Four Times Knightly

I was a bit surprised they were stringing out Emma over four episodes. Unlike the rumbustious plot of Pride and Prejudice the story of Emma is so slight. But the adaptation was wonderfully written, and has opened up the book rather than simplifying it as the terrible film version with Gwynnie did, which turned this nasty black comedy into a sunny bonnets and punnets romp.

Romola Garai was utterly beguiling as Emma Woodhouse, and brought a new interpretation to the role, making her motivation much more complex than I'd considered before – we see how lonely she is once her best friend is married off, and that means that her subsequent busy-bodying behaviour (which she transfers on to poor chattering self-confessed dullster Miss Bates, heartbreakingly performed by Tamsin Greig, especially in the famous picnic scene) all makes rather more sense. The production had a more melancholy undertone than previous ones. All to the good.

Some of it worked less well, though. Mr Elton wasn't anywhere near as much of a creep as required. And Mr Knightly, as portrayed by Jonny Lee Miller, was unrecognisable from the novel. Gone was the mysterious, shadowy, emotionally remote figure, barely described until Emma realises he is the object of her affection at the close of novel. Instead we have a wet weekend: a cuddly, ineffectual wimp whining and simpering around Emma like a fool. And this is a shame, as it unbalanced the adaptation, meaning that all of the feelings were blatant right from the off, which spoils the fun.

Clueless remains my favourite adaptation of Emma, coming closest to the outrageous spirit of the novel, but this has been a lovely, cosy Sunday night drama and I'll miss it now it's over, acting as it does as a perfect detox for the excesses of the X-Factor. Of course, I cried at the end (Michael Gambon having much the same effect on me as Bernard Cribbins had in Doctor Who), but then these days I well up if someone holds a door open for me.