Recently, I found the time to sit down and re-watch the British TV series Lost In Austen. This mini-series follows the adventures of one Amanda Price who lives in modern London, loves ‘Pride & Prejudice’, and would like a different life. One night she hears a banging sound in her bathroom, she enters her bathroom to find a young woman dressed in Regency era clothing turning the bathroom light on and off. Well, the young woman is none other than Elizabeth Bennet who has entered Amanda’s bathroom through a door in her father’s attic. Amanda pushes on the wall above the bath tub and finds herself in the attic of the Bennet family home. The door swings closed and Amanda is stuck.
I have fond memories of watching it with my daughter and worried that the memory made the original viewing better than it was. Have you ever done that? Talked something up, say a movie, restaurant that you once watched, ate at, years ago but when you revisit it the bloom is off the rose. The possibility gave me pause but I pressed on and watched the series in two nights. During the second episode my son who was home wandered through during the ball at Neverfield and spouted in his best upper-crusty English accent, “Ah, I see they’re playing ‘Sonata in Copulation’.”
I’m happy to say that the second viewing was wonderful. There seemed to be a few odd moments when scenes ended abruptly and that I’m assuming were cut. One in particular where our heroine, Amanda is asked to play the pianoforte but sadly she is unable as in she can’t because after all not many 20th century young women have learned that skill instead she sings, the 1965 hit song Downtown originally sung by Petula Clark. Trust me cutting this scene chops up the flow of things and removes an element of humor that is played off later in the series. Below is the missing scene for your enjoyment:
