Lost In Austen a success… but not with viewers?

By Paul Hirons on September 4th, 2008 4 comments

Yes, we enjoyed Lost In Austen quite a lot last night. And so did the big, proper posh critics. In fact I haven’t seen the words ‘froth’, ‘confection’ and erm, ‘trifle’ used in such glorious abundance since I tried to describe my friend’s excellent puddings. It was widely agreed that watching Lost In Austen was like mainlining candyfloss, so light and breezy was its Regency take on Life On Mars. Fair play to ITV for making it and giving such a quirky idea (as quirky as ITV dare to get on weekday evening) life and a decent time slot. So why didn’t it blitz the ratings?

Last night’s TV was rammed with quality. There was the ever-excellent Who Do You Think You Are? over on BBC One (even though it featured the quite annoying Esther Rantzen) and over on BBC Two there was the extraordinarily heavy but immersive God On Trial.

You’d have thought that a fluffy time-travelling drama would have been a nice anecdote to the darkening nights and the colder weather, but apparently not.

Who Do You Think You Are? absolutely smashed it in the ratings, according to The Guardian, attracting a very good 6.2million viewers. Lost In Austen, meanwhile, could only muster 3.8m. Still a pretty reasonable amount of people, but pop it next to WDYTYA? And it looks a bit flimsy.

Why was this? You can’t deny that WDYTYA? Is a uniformly excellent and riveting watch, so it was up against a strong programme. But what I don’t hope is that it was too quirky or out-there for ITV1 audiences. I know that sounds incredibly snobbish, but c’mon… we normally have When Police Chases Go Insane or something in that slot. I just hope that ITV1 doesn’t get scared off by the opening week’s audience figures, continues to push it and doesn’t muck about it. Show courage ITV1, show courage!

Join TVScoop on Facebook for exclusive competitions and gossip

Category: Columns and Opinions, Lost In Austen
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tom

It didn’t get an audience because it was a totally cynical piece of pap – it’s not enough to cross a bonnet boiler with Life on Mars and simply hope for the best. The dialogue was woeful, some of the performances atrociously hammy and for those of us suffering from frock fatigue the whole was about as appealing as a coach trip to croydon… but quite apart from that it didn’t get good figures because somewhere along the line ITV has ‘Lost its audience.’No one comes through the door for ITV anymore and this Austen trash did pretty much exactly as well/badly as every other 9pm drama launched by the channel this year… and is destined to dip to 3.1 for its second outing….
Inigo

You know, I think it might pick up next week. I missed it Wednesday night and tried to watch the ITV Catch Up service. I’m assuming it wasn’t just audio and still pictures, right? Anyway, I did finally manage to see it and really enjoyed it. It was frothy fun, nothing more, nothing less. What’s striking, however, is how many people are still talking about it in blogs, on forums, etc. and that generally, the comments are fairly positive. I think word of mouth might have an effect. Plus, I’m not sure Ainsley Harriott, the next WDYTYA subject is as popular as the evergreeen Esther.
kathryn

Some people have been putting Lost in Austen down but lets think about this for a minute. There has been a number of things before Lost in Austen about pride and prejudice that’s grabbed our attention, like the one which the BBC did, the 2 movies called pride and prejudice, bride and prejudice and probably more.

I think the cast which they picked suited Lost in Austen very well. When you get into Lost in Austen and know the story before hand, they do some things which surprise people who know the story very well. They get some hilarious things in this Lost in Austen which you couldn’t get in if it was just a remake, like the scene with Lydia and Amanda in the bedroom or the scene were Amanda assaults Mr Collins. If you don’t find at least a tiny bit funny i don’t know what you find funny.

Jemima Rooper has done us proud, but let’s not forget Elliot Cowan who played Mr Darcy. He looks the part and sounds like the part as well. He didn’t let me down playing Mr Darcy.

Overall to me Lost in Austen is quite simply marvelous.
Liz

I would like to add my comment about Lost in Austen, It is brilliant we cannot wait for Wednesday night in our house. It is entertaining with brilliant acting and it is also hilarious. We love it, well done ITV.