Reimagining Pride and Prejudice: The Other Bennet Sister

Since it was first published over 200 years ago, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has had a lasting impact on literature.

The novel, which is credited for defining the enemies-to-lovers archetype, has inspired hundreds of adaptations over the years - and in March 2026, the BBC is releasing a new drama called The Other Bennet Sister.

Adapted from the acclaimed 2020 novel of the same name by writer Janice Hadlow, the drama reimagines Pride and Prejudice through the lens of the often overlooked middle sister, Mary Bennet.

BBC Bitesize spoke to lead actress Ella Bruccoleri and screenwriter Sarah Quintrell to find out more about the series.

A classic tale with a modern twist

Much like the novel, The Other Bennet Sister begins at Longbourn, the Bennet family home, where Mr and Mrs Bennet reside with their five unmarried daughters. It follows the sisters as they navigate love, status, friendships and sisterhood in 19th Century Georgian society.

But unlike her four sisters, who pursue romance and social triumph, in this series Mary Bennet sets out on a different path on a journey of self-discovery.

Sarah, who wrote nine of the ten half-hour episodes, told BBC Bitesize that working on the drama was the most fun she’s had while writing.

But the process of adapting a drama series based on Janice Hadlow’s novel, which in turn was based on Austen’s 1813 story, comes with its own set of challenges. “Adapting is kind of like a translation of language,” Sarah explained. This exercise involved a huge amount of careful and thoughtful research into the history and literature of the time.

And like inhabiting any much-loved fictional world, there is a lot of pressure and expectation.

“I think I could have terrified myself if I really had stopped to consider that I was writing in the Pride and Prejudice world,” she said. “I just chose to focus on the complete joy of it and how exciting it was to kind of be allowed to play in that world”.

Lead star, Ella, who also appeared in Call the Midwife and Bridgerton, echoed this sentiment, “I didn’t even really deep too much this whole Pride and Prejudice thing, the fact it is this huge, iconic institution,” she explained. “I was mainly just really excited by the character of Mary and the way that Sarah had written her with all of the human messiness that I longed to see on the page”.

The drama, which was filmed in Wales, features a stellar cast, including Richard E. Grant and Ruth Jones as Mr and Mrs Bennet, as well as Indira Varma and Richard Coyle.

“Everyone across the board was perfectly cast in the show,” Ella told us. “It just makes your job really easy because you’re playing across from people that are not only really good but who inhabit their characters very fully”.

“We don't often put characters like that at the centre of the story”

Both Ella and Sarah agree that an exploration of Austen’s fictional landscape through Mary’s eyes is significant for many reasons.

“One of the things that Janice [Hadlow] said early on was that we all like to think we’re Lizzie Bennet, but in reality, most of us are Mary,” Sarah said.

Unlike her sisters, Mary defies society’s pressures to pursue marriage or status. Instead, she decides to leave Longhorn and travel to London in a bid to find her place in the world. Along the way, we witness the teenager struggle with her sense of identity and learn how she fits into the world around her.

“Ultimately, The Other Bennet Sister, for me, has always been about the transformative power of kindness and what that can do in a young life,” Sarah told Bitesize. “When we stop judging and we just open up and we’re not trying to shape somebody to be who we want them to be.”

By putting Mary Bennet’s character into the spotlight, Ella and Sarah hope that it can help others step out of the shadows and into their own story.

Ella hopes the show will help young viewers who feel on the periphery and haven’t quite found themselves yet. “You will find the people that love you for who you are and you shouldn’t have to change in order to be loved and accepted,” she said. “That’s the beautiful realisation that Mary comes to.”

This article was published in March 2026