Lost in Austen - Reviewed

Take one of the most popular novels, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, sprinkle a bit of magic and stick in a modern girl. That is basically what ‘Lost in Austen’ is all about.

Now I’m no fan of these types of books or the telly adaptations. Even though I do like period dramas, mine involve war or people getting murdered – not love stories about posh wazzocks! But you know what? This works!

Written by Guy Andrews and directed by Dan Zeff, of ‘Doctor Who: Love and Monsters’ fame, it already has some decent starting blocks. Add to that the lovely Jemima Rooper (As If, Hex, Sinchronicity) and a decent support cast including, Hugh Bonneville, Alex Kingston, Gemma Atherton, Elliot Cowan, Tom Riley and Christina Cole, then it should be decent runner!

Amanda Price (Rooper) is sick of her life, stuck in a job which doesn’t appreciate her, a pig of a boyfriend who appreciates her even less, she amuses herself in a good old romantic novel to escape. However when she finds one of the books characters, Elizabeth Bennet (Atherton) in her bathroom she thinks she going mad. But when they accidently swap places, through Amanda’s ‘magic bathroom door’, she ends up in the world of ‘Pride and Prejudice’!

It’s quite amusing seeing the modern girl trying to fit in with society there. It’s very well acted from all involved, as Amanda, in her own words ‘totally buggers up the plot of the book', as she tries to set things right! Her mission takes a nose dive when she encounters the much-talked about Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan), who isn’t anything like he is in the books and films!

There are plenty of priceless moments and quick-witted one liners. However, due to copyright issues, the scene with Amanda singing Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ at the bemused 19th Century characters, won’t be on the DVD unfortunately!

It’s one for the girls to be honest but lads can learn a lot from it too – like how to behave properly! Some negative things I do have about it, is the lack of coverage of Elizabeth in the modern world. We just hear she has been working as a nanny and has been hanging around with Amanda’s friend. I just felt that it would have been better if we had a situation, totally opposite to what Amanda was experiencing. Another thing was the lack of explanation behind the ‘magic door’ and how it all worked. Maybe that’s just the science-fiction geek inside me and I’m not partial to the odd bit of magic!

However, it’s an interesting concept which works extremely well. It won’t encourage me to read any of Jane Austen’s books but I don’t really have to, after seeing this! It’ll be interesting to read the views on this by fans of the book, which I’m sure will sell a few more copies! It’s well worth a look and I would encourage you to give it a go!

8/10

The DVD is out now from ITV and all good retailers.

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/5164969/Lost-In-Austen/Product.html

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 9 - Forest of the Dead

When I first watched this episode, I was disappointed. But I always make a point of watching an episode at least twice and you know what? I wasn’t that disappointed, in fact I loved it, well sort of!

We picked up from where we left off, as the ‘Space Ghosts’ run riot all over The Library and Donna is trapped inside a massive computer. I was disappointed to see that River was quite possibly a love interest for the Doctor. We really need to move away from that stuff for a while. It can only get more confusing when Rose returns.

I was also annoyed that The Doctor’s real name is now a sticking point. Questions will be asked and people will want them answered. A subject that as been glossed over in the past, with a “John Smith” or “Just Doctor”, will become the main talking point for all fickle Doctor Who fans.

However I was impressed in how the episode came together in the end. Steven Moffat’s attention to detail is incredible, even though he has had a dig at Bernice Summerfield and ripped off the Space Ghost from Scooby Doo!

Tennant has come into his own this series, hopefully one of Moffat’s first tasks will be to keep David on for at least another year, which is something I think will happen. I’m hoping we’ll see River again, if only to give Alex Kingston some work! On a similar note, I was really disappointed that Steve Pemberton wasn’t given a bigger role. Although I’m glad he turned out to be a good guy.

I’m sure we all suspected that River would ‘die’ in this concluding part. And she did! But we had some old Doctor Who magic sprinkled on it, as The Doctor ‘saved’ her by putting her into the computer, so she could live with all her friends. That particular part was just superb.

I feel I must write a stern letter to a newspaper, who had previewed the episode by saying, “Donna is trapped in a Matrix-style world”, obviously the writer hadn’t taken into account that some of the story behind The Matrix is basically a rip-off of the Tom Baker episode ‘The Deadly Assassin. Ah, never mind!

Here’s looking forward to next week, from the trailer I’m not sure though!

9/10

Next Week: Lesley Sharp gets confused as she finds out that Christopher Eccelston isn’t The Doctor anymore!

'Midnight' Trailer

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 8 - Silence in the Library

From this point, this story can go two ways. It can either be the best two-parter we’ve had or it could be a huge let down. It’s finely balanced.

Steven Moffat penned this episode, it should be interesting to see if he carries on his trademark ‘dark’ stories when he takes over as executive producer in 2010. It wasn’t easy to spot ‘the line from Coupling’ this time, I think it was the “I’m thick, my head is too small” line. With me being the only one to spot his version of RTD’s ‘gay agenda’, I feel quite proud.

We had a possible pop at Paul Cornell in this episode. Moffat wrote in archaeologist ‘River Song’ who seems to know The Doctor. The Doctor didn’t have the foggiest who she is (as she apparently, met him in the future), so he quipped “I laugh at archaeologists”. Whether this is a reference to Cornell’s Bernice Summerfield, only he knows!

Back to the episode, where D+D land on a planet which doubles as the biggest library in the universe. Basically, its a similar plotline to the Bernice Summerfield audio ‘Timeless Passages’, hmmm I think I’m seeing another ‘agenda’ here!

Our duo are warned about ‘the shadows’ which are infected with ‘Vashta Nerada’, which eats human flesh in seconds. But not clothes, apparently! We get to meet River Song (Alex Kingston) and her team, headed by businessman Lux (Steve Pemberton). Meanwhile a little girl seems to be having dreams about the library and The Doctor. It seems she is controlling it and a visiting psychologist (Colin Salmon) seems to know she’s telling the truth and tells her that the library is ‘real’.

As the members of Lux’s expedition are gobbled up as quickly than any type food in Vanessa Feltz’s fridge, Donna is transmatted on board the TARDIS, only to disappear quicker than she appears. She pops up later as one of the faces on a information statue. Thing is, all those faces are donated by dead people. Whoops!

A pretty decent cast pulled the episode through, credit must go to Eve Newton who played the little girl. The episode was very dark and creepy, the Scooby Doo-style ‘space ghosts’ really helped but I wasn’t on the edge of my seat. It seemed that this story was designed to be 3 parts, rather than 2 parts. But what Moffat does well, is to develop storylines. I’m confident the second part will be fantastic, as we get to the business end of the series.

As for who River Song is and the fate of Donna? I’ve no idea, but its going to be fun finding out, isn’t it?

8/10

Next Time: Donna is found alive and well, sipping tea and chatting to her cousin – Melanie Bush!

Before I sign off, a word on the mid series trailer (which you can view below). Okay it’s wasn’t brilliant, it seemed that only the Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead and the final two episodes were spliced together. Rose is back (with a gun), as are the Daleks (again!) and there is a figure shrouded in darkness, it seems to have a Dalek base and a blue eye. I think all bets are off folks!

'Forest of the Dead' Trailer


Mid series trailer