Watch Miss Austen (2025) on PBS!

Miss Austen (2025) is one of the BBC’s contributions towards celebrating the 250 anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth this year. And us Americans get to see it starting this week on PBS. The first episode aired on Sunday and will continue over the next three weeks — but all four episodes are available right now on PBS Passport.

If you donate at least $5 a month ($60 a year) to your local public broadcasting station, you can access PBS Passport on the web, through the app, or on a smart TV. That’s cheaper than Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, or even BritBox and AcornTV!

More importantly, you’ll be supporting public broadcasting in America, which is, once again, under attack by the Republican White House and Congress. They do this every time they’re in charge, and though right now the attack seems even more vicious, as the GOP tries to burn down everything helpful government does. While less than 0.01% of the U.S. federal budget goes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which funds PBS/NPR stations), this funding is crucial for small rural stations that are the only news source in their communities.

And, self-centeredly, the average $1.60 per American annually it costs to support PBS means more frock flicks for all! If you want to watch Jane Austen on screen that actually respects Austen’s writing, you’ll find it on PBS, instead of the bullshit Netflix pulls. So if you aren’t supporting your local station, get on it now, they need you, now more than ever, plus you can binge all of Miss Austen at once.

With that bit of business out of the way, what about Miss Austen, which I did watch all four episodes of? It’s based on a novel by Gill Hornby that considers why Jane’s older sister Cassandra burned most of Jane’s letters after her death. The story moves back and forth between Cassandra’s later life in the 1830s and when Jane was alive in the 1800s-10s.

As Cassandra discovers her sisters letters to their younger friend Eliza, we learn about young Cassy’s thwarted engagement to Tom Fowle and how their brother James Austen marries the meddlesome Mary, who will compete with the older Cassandra for Jane’s ‘missing’ letters. If you’ve seen Becoming Jane (2007) or Miss Austen Regrets (2008), this is a similar type of fiction, except Cassandra is the main character, not Jane. Cassy’s hopes and heartbreaks drive the story and perhaps become grist for her younger sister’s fiction. Likewise, their parents seem like inspirations for Mr. and Mrs. Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, and various of their friends are noted as models for other Austen fictional characters. As in Austen’s books, marriage is supposed to be the desired outcome for the female characters in both timelines of this series, but little hints along the way show that there might be other, less obvious, less socially acceptable, but equally fulfilling options for a woman.

There’s a fairly light historical basis for this miniseries’ events, and even thought I haven’t read the novel it’s based on, of course I know how it all ends. I felt like this show leans more towards the side of “inevitable” and not “predictable” in terms of the story, but judge for yourself. I found it a wholly pleasant binge, even if the costumes aren’t especially flashy.

As Keeley Hawes says in The Guardian:

“I wanted to do something wholesome, for want of a better word. There’s so much darkness and murder in drama nowadays. That’s all well and good. Everything has its place and its audience. But I’d done several projects about death and was desperate to do something about love. I had no idea that a centuries-old love story between two sisters was the thing I was looking for.”

Costume designer Gill Horn does a respectable job, mixing recycled frocks with a few new pieces, and everyone has decent hair and slightly derpy bonnets, as required. The Austens and their set are genteel but not rich, so they wear tidy, practical clothes most of the time — up to date but not terribly fashionable, with minimal frills. There’s just barely enough distinction between the fashions of the 1830s framing story and 1800s-10s flashbacks. I think the styles could have been made a bit more exaggerated, but the show relies a lot on the actors’ ages to show the passage of time.

These are the types of 1830s dresses Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) wears:

This is as big as her sleeves get, oh well!

No sleeve plumpers, but hopefully the rest of her undergarments were correct. In the BBC media pack, Keeley Hawes commented on her costumes:

“I have a corset, but it doesn’t have to be that tight, and there’s nothing nicer than having a costume on and being able to forget about it. Sometimes in costume drama the costume is all you can think about, but the corset is useful as it helps your posture and it makes you carry yourself in a slightly different way.”

There aren’t undress scenes in this show, so I couldn’t confirm, but a yes, the corset she’d be wearing for this period wouldn’t be tight, just supportive, like this one which has a center-front busk of either wood or whalebone and is otherwise soft all around.

Cassandra’s search for her sister’s letters happens at the house of the recently deceased Reverend Fowle, an old family friend. His youngest daughter is Isabella (Rose Leslie), and all her dresses look way more 1810s than 1830s when the events are happening.

Cassandra’s sister-in-law Mary (Jessica Hynes) has fuller sleeves for the 1830s. Guess the point is to show that she’s marginally better off?

