Peter McGinn

7/10

Of course Sanditon is based on an unfinished Jane Austen novel, and that plus the presence of Anne Reid in the cast was enough for me to give it a look. It certainly has the fingerprints of Jane Austen all over it: young people fall in love at the drop of a hanky, the social politics of marriage and yes, the dancing. There are plenty of scheming and downright evil men around to keep stirring up trouble. If I break it down I would rate Series One 8.0 out of 10, and Series Two just 6.0 out of 10. The second series just seemed too familiar to me. There were elements of Pride and Prejudice with a couple of the lead characters and Marianne was there showing her heart’s desire and chasing the wrong man again, though she had a different name. Did the writers get lazy and think, “Hey, these are Austen fans, let’s recycle stuff from a couple of her books!” I guess there is going to be a third series, since they left one of the couple uncoupled at the end of Series 2, and what, is that another man for her standing next to her? Ah well, let the third season handle that and other problems yet to be determined. For me that will leave the lesser problem of whether I bother to give it a try.