Sunday, 15 June
8.30pm

The third drama in ABC1's season of Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, stars Felicity Jones (Servants; Brideshead Revisited) as the young, naïve Catherine Moreland.

Catherine is a spirited young beauty from the country who enters into the depraved but wealthy society of eighteenth century Bath, with dreams and fantasies sparked by her love of gothic romance novels.

It is in Bath that she meets two men, both vying for her affection. The dashing, but jealous, John Thorpe (William Beck - Robin Hood) and the gentle and sincere Henry Tilney (JJ Feild - The Ruby in the Smoke; The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton). Despite the advice of her mischievous new friend Isabella (Cary Mulligan - Bleak House; Pride & Prejudice), Catherine treats neither man as more than a dear friend.
When she accepts an invitation to Northanger Abbey from Henry's tyrannical father, however, she finds herself falling in love.

The dark, gothic Northanger Abbey bombards Catherine's fertile imagination with thoughts of authoritarian fathers and diabolical villains working their evil on the forlorn heroines trapped in isolated castles much like Northanger. Her fanciful imaginings take hold, and when Catherine confesses her suspicions to Henry, she almost destroys their budding romance.
O
ne of Britain's most popular dramatists, Andrew Davies - whose credits include Bleak House, In The Line of Beauty, Tipping The Velvet, Daniel Deronda, The Chatterly Affair, Doctor Zhivago and both feature film adaptations of Bridget Jones Diary - has adapted this gothic novel into a sumptuous costume drama.