Jane Austen's Persuasion receives a devoted treatment in this 1971 BBC production. A financial blow to the Elliot family brings the eldest daughter, Anne (Ann Firbank), back in contact with Captain Wentworth (Bryan Marshall), whose offer of marriage she was persuaded to decline seven years before. Will the conflicting forces of social rules, family interference, and personal temperament allow her to set things right? The capable cast of this clean, straightforward adaptation bring Austen's satirical characterizations to vivid life. Firbank earns our sympathies with quiet grace and exquisitely restrained yearning. While the stronger, headlong pace of the 1995 film version of Persuasion makes for a more concentrated emotional pay-off, this two-part miniseries, at four hours, captures more of the novel's details, making it just as satisfying. Austen's skillful plotting makes the romantic hopes and fortunes of the 19th-century English middle class as suspenseful as any mystery or thriller. --Bret Fetzer