Given that the framing story starts with a death and thus mourning, the flashbacks are a bit more colorful. For example, events open around this scene where young Cassandra (Synnøve Karlsen) in blue print, Jane (Patsy Ferran) in blue, and Eliza (Madeline Walker) in green, play cards before the announcement of “Cassy” and Tom’s engagement.

He’s about to go off to sea to make his fortune. Dun dun duh…

There’s only one ball in the miniseries, and at least two of the four young ladies are wearing recycled ballgowns. Cassy’s dress was first seen in Austenland, and Mary (played by Liv Hill, who was young Catherine in The Serpent Queen) wears a dress from Sanditon (2019).

In an interview with Pibe Magazine, Synnøve Karlsen talked about playing young Cassy, saying:

“Costume is definitely a big help when stepping into a time period like this, and it informs so much about how you move and navigate your way through the world. It was a pretty revolutionary time in fashion — women wore stays instead of tight corsets, and the silhouette was much more column-like. This was so freeing for women, as they were much less restricted, so I enjoyed exploring how relaxed Jane and Cassandra could be when behind closed doors and out of the public eye.”

At the very start of the 19th century, stays were just trying to support the bust, rather like a modern bra. The garment wasn’t intended to be tight or whittle the waist; that comes in a few more decades. Similar to these stays and the 1830s ones above.

Synnøve Karlsen also talks about her costumes in the BBC media pack, especially an outfit for a special scene:

“Costume, hair and make-up is always a big part of getting into character for me. It’s always hard to visualize without it, especially when you’re working in a specific time period. I did make my costume dresser Georgia laugh though as I love wearing a costume for the first time, and then afterwards I never want to wear it again! All of the costumes are so beautiful and I have such variety, so whenever we’re putting on the same one for a second time, I’m like ‘no I want another one!’. I do really love the yellow dress I wear, which was made especially for me and it looks lovely in the beach scenes we shot against the sand dunes.”

Yes, bright colors were worn during the Regency — Bridgerton didn’t just make that up! Compare with this and many other fashion plates:

That yellow is the brightest costume in the whole show. Otherwise, there’s a lot of black for mourning or blues and greens, like this:

Young Jane and Cassy also wear muted but well-trimmed pelisses.

Gotta love a cute coat. The Austen girls don’t have quite as posh ones as in this fashion plate, but you can see the inspiration.

Though their outfits tend to be a bit more drab / suitable.

Jane Austen doesn’t get anything like her older sister’s pop of yellow, but like I said, this isn’t really her story. She’s more of a plot device around which the show turns. Other than the ballgown, she gets a generic little white dress for one important dinner.

And a lot of high-necked dresses with filled-in necklines.

I’m sure they were attempting to reference the one contemporary image of Jane:

Mary, once she marries their brother James, becomes a bossy bitch, but we know that from the 1830s where she’s been throwing her unwanted opinions around already. But she gets a pretty green velvet pelisse in one scene.

Sisters-in-law being the worst (but having better wardrobes) is a theme — Cassy visits her brother Edward, and his wife Elizabeth treats her like an unpaid governess. But Elizabeth has a lovely yellow silk gown.

The men wear proper period garb, nothing that drives me wild, but the actors all have something to say about it, so let’s hear from them! Alfred Enoch, who plays the doctor Mr. Lidderdale in the 1830s part of the story, says in the BBC media pack:

“One of the really enjoyable things about doing period drama, especially regency England, is the look of it. I come to work in my tracksuit and when I have my costume on, it conjures up that world and all of the associations you have with it — it quite literally keeps you all buttoned up! Mr. Lidderdale is a capable doctor and a socially engaged individual, so there’s a confident self-possession in him, but on the other hand he’s an outsider and I discussed this a lot with Gill Horn (Costume Designer). We wanted him to look impressive, but also didn’t want him to look like a nobleman who has an easily disposable income and is living a life of leisure. Even though Mr. Lidderdale has received this patronage, he’s a professional living off of his work, so there’s something about the sombre tones of the browns in his costume that help to strike that balance.”

Also in the BBC media pack, Max Irons, who plays a gentleman Henry Hobday in the flashback story, appreciated his costume, even his hat:

“Costume does affect your performance, almost subconsciously. Boots with heels encourage you walk differently to trainers, waistcoats which sinch you in and make you stand tall, plus top hats encourage you to own the space and own your own height, all of which affect how you move. However, I don’t know how anyone got through any doorway without losing their hats in those days! You might think these buildings were built for people in hats, but trust me there is still ample opportunity to bang one’s head — brimmed hats cut off a lot of spatial awareness, so I had a few bumps during filming!”

 

Have you seen Miss Austen? Do you support your local PBS station?

 

 

 

 

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