BritBox Gets 'The Other Bennet Sister' for Austen Anniversary

I would start this post with the classic "It is a truth universally acknowledged," except we're about five years out from being able to say anything about streaming being universally acknowledged. Instead, let us merely say the news that BritBox is boarding the BBC's Jane Austen 250th birthday commission, The Other Bennet Sister, is deeply unsurprising. PBS and Masterpiece had already gone their own way with Miss Austen, and Netflix is in the midst of remaking the Pride & Prejudice miniseries. Of the streamers that cater to Anglophiles and need to deliver something in honor of Jane Austen's semiquincentennial, BritBox was the obvious player to bid for the BBC's series.

Like Miss Austen, which wraps up on PBS in mid-May 2025, The Other Bennet Sister is a recent novel that takes a new angle on Jane Austen's life and works. Both books arrived in 2020, and were instant best sellers and their respective authors' first major hit. (Gill Hornby, who wrote Miss Austen, had published two books prior to its publication; The Other Bennet Sister was author Janice Hadlow's debut novel.) 

However, Miss Austen follows a real-life mystery that explores the Austen sisters who outlived their famous sibling, while The Other Bennet Sister stays firmly within Austen's fictional world, focusing on Elizabeth's least-likeable sibling, bookish, sanctimonious prig Mary Bennet, who many believe was based on Jane's sister (well, sister in-law), Mary Austen.

Here is the synopsis for the forthcoming series:

The Other Bennet Sister is a fresh spin around the ballroom for one of Jane Austen’s most unassuming characters: Mary Bennet – the seemingly unremarkable and overlooked middle sister in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The series takes as its premise that - when it comes to the Bennet sisters - while we dream of being Lizzy, in reality, most of us are more like Mary. 

Unlike her sisters, Mary isn’t your typical period drama heroine. She is awkward, anxious, preachy, full of facts, a terrible singer… overlooked by her mother and seemingly destined to an empty dance card for the rest of her life… until Mary takes matters into her own hands. 

The Other Bennet Sister gives Mary Bennet the epic love story nobody predicted for her, taking her from her family home in Meryton to the soirees of Regency London and the peaks and vales of the Lake District - all in search of independence, romance, and most elusive of all, self-love and acceptance.

With BritBox on board, casting and directors for the ten-episode miniseries are expected to be announced shortly. (Ten 30-minute installments, to be clear. A half-hour episodic drama! In this economy!) Screenwriter Sarah Quintrell (His Dark Materials) wrote all episodes and executive produces along with the novel’s author (and former BBC controller), Janice Hadlow. The rest of the producing team includes Rebecca Ferguson for the BBC and Kate Crowther, Becca Kinder, & Jane Tranter for Bad Wolf. 

Tranter told Deadline that BritBox was not the only American co-producer interested, but it “had the vision and chops.” 

“I think BritBox is important for keeping a certain type of British program going,” she added. “They love period drama and quintessentially British stuff that isn’t massive flashy co-pros with enormous stars and a £5m-plus ($6.6m) budget. They are being clever by picking up the crème de la crème [of mid-budget British content] and presenting them in a way that makes them feel special.”

The Other Bennet Sister is expected to start production in the coming weeks for a late 2025 release on the BBC, and (one hopes) also on BritBox. Until then, Miss Austen is streaming on PBS Passport for members.

(Jane Austen's birthday is December 16th, y'all; I'm over here begging the BBC and BritBox to go simultaneous day and date release if that's the premiere date the BBC is aiming for. Don't make us Austen heads wait until Spring 2026.)