake). West Stafford House (actually the home of scriptwriter Julian Fellowes) also appears, as does Coker Court at East Coker ( famous for its TS Eliot church shrine) in Somerset. The ford where Emma's carriage gets stuck appears to be Moreton in central Dorset.
Evershot village, west Dorset, used in the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma..
Mansfield Park
This novel which is sometimes said to be her most social-realist work, is vaguely set, the only real setting being Fanny Price's grim home town of Portsmouth. There are various possibilities for the 'original' of Mansfied Park, but none are definitive.
Mansfield Park (Miramax/BBC dir Patricia Rozema 1999)
This feature version was shot non-locally, but early on has a brief but key controversial added “social conscience” scene shot at Lulworth Cove, where Fanny looks down and sees a slave ship anchored. Austen has been criticised for ignoring the social realities of her time, such as slavery and the Napoleonic Wars. However here, the issue is raised in this more pointedly modern adaptation that Mansfield Park estate may have been built on wealth acquired via the slave trade.
Northanger Abbey
The novel is mainly set in and around Bath, where Austen lived in her mid-20s.
Northanger Abbey (BBC dir Giles Foster scr Maggie Wadey 1986)
This adaptation of Austen's sending-up the then-current craze for Gothic tales was largely studio shot, but did film a few scenes in Bath, as well as using Bowood House and Corsham Court in north Wiltshire.
Persuasion
The novel is set in Somerset ('Kellynch Hall'), Lyme Regis (where Austen holidayed), and Bath.
Persuasion (Granada TV scr J Mitchell dir Howard Baker 1969)
This ITV 5-part mini-series version with Anne Firbank as Anne Elliot seems to have been the first on-screen use of Lyme Regis and its famous Cobb as well as the first colour version. (A 1960 b&w BBC drama-serial version was apparently studio-bound.) Halliwell's Television Guide comments: "Diligent adaptation ... filmed in Dorset and Somerset." The IMDB website lists under Goofs, “Anachronisms: Walking down country lane, actors pass WWII tank traps.”
Persuasion (BBC dir Roger Michell scr Nick Dear 1995)
This BBC feature-length version, with Amanda Root as Anne Elliot and Ciarán Hinds as Captain Wentworth, was shot on location in Super-16mm, using more natural light than before for a more realistic look. (Earlier Austen TV dramas tended to be shot in brighly-lit studios.) It was filmed in Lyme, Bath, Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Wiltshire (Sheldon Manor as Upper Cross Great House). The film was co-produced with US interests, for showing in US 'art-house' cinemas as well as on US TV. Because of this it had alternate endings filmed in the streets of Bath (where a circus parade is passing by), one with a final kiss and one without. Another elaboration, the final sailing-into-the-sunset shot, is taken from the Mel Gibson film The Bounty.
Persuasion (Clerkenwell Films/ ITV dir Adrian Shergold scr Simon Burke 2007)
This latest version being made by John Hannah's production company and starring Sally Hawkins was filmed in Bath (including the Assembly Rooms), Lyme Regis and nearby Seatown in Dorset, and three Wiltshire stately homes - Great Chalfield Manor House, Neston Park, and Sheldon Manor.
Pride & Prejudice
The novel is vaguely set in Austen's home county of Hampshire. Basingstoke, then a small town, is said to be the original of 'Meryton' as Austen lived nearby in her youth.
Pride & Prejudice (BBC 1967)
At this time, the BBC were mainly shooting on soundstages, but some exteriors were shot in Somerset, including Dyrham Park house near Bath (as 'Pemberley').
Pride & Prejudice (BBC 1995 dir Simon Langton scr Andrew Davies)
This international hit drama-serial version starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth was shot at over 20 locations around England. The local-interest ones are in Wiltshire: Lacock preserved village (Meryton village scenes) and Abbey (Cambridge university interiors), and nearby Luckington Court (as 'Longbourn').
Pride And Prejudice (dir Joe Wright scr Deborah Moggach 2005)
This Hollywood production starring Keira Knightley also used a wide range of locations. Local-interest ones include Wilton House near Salisbury (for Pemberley interiors), Stourhead Gardens, and Martin Down Nature Reserve near Salisbury.
Lacock preserved village, Wiltshire.It has been used more than once to portray an Austen village.
Sense And Sensibility
The novel is mainly set in Devon near Exeter, Austen having holidayed in SE Devon.
Sense And Sensibility (BBC dir Rodney Bennett scr Alexander Baron 1981)
This BBC mini-series adaptation shot on video used Dorset and Somerset locations: Came House and Came Cottage near Dorchester (as Barton Park and Barton cottage), Babington House (as Norland's), Crowcombe Court (as the London house), and Bath, as London.
Sense And Sensibility (dir Ang Lee scr Emma Thompson 1995)
This feature adaptation starring Emma Thompson was largely shot in south Devon. Locations closer to home include Montacute House in Somerset (where Marianne falls ill); Trafalgar House south of Salisbury), and several locations in Salisbury itself. Mompesson House played the house where the family stay on their London visit, Cathedral Close played a London street, and nearby Wilton House was used for the London ball scene.
