EXCLUSIVE: Three decades on from her Oscar-winning movie, Emma Thompson is returning to the world of Sense and Sensibility with an Audible podcast telling the story of the youngest Dashwood sister.
Thompson is producing and leading sequel Becoming Meg Dashwood with an ensemble including Emmy-nominee Erin Doherty (Adolescence), BAFTA-winner Naomi Ackie (Mickey 17), Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning, acting legend Imelda Staunton, Liz Carr, Paterson Joseph, Greg Wise and Golda Rosheuvel.
The drama picks up where Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility left off, with Thompson playing Margaret Dashwood in what is described as a “riotous, rebellious period drama about female friendship, sexuality and liberation.” Fresh off her astonishing turn in Netflix’s Adolescence, Doherty plays Margaret’s younger self Meg and Ackie is her lover Nelly. Carr plays Mrs Dashwood, Gunning is Hester and Staunton is Mrs Jennings.
Penned by Rebecca Humphries and with music from Natasha Khan AKA Bat For Lashes, the pod comes some 30 years after Ang Lee’s hit Sense and Sensibility adaptation, which won Thompson an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The movie garnered seven Oscar nods and also starred Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and the late Alan Rickman.
Thompson said: “I am very thrilled and proud to have been a part of bringing Audible and Rebecca Humphries’ extraordinary drama to life. Their vision for the youngest Dashwood sister takes us from Austen’s world into the more hidden parts of women’s lives, parts that were not written about at the time, at least not openly. I think Austen would have been fascinated and delighted with the language and with the story, and gladdened by the desire to take one of her characters and give her a future and a big, unexpected voice.”
Produced by Polly Thomas for Thomas Carter Projects, Becoming Meg Dashwood is directed by Jo Tyabji (Sam Mendes’ Bleak House, Antigone). It comes soon after Audible unveiled multilingual Pride of Prejudice remakes starring Marisa Abela, Harris Dickinson, Glenn Close, Lyna Khoudri and Lucas Bravo.
