This episode is actually quite disturbing if you think too hard about what probably happened last night. So I felt I ought to leaven it a little by bringing in the one Bennet sister that we haven’t yet met, Kitty. I felt that she would probably be the kind of person who wouldn’t bother answering an invitation until the last minute when she would send an irritating text saying she’d had a better offer.
So I thought about Regency equivalents of texts, which initially took me in the direction of telegrams – except that of course they came much later. Then, around eleven o’clock last night (I do so like deadlines) I came up with the idea of tux’d’s instead. Which was great until it struck me overnight that of course tuxedos are about as anachronistic as telegrams. Hence my addition of this footnote. I can’t quite decide whether this is a horrible kludge or an inspired piece of unpainting myself out of a corner. Either way, it’s behind us now. But it did at least give me the opportunity to sneak in an entirely gratuitous Abba reference as well.
I think we should probably have some kind of competition when we get to Episode Fifty. No idea what the prize might be, though. Watch this space …
One more thing: if you want to see what the whole of “Pride and Prejudice” might look in text format, try this by my VWC mate Dave Weaver (he’s the one who did the amazingly cool picture of Mrs Darcy on the blog). Brilliant, isn’t it?
Tux’d messages had me ROFL – and that’s not a pretty sight, I can tell you. But that’s as nothing to reading about ‘well-fit Capt Briers’. I think you should alert Richard Briers to this serial, it’s probably been a while since he was described as ‘fit’, rather than ‘much loved veteran’.
Still loving this, Jonathan.
Thanks, Nicola – glad you’re still enjoying it! Regarding Captain Briers, I should perhaps clarify things – he’s actually named after Richard Briers’ daughter, Lucy, who played Mary Bennet in the BBC serialisation. Actually, that doesn’t really help much, does it?
I’d picked up on that but unless Mary joined the army in masculine guise, I assumed it referred to Richard. (Actually, there’s an interesting plot development for Mary, in there…)
Ah, I see what you mean. Must admit, I’ve been fairly cavalier on using names, and I haven’t really bothered about allocating them from the same sex 🙂 Interesting idea for Mary – however, I’ve got something slightly different planned for her, as we’ll see in about a dozen or so episodes’ time …