Lost In Austen

Coming to ITV1 in 2008

Published: Thursday, 15 November 2007, 11:09AM

Starring: Jemima Rooper, Alex Kingston, Lindsay Duncan, Hugh Bonneville and Elliot Cowan

If only Amanda Price’s life was as exciting and romantic as the novels she reads. Poor Amanda is fed up with her life in London and losing patience with her boyfriend.

She may be a thoroughly modern girl but she longs for a man who can spark the fires that lie within. One day she is alone in her flat, reading a book. She hears a noise in the bathroom.

From that moment on her life will never be the same. Before she knows what has happened she has travelled back in time over 200 years. Jemima Rooper stars as the beautiful modern day heroine who enters the world of Lizzie Bennet and her family, the famous characters from Pride and Prejudice.

Realising she’s joined the action at the very start of the classic novel, she gets to know the remaining Bennet sisters, and prepares to meet Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan).

How will she keep the greatest love story of all time on track when Elizabeth Bennet is stuck in the modern world?

The ‘true’ story is in danger of being thrown off track by her presence. Because Amanda knows Jane Austen’s book so well she realises that she could ruin literary history for ever.

Playing Mr and Mrs Bennet are Hugh Bonneville and Alex Kingston. Lindsay Duncan is Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh; Morven Christie is Jane Bennet, Tom Mison is Mr Bingley, Tom Riley is Captain Wickham, and Christina Cole is Caroline Bingley.

The four part series is written by acclaimed television writer Guy Andrews (Chancer, Prime Suspect, Absolute Power and Lewis).

“Lost in Austen has the high production values of period drama. Its sumptuous period locations, costume, carriages and props are juxtaposed with Amanda Price’s very modern lifestyle. The cleverness of the script will appeal to Austen aficionados and attract a new audience to this beautiful love story,” says ITV Controller of Drama Commissioning Sally Haynes.