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DVD TV Show Reviews

If you are a fan of Jane Austen, or of any period costume drama, you will probably like this version of "Persuasion", which was from the BBC in the 1970's. It is basically a filmed play. The performances are very good, and of course the story is great, since it's from Jane Austen.

The BBC recently filmed a whole lot of her works, including "Persuasion", and they are showing now on PBS. Those are more modern and will probably have better camera work and a different acting style. If those kinds of things matter to you, you may prefer to watch those instead. Or you can watch both and compare, getting a double Austen fix!

The drama is in two parts and ran as a miniseries. It is well worth buying, or at least renting. It's a good drama. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but it's a family-romance intrigue about a titled family that has been forced to lease their house and move to a smaller one, to save money. One of the relatives of the man they're leasing it to is an old flame of one of the daughters, Anne. She turned him down for marriage 7 years ago on the advice of her family, who didn't think he was good enough, and now she wishes she hadn't. Also, he is now rich, so her family has been proven wrong.

I have not read this particular Jane Austen book, but some of the other reviews out on the web claim that this movie is not as faithful to the book as some others are. Also, the movie, since it's a miniseries, is four hours long. That's not really very long for a miniseries, especially back then. Roots was ten hours long, just to give you an idea. Still, it is from the 70's, so it may seem a little slow-moving to anyone who is not used to seeing older TV.

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