SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Season 1 of “The Other Bennet Sister,” now streaming on BritBox.
Ella Bruccoleri may be playing a Bennet sister on TV, but the actress wasn’t always a fan of Jane Austen.
Bruccoleri read “Pride and Prejudice” for the first time when preparing to take on the lead role in the BBC drama “The Other Bennet Sister,” penned by Sarah Quintrell and adapted from Janice Hadlow’s novel of the same name. Playing Mary Bennet — Elizabeth’s younger and more timid sister — Bruccoleri set out to portray the coming of age story of a Regency woman.
“We wanted to make a show that Jane would enjoy if she were around today, or that was faithful enough to what she was trying to do,” Bruccoleri tells Variety.
The show’s dramatic romance and journey of self-growth seems to fit in line with something Austen would’ve imagined for her characters. Mary, overshadowed by her vivacious sisters and disparaging mother (Ruth Jones), begins to find her footing when she moves to London to nanny her cousins after her father’s death. In the new city, Mary lives with her aunt and uncle, the Gardiners, where she encounters a gentle lawyer named Tom Hayward (Dónal Finn), with whom she shares an immediate connection. While Tom is in a pre-exisisting romantic agreement, Mary crosses paths with Mr. Ryder (Laurie Davidson), a charming playboy who begins pursuing her (unbenowst to her). Familiar characters from “Pride and Prejudice” make appearances, such as the Ryder-besotted Caroline Bingley, who takes great pleasure in being cruel to Mary, as well as the the rest of the Bennet family, accompanied by flashes of Mr. Darcy refusing to spend time with his in-laws.
