NEW JANE AUSTEN TV SERIES SANDITON PREMIERES JAN 12 ON PBS

Just in time for winter! A new series to fill the Downton Abbey void. I love Jane Austen and look forward to watching it!

Jane Austen was chronically ill with a mysterious disease in early 1817, when she turned her thoughts to a happier subject. She started work on a witty and delightful novel set in a seaside town. She never finished it.

Now, noted screenwriter Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice, Les Misérables, Primetime Emmy® winner for Little Dorrit) picks up Austen’s plot and takes it in a glorious and satisfying direction, on Sanditon.

MASTERPIECE’s bold and lavish adaptation of Jane Austen’s final work stars Rose Williams (Curfew) as Austen’s lively but levelheaded heroine, Charlotte Heywood; Theo James (Divergent) as the humorous, charming (and slightly wild!) Sidney Parker; Anne Reid (Years and Years) as the forthright grande dame of Sanditon, Lady Denham; Kris Marshall (Love Actually) as Sanditon’s compulsively enterprising promoter, Tom Parker; and Crystal Clarke (Ordeal by Innocence) as the mysterious West Indian heiress, Miss Lambe.

DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY: 2 PART MASTERPIECE MYSTERY DEBUTS SUNDAY!

Masterpiece Mystery!: Death Comes to Pemberley 

The two-part program is scheduled for broadcast Oct. 26 and Nov. 2

It is the eve of the Darcys' annual ball at their magnificent Pemberley estate. Darcy and Elizabeth, now six years married, are relaxing with their guests after supper when the festivities are brought to an abrupt halt.

A scream calls them to the window and a hysterical Lydia Wickham tumbles out of a carriage shrieking, "Murder!" What follows is the somber discovery of a dead man in Pemberley woods, a brother accused of murder, and the beginning of a nightmare that will threaten to engulf Pemberley and all the Darcys hold dear.

Adapted from P.D. James' clever whodunit, this delicious homage to Jane Austen's beloved Pride and Prejudice stars Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House), Matthew Rhys (The Americans), Matthew Goode (The Good Wife), and Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who). Elizabeth and Darcy never knew marriage would be like this!