Willingly lost in Austen

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This was published 12 years ago

Willingly lost in Austen

Costume drama ... Austen fans in Longbourn gardens.

Costume drama ... Austen fans in Longbourn gardens.Credit: Shaney Hudson

Shaney Hudson finds plenty of Pride and Prejudice memories on this tour but, sadly, no shirtless Mr Darcy.

NEVER underestimate the appeal of a man with mutton chops. The BBC may have screened its production of Pride and Prejudice more than 17 years ago but seemingly nothing can quell the quiver of a thousand ladies watching recent Oscar winner Colin Firth emerge dripping wet from a lake in the English countryside.

"Jane Austen's characters are living creatures and that's why we adore them so much," says Helen Porter, who runs P and P Tours, a company that takes guests across the English countryside in search of the locations used in the BBC production. She began the tours after a Pride and Prejudice pilgrimage to mark her daughter's 18th birthday only to find a niche market for people who can't get enough of Britain's most popular bonnet drama.

There's one thing I learn quickly about a tour like this: the characters who go on tour are almost as good as the ones in Austen's novels. Among them is a Russian beauty doing her PhD on the representation of Austen in film; two ladies from Sussex with a fetish for period dress ("bonneting," one tells me, "is an expensive habit"); a group of teenagers who re-enact their favourite Pride and Prejudice scenes with a video camera when they think no one is looking; sisters who bare a remarkable likeness in both attitude and dress to the Bingley sisters; British mother and daughter Kay and Keli, who good-heartedly bicker like Australia's Kath & Kim; two Korean girls who speak no English; and American Ed, the only male on the trip. He's quickly christened the group's Darcy, until his wife informs us he's really more like Mr Collins.

Funnily enough, there are some in the group who have never read Austen's book and others who can recite it by heart.

The four-day tour begins in Bath and visits historical towns, National Trust houses and private residences used in the series. It's a quirky mix of experiences: a carriage ride with the horses featured in the production; a drive an hour out of the way just to glimpse, through locked gates, the house that was used as Netherfield.

In the small rural village of Lacock we chat with Sue, a local who saw the perfectly preserved 18th-century village transformed into the fictional town of Meryton. Tucked under her arm are two personal albums full of grainy photos of the production that she took with an old negative camera. There's a small scrimmage to get a look at the pictures as Sue recalls the 100 tonnes of gravel placed along the main road and that Julia Sawalha (who played the trouble-making Lydia) was the friendliest cast member, posing for photos between takes.

The National Trust owns the village almost in its entirety and, similar to other National Trust properties used in Pride and Prejudice, there has been a boom in visitors. However, for the owners of the private homes used for the series, its popularity has been a mixed blessing; some have struggled with the public's sense of ownership over their homes. The success of the tour lies in the genuine relationships Porter has built with these home owners, gaining for her clients exclusive access to the P and P world.

Tor Owen has turned her property, Teigh Old Rectory, into a B&B where some of the group spend the night. Her Leicestershire home was used as Hunsford Parsonage, where Mr Darcy makes his bungled first proposal to Lizzie. While our teenage tour members hang back to re-create the scene, Owen shows us Lizzie's bedroom, where, in Austen's narrative, Lady Catherine de Bourgh insists shelves are placed in the upstairs cupboard. Tor explains that the BBC made some modifications to the house ("That's BCC wallpaper," she says, as she heads up the stairs), including the addition of Lady Catherine's infamous shelves. But in Lizzie's bedroom, we open the cupboard in anticipation, only to find they're missing.

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"Yes," Tor says, rather amused by our reaction. "I found it rather irritating that it was all shelves, so I whipped them out." We're all quite impressed she would dare defy the formidable Lady Catherine.

The tour allows an intimate insight into the intricacies of the production, and comes with juicy tidbits about the relationships shared by the offscreen characters. We hang on every word about Jennifer Elhe and Colin Firth's short but saucy real-life relationship during filming and we're amazed to hear Mr Collins and Mr Darcy played the acoustic guitar together between takes (although none of us can quite imagine Mr Collins having a jam session).

There's no doubt this is a tour for the fans and run by fans and that to enjoy it you have to be fluent in Jane Austen. At times, it is slightly disorganised.By the fourth day, even this certified Pride and Prejudice lover is a little Austened out.

