Jane Austen – like William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley and Arthur Conan Doyle – is one of those British writers whose work seems likely to be adapted into films and TV shows for as long as those mediums exist.
This year has been an especially fertile period for new adaptations of her books, with fresh versions of both Sense and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice arriving in the next few weeks (in addition to the BBC's spin-off series The Other Bennet Sister back in March).
Of course, both those novels have previously been adapted into projects which have since become iconic and continue to maintain large fanbases.
Want to see this content?
This page contains content provided by Google reCAPTCHA. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as Google reCAPTCHA may use cookies and other technologies. To view this content, choose 'Accept and continue' to allow Google reCAPTCHA and its required purposes.
So when we exclusively spoke to Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esme Creed-Miles about their lead roles as Eleanor and Marianne Dashwood in the new Sense and Sensibility, we asked if they found it helpful to turn to those earlier takes on the story for inspiration.
"The Ang Lee Sense [and Sensibility] is one of my favourite films," Edgar-Jones told Radio Times, referring to the Oscar-winning 1995 version that starred Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman among others.
"Emma and Kate's performances in that are something I've grown up loving and I always feel most inspired by other performances more than anything. So yes, it probably does inspire you and sort of filter through you.
But the great thing about adapting any piece of work, she added, is that there are always going to be unavoidable differences each time it is remade – owing to the different creative personnel involved.
"There is only one of you," she said. "Your context and your voice, your face, your quality will inherently imbue that character with something specific, and so that's the joy.
"Same with a filmmaker. Every Austen adaptation feels so distinctive because it's coloured by that filmmaker's sensibility, and I think that's the magic of adapting – and why it should continue to be adapted all the time."
Creed-Miles had a very different relationship to the previous film; she hadn't seen it at all before being cast and made a conscious decision to keep things that way after landing the role.
"I'm awful," she said. "I [have] such a compare and despair mindset. I don't know why it had passed me by for some reason, but it just had. And I know what high esteem that '90s film is held in.
"And I thought, you know what? I'm going to enjoy this film that has been on my watch list for some time when I'm finished with this – because I don't want to be in my head about it too much.
"But everyone's different," she added. "And I agree with what Daisy's saying about inspiration, I'm definitely inspired by people and their work. But maybe [not] when it's a specific project."
Interestingly, author Diana Reid – who wrote the screenplay for this new version – admitted that the previous adaptations actually made her life easier in some respects, giving her an idea for things it might be best to avoid repeating.
"One thing about Austen being so endlessly adapted is that there almost becomes certain genre cliches," she explained. "There are things that you've seen before a lot of times, and I think that it pushed us to try and do new things."
She continued: "There are some scenes from the Ang Lee film that are particularly iconic, and if you feel like you don't want to repeat the same beat, then that forces you to think outside the box."
To give one example, she explained how because there is a famous picnic scene in the Lee movie – and another similar sequence in 2017's Emma – she decided to turn that moment in her film into a country dance, known as a hop.
"We felt like that was something that's different to the ball that you've seen before, where everyone's very uptight. It's a much more grounded version of a social event.
"So, I think you're definitely conscious of the clichés and what's come before, but I think it's those constraints that make you more creative. They force you to try new things."
Sense and Sensibility is released in UK cinemas on Friday 25 September 2026.
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.