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Pride & Prejudice 'Having a Ball' BBC 2 tonight @ 9.00

Very enjoyable, this part of the BBC adaptation is one of my favourite pieces of TV..
[video=youtube;FPolWC-Mv5c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPolWC-Mv5c[/video]
 
Have to agree Brumgum. Think it was an excellent program, well worth watching. In fact, I'll definitely watch it again. However, I think this Liz & Darcy dance is hard to beat too - on the surface cool, composed and controlled but underneath it all georgian mayhem! https://youtu.be/z9SXvUdM_iw

I think the program did especially well in examining Jane Austen's portrayal of all aspects of the ball; purpose, social class etc, not just about gossip and frocks! Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Have to agree Brumgum. Think it was an excellent program, well worth watching. In fact, I'll definitely watch it again. However, I think this Liz & Darcy dance is hard to beat too - on the surface cool, composed and controlled but underneath it all georgian mayhem! https://youtu.be/z9SXvUdM_iw

I think the program did especially well in examining Jane Austen's portrayal of all aspects of the ball; purpose, social class etc, not just about gossip and frocks! Viv.
Click to expand...
That's an excellent clip, i got goose bumps watching that and I'm a bloke!:emmersed:..did you note the same piece of music is played for this dance in both the film and the BBC adaptation, did Jane Austen specify the piece that was played i wonder?.
 
Vivienne & brumgen in agreement with your posts the "Beeb" have done a very good portrayal of this great Jane Austen novel in fact it really shows up the differences between classy, timeless, sexy literature in comparison with titillating, cheap & poorly written drivel like "50 Shades etc", Jane & BBC rules Ok
 
Thanks John and Brumgum. And of course we know this was not exclusive to London. Here's a quote about the assemblies held in Birmingham from the excellent Mapping Birmingham blogspot - though not too sure I know where the Bull Street and the Square assembly rooms were actually located.

Quote from https://mappingbirmingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/assembly-rooms_19.html


"Anyone who enjoys dramatisations of Jane Austen's novels will understand the centrality of the assembly in the social lives of the Georgian and Regency middle classes. The guests at an assembly would not only dance, but drink tea, play cards, watch and listen to performances of music or theatricals and just generally socialise. The assembly was a great opportunity to socialise, gossip and, of course, flirt. Assemblies as a nation wide entertainment began towards the beginning of the 1700s; Defoe critically noted in about 1725 'the new mode of forming assembles [which was now] so fatally in vogue'.* What began as a novelty soon became 'part of the established urban scene'.* Birmingham had at least two permanent assembly rooms by the 1750s, one in the Square and the other in Bull Street.*** Balls or assemblies were often intertwined with other events such as Birmingham's Triennial Music Festival or other musical and theatrical performences. Assemblies at the various rooms often operated in seasons, at the Hotel (later the Royal Hotel) in Birmingham the assemblies were held over the winter season by subscription.

* Peter Borsay, The English Urban Renaissance
** Leonore Davidoff & Catherine Hall, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850
*** Other references on request"



Viv.
 
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