Jane Austen’s House in Chawton is kicking off Jane Austen’s 250th birthday year with the opening of a new exhibition featuring original scripts from the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
The anniversary exhibition, which opens on January 22, will be supported by the BBC and Leicester’s De Montfort University.
Called Austenmania!, it looks back to 1995 – an astonishing year of film and television adaptations that changed the Austen landscape forever.
Thirty years on from this extraordinary year, and 250 years on from Jane Austen’s birth, Jane Austen’s House will celebrate the four landmark adaptations that were first seen in 1995.
There was Andrew Davies’ seminal adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for the BBC, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle; Emma Thompson and Ang Lee’s stunning big-screen adaptation of Sense and Sensibility; BBC Screen Two’s quiet, unhurried adaptation of Persuasion, starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds; and the frothy masterpiece that is Clueless! – a brilliant reimagining of Emma set in the Los Angeles hills.
The exhibition will showcase two original Pride and Prejudice transmission scripts from the Andrew Davies Archive and handwritten notes on the production from the Sue Birtwistle Archive, on loan from De Montfort University.
Production shots, original cinema posters, merchandise and original press cuttings will also feature in the exhibition.
A facsimile of all the Pride and Prejudice scripts will be available for visitors to leaf through, brought to life via the original BBC Pride and Prejudice soundtrack which will accompany the exhibition.
Austenmania! will also feature Perspectives on Pride and Prejudice, a collection of specially commissioned essays on the BBC adaptation looking at the production from different viewpoints.
Contributors include comedian and actress Rosie Holt, the BBC’s head of history Robert Seatter, Justin Smith, a professor of cinema and television history at De Montfort University, Keith Lodwick, a film and theatre historian and a specialist in film costume, and Beth Cykowski, a scholar of continental philosophy.
The Austenmania! exhibition will run throughout 2025 and there is no additional charge to see it.
Sophie Reynolds, the head of collections, interpretation and events at Jane Austen’s House, said: “The year 1995 was an amazing one for Jane Austen.
“The whole country tuned in to watch Pride and Prejudice and fell in love with Lizzy Bennet and Mr Darcy. I remember the buzz around that production – everyone was watching it!
“It was a huge moment for Jane Austen’s House too – visitor numbers went through the roof and have stayed high ever since, so it really feels as though the house is part of the story.
“It's been great fun to revisit all four of the brilliant adaptations that came out that year and I hope the exhibition will inspire visitors to watch them all again in this special anniversary year – 250 years after Jane Austen’s birth!"
Justin Smith, a professor of cinema and television history at De Montfort University, said: “In the history of Austen adaptations, 1995 was an annus mirabilis which captivated screen audiences worldwide and introduced new generations to her work through vivid, contemporary interpretations and compelling performances.
“De Montfort University is delighted to be able to contribute to this amazing Austen anniversary exhibition original scripts, production notes and press materials for Pride and Prejudice courtesy of our special collections department, who are the custodians of personal papers donated by screenwriter Andrew Davies in 2015 and producer Sue Birtwistle in 2024.
“This year’s collaboration with Jane Austen’s House, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, promotes the creative use of screen adaptations to encourage greater access to and fresh perspectives on Austen’s classic novels and the author’s life and times.”
Austenmania! is the second exhibition to be opened by Jane Austen’s House to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth.
In October 2024 Jane Austen’s House unveiled a new and permanent exhibition, Jane Austen and the Art of Writing, which explores Austen’s creative writing process, features objects that directly inspired her writing and displays a rare collection of first editions of all six of her novels, on display together for the first time at the house where she wrote them.
Austenmania! opens just ahead of the museum’s Pride and Prejudice Festival, the first of five festivals running at Jane Austen’s House throughout 2025 to celebrate the anniversary of Austen’s birth.
The Pride and Prejudice Festival will build on the success of the museum’s annual Pride and Prejudice Day on January 28, the date of the novel’s publication in 1813, and will run from January 23 to 28.
Events will include a re-enactment of the first ever reading of Pride and Prejudice, in the very room in which Jane Austen read aloud from a published copy for the first time.
There will be a performance of the music from the BBC adaptation, a live in-house Pride and Prejudice edition of the museum’s popular virtual book club, talks, house tours and virtual events including the online release of a talk from Dinah Collin, the award-winning costume designer who designed the costumes for the 1995 BBC adaptation.
During the festival visitors can also enjoy a free trail, live piano music, a Pride and Prejudice photo station, pop-up talks and drop-in stitching and writing sessions.
Additional festivals will follow throughout the year, with a Sense and Sensibility Festival running from May 1 to 11, an Emma Festival running from July 12 to 20 - including the museum’s popular annual Dress Up Day on July 19 - a Persuasion and Poetry Festival running between September 12 and 21, and the Jane Austen’s Birthday Celebration Week running from December 13 to 21.
Full festival line-ups and tickets will be released in due course. Tickets for the Pride and Prejudice Festival are on sale now at https://janeaustens.house/visit/whats-on/
Throughout 2025 Jane Austen’s House will continue to run its regular events programme of virtual book clubs, guided village walks, waking up the house tours and guided virtual tours. Tickets for the January to March editions of these events are on sale now at https://janeaustens.house/visit/whats-on/
A new book, A Jane Austen Year: Celebrating 250 Years of Jane Austen, will be published by Jane Austen’s House and Batsford Books. The book charts the life, works and legacy of Jane Austen through the seasons of a year at Jane Austen’s House.
A Jane Austen Year is available to order now. Copies bought directly from Jane Austen’s House will be delivered in January, before its general release on March 13.
A podcast accompanying the book was launched on January 2. A Jane Austen Year is a mindful, soothing and uplifting podcast that transports the listener to Jane Austen’s House.
Each month listeners can expect a seasonal journey through Jane Austen’s novels, the story of her life and the world she lived in, including scenes, letters, recipes and objects from the museum collection, bound together with original music and sounds recorded in the house itself. The first episode is available now.
Tickets, news and more event details for 2025 can be found at https://janeaustens.house/visit/jane-austen-250/