Needing tissues and a Masterpiece miniseries is pretty standard at this point. Now they’ve unveiled a new trailer forMiss Austen.The four-part miniseries is based on the novel by Gill Hornby and follows Cassandra Austen (Keeley Hawes), sister to famous Regency-era authorJane Austen. Cassandra’s claim to fame instead is the fact that after Jane died in 1817, it was found out that Cassandra burned some of Jane’s letters. Most of the ones that survived remained heavily redacted. Now, in this series,Hawes plays an older Cassandra Austen, heading back to her childhood estate in order to retrieve the letters and eventually commit the deed that shrouded her in infamy. The new trailer takes a much more emotional and dark tone than the previous trailer, released back in January.
The first trailer was light and airy, with the cozy feeling of sisterhood running through the trailer. Jane was remembered with fondness and for her deep understanding of the human condition and manners of the heart, but in this trailer,Hawes’s Cassandra feels burdened by what she must do.The show will follow two timelines: one when Cassandra is young and newly engaged to be married, when Jane is still alive, and Cassandra’s present-day circumstances locating the letters.It’s rumored that upwards of 3,000 letters originally existed but only 160 survived.In the trailer, we see Cassandra explaining to her family in the foyer that she didn’t find a single letter,only for the next scene to cut to her tossing a large stack of them into a blazing fireplace.
Cassandra Austen: Heroine or Villain?
It’s assumed that across the four-part miniseries, the audience will find out (at least through a creative liberty) why Hawes’s Cassandra Austen really burned so many of Jane Austen’s letters.It’s said that she did so to protect the propriety of her extended family, but at least in Miss Austen, there’s more to that than meets the eye. In the trailer, a young Cassandra Austen, played bySynnøve Karlsen, possibly stumbles into a romance with someone other than her fiancé, and that romance may also be why Cassandra burns the letter as there’s evidence of it.Patsy Ferranplays Jane and other members of the cast include:Rose Leslie(Game of Thrones),Max Irons(The Wife),Alfred Enoch(How to Get Away with Murder),Calam Lynch(Bridgerton) andPhyllis Logan(Downton Abbey).
Miss Austenpremieres on PBS May 4. Watch the new trailer above. Stay with Collider for the latest updates.
