I think this is right up Fug Nation’s street. This week, the nice people at Acorn TV — who brought us Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries a few contests ago — are giving away a DVD set of their classic drama collection. Look at how young Kate Beckinsale is on the front of the box:
Included are the following swoony tales of hot sad British men (some of whom maybe should have mentioned that they have A WIFE IN THE ATTIC) and the women who love them:
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1997) – Samantha Morton plays ol’ Reader, I Married Him Jane; Ciarán Hinds is the broody and perhaps overly-secretive Mr Rochester.
Jane Austen’s Emma (1996) – Kate Beckinsale takes on the titular role.
The Woman in White (1997) – This is the version that you might have seen on Masterpiece Mystery, with Tara Fitzgerald and Justine Waddell and James Wilby and Simon Callow — or as I always think of him, Mr Beebe from A Room With a View — and also Andrew Lincoln.
The Death of the Heart (1987) – Which I am not familiar with, but! Miranda Richardson is involved. Per the press release: “Based on Elizabeth Bowen’s novel, in 1930s London, an awkward 16-year-old struggles to find herself through a disastrous love affair. Starring Robert Hardy (All Creatures Great and Small), Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers (Coronation Street).” I LOVE disasterous affairs in 1930s London!
The Lady’s Not for Burning (1987) – Kenneth Branagh must have been VERY DREAMY and young in 1987. That’s not a total non-sequitur; he appears in this. Ahem: “Based on the play by Christopher Fry, a beautiful woman accused of witchcraft (Cherie Lunghi, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Horatio Hornblower) and a world-weary drifter (Kenneth Branagh) are thrown together before their executions.”
SOUNDS FUN! Well, not the executions. But the rest of it!
THE TASK: We only have one winner this week, and I will pick said winner from the comments by random draw. But to make it entertaining, please tell us in which fictional work you would like to awake one morning, were the temporal lines between fiction and reality to dissolve via witchcraft one day. (ANY fictional work, not just the above.)
THE RULES: All entries must be posted in the comments of this post by 9 p.m. Pacific time on Monday. (US and Canada residents only, unfortunately.)
