Miss Austen Regrets

BBC drama based on Jane Austen's actual letters and diaries that aims to reveal the secrets of this most elusive of novelists. Jane (Olivia Williams) is nearing her forties and has never married. Her sharply observed romantic novels are widely admired.

She is a favourite aunt to her niece Fanny Knight (Imogen Poots) who looks to Jane for help in her own search for a happy marriage. Surely the wisdom and knowledge displayed in her novels make Jane an ideal candidate for vetting suitors. But as Jane reflects on her own romantic liaisons and love affairs, she recalls the missed opportunities, the proposals spurned, and the love that arrived too late.

Did she make the right choices? Could the great novelist and supposed romantic expert have got things wrong all along? Focusing on a small part of the author's life, this drama can be seen as a companion piece to 'Becoming Jane', the 2007 film that starred Anne Hathaway as the younger Austen.