As the author’s final work, Sanditon, starts on television, the acclaimed screenwriter Andrew Davies talks about ‘the joy of Jane’He’s the king of the period drama, the man who infamously sexed up everything from Pride and Prejudice to War and Peace, but Andrew Davies says that the key to his success lies not in nudity but in a good sense of humour.
“I think people don’t often realise that a lot of the joy of Jane Austen is that these books are funny,” he says. “People think that, to adapt her, you’ve got to use long words and fancy sentences, and that’s not the case at all. She could be very succinct and to the point and had a great sense of humour.”