The Other Bennet Sister is to Pride and Prejudice what Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is to Hamlet. The events of the original novel are all there, but the focus is on a character Jane Austen mostly neglected and occasionally scorned.

One effect is that the other sisters, including the sainted Lizzy, come across as smug and snooty

One effect is that the other sisters, including the sainted Lizzy, come across as smug and snooty

According to Mary Bennet’s opening voiceover: ‘It is a sad fact of life that if a young woman is unlucky enough to come into the world without expectations, she had better do all she can to ensure she is born beautiful. To be poor and handsome is misfortune enough; but to be penniless and plain is a hard fate indeed.’ This, it transpired, set the scene in more ways than one – not just in the plot, but in the script’s unforced mirroring of Austen’s language, Mary’s half-defiant, half-resigned melancholy and the programme’s overall ability to remain charming while being distinctly on the nose.

The Bennets’ backstory was then briskly sketched: Mr and Mrs B’s loving early marriage (a female hand gently caressing male flesh) followed by the birth of five daughters (a female hand fiercely gripping a bedpost). Returning to the present, the show established with equal efficiency that the legal entail whereby Mr Bennet’s........

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