When we left Mary in The Other Bennet Sister finale, against the odds she had secured her fairytale ending – or as close to a fairytale ending as the early 19th century would allow.
Elizabeth Bennet's younger, often overlooked sister, played by former Call the Midwife star Ella Bruccoleri, married a man who she genuinely loved, and who genuinely loved her – especially the parts everyone else sneered at and mocked.
But, as BAFTA Breakthrough recipient Bruccoleri told Radio Times, reality has officially set in for her character in the three-part Christmas special.
"They are completely in love still, the soppy pair! Nothing has changed in that regard," she said of Mary and Tom (Donal Finn), who have been married for a year when we're reunited with them. "But you see Mary sort of suddenly go, 'Oh, I have to be a wife now, and I don't really know how to do that.'
"It's not a natural role for her because that means running a household. She's expected to be this domestic goddess, so she buys all these Regency manuals about how to be the perfect wife. She's like, 'Okay, I've got to do it by the letter.' Because the only way that Mary really knows how to approach things is academically."
And so begins her obsession with food preservation.
"She gets really into pickling and jarring fruits," laughed Bruccoleri. "She just spends all day pickling, from morning 'til night; just pickling. She's like, that's what wives do."
Bruccoleri described it as Mary entering "tradwife territory", adding: "It's almost like a parody of that. It's funny