PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre to Air Jane Austen Adaptations

DALLAS, May 21: Beginning Sunday nights in January 2008, the
long-running PBS British drama strand Masterpiece Theater will broadcast The Complete Jane Austen, which includes adaptations of all of Jane Austen's
six novels, and Miss Austen Regrets,
a new drama based on the author’s own letters and diaries.

This marks the first time that her books have been broadcast
as a complete collection. The Complete Jane Austen will feature new adaptations of Northanger
Abbey, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Sense and Sensibility.
The lineup will also include the acclaimed Emma, starring Kate Beckinsale, and the Emmy
Award-winning miniseries Pride and Prejudice, featuring Colin Firth. Four of the titles—Northanger
Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Emma
and Pride and Prejudice—were
adapted by screenwriter Andrew Davies, whose Bleak House on Masterpiece Theatre was one of the most acclaimed television dramas of
2006.

Mansfield Park is a
coproduction of Company Productions and WGBH Boston. Persuasion is a Clerkenwell Films production for ITV in
association with WGBH Boston. Northanger Abbey is a coproduction of Granada and WGBH Boston. Sense
and Sensibility and Miss Austen
Regrets are coproductions of the BBC and
WGBH Boston. Pride and Prejudice
is a coproduction of the BBC and A&E. Emma is a coproduction of Granada and A&E.

"Masterpiece Theatre is the perfect fit for this ground-breaking television event,"
said John Wilson, the senior VP and chief TV programming executive for PBS.
"I know that I'm saving my Sundays in January for this incredible
collection of Jane Austen stories, as I know millions of Masterpiece and Austen fans will do as well."

Masterpiece Theatre has
been presented on PBS by WGBH since 1971. Rebecca Eaton is executive producer
of the series.