However, the true diehard lovers of bonnet dramas are indefatigable.

It takes a trek across a sheep paddock at Lyme Park, the estate used as the exterior of Pemberley, to find the infamous pond Firth dived in to. Once we get there, though, eager faces fall: it turns out it was not Firth who dived into the lake but, rather, a stunt double. The additional underwater scenes were filmed in a tank in a London studio. However, spirits are buoyed again when the group arrives at the precise spot at Pemberley where Lizzie first sees the grand estate and, later, Mr Darcy in a wet shirt.

Visiting Pemberley is the finale of the tour but it is Luckington Court in Wiltshire, where the fictional Bennets live, that, for me, is the true highlight of the trip.

Our group arrives in full regency dress and it is surreal to stand in the courtyard of Longbourn. The buttercup-yellow building glows in the late summer sunshine and the Russian beauty unselfconsciously hugs the front pillar of the building's entryway, closing her eyes for just a second.

I understand how she feels: after studying Pride and Prejudice at high school and university and watching the film so many times I broke my VHS copy, being in the sitting room of Longbourn in full period dress is stepping into another world.

After champagne in the garden and supper in the sitting room, we listen as Porter's daughter plays the familiar score from Pride and Prejudice on the piano. Scripts are handed out and we take turns reading parts. Nan, 83, declares she will read Mrs Bennet ("I used to tread the boards in my youth, you know") but it's Ed reading Mr Bennet's part in his thick Boston accent that has us all giggling.

Supper is prepared by the family who own Luckington Court and I chat with 12-year-old Amy as she helps clear our coffee cups. I'm curious to hear what she thinks of all these odd people in period dress in her house.

It turns out she hasn't ever seen Pride and Prejudice. "I've watched a few clips on YouTube," she shrugs. Just then, the family dog, a little Jack Russell terrier, gets out.

"Lizzie!" Amy cries, running after it. Chaos ensues as the dog scampers among the group and I almost fall over laughing with disbelief: the family called their dog Lizzie, after Pride and Prejudice's classic female heroine, Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Seeing Lizzie run riot with her tail wagging in the sitting room of Longbourn definitely made the tour worthwhile.

The writer was a guest of raileurope.com.au and P and P Tours.

Trip notes

Getting there

Qantas flies from Sydney to London, priced from $2248. 13 13 13, qantas.com.au. Regular trains connect Bath and Manchester with London. raileurope.com.au.

Touring there

P and P Tours runs four-day Pride and Prejudice BBC tours from June to September beginning in Bath and ending in Manchester. Tours start from £499 ($778), including coach transfers, shared accommodation and some meals. However, accommodation varies widely and there are some options to stay in locations used for filming. Check the website for details. Regency dress hire and sales can also be arranged in advance for an additional fee. P and P Tours also run one-day trips including afternoon tea with Mrs Bennet at Longbourn in May and July and an additional tour to coincide with the Jane Austen Festival in Bath. +44 078 0966 6309, pandptours.co.uk.

Five other fan tours

1 Doctor Who This three-day tour starts in London and takes in all the best locations from the past 40 years of the Doctor, including the Cybermen at St Pauls, Bad Wolf Bay and the home of the current series, Cardiff. From £499, britmovietours.com.

2 Sense & Sensibility and Persuasion For those who can't get enough of the Bonnet dramas, P&P Tours runs tours based on film locations from other popular Austen adoptions including the BBC's 1995 Persuasion and Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility. Five-day tours start at £899. pandptours.co.uk.

3 James Bond One for the boys, London's 3½-hour James Bond walking tour not only covers film locations used in the franchise but also landmarks in the life of its author, Ian Fleming, as well as tales of espionage in London. Weekly tours from £25 ($39). britmovietours.com.

4 Harry Potter Led by an actor, this walking tour of London visits key locations used in the Harry Potter film franchise, including the Australian High Commission (pictured), which was used as Gringotts Bank, finishing up at platform 9¾ at Kings Cross station. Tours from Friday to Sunday, from £20. discount-london.com.

5 Trainspotting The antithesis of all things Austen, Trainspotting tours in Edinburgh retrace locations from the gritty book and equally gritty film that made Ewan McGregor's career. Weekly from £8. leithwalks.co.uk.

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