In the UK: Wednesdays, 9pm, ITV1
What’s that? Is it the sound of something precious and beautiful being trampled underfoot by philistines and idiots?
Erm, no. Surprisingly, it’s not and we have yet another miracle of the post-Grade age: an ITV1 primetime drama that doesn’t suck, doesn’t insult the intelligence and actually makes you hunger for more.
Any more of this and it’ll almost become ordinary, expected even, that ITV1 dramas won’t make you feel like you’ve been hit on the head by a six-pack of Kestrels on a night out in Malia.
Anyway, it is a truth, universally acknowledged, that all women of a certain temperament love Pride and Prejudice, particularly that bit with Colin Firth in the water. Many are the women who know it almost word for word; and no doubt there are many who wish they could be in it, particularly during that bit with Colin Firth in the water.
So Lost in Austen is quite a clever idea, even if sounds a bit daft at first: what would happen if somehow you ended up in the novel Pride and Prejudice, having taken Elizabeth Bennet’s place. You’re a big fan, you know what’s supposed to happen, who’s supposed to end up with whom and how.
But what if you ballsed it all up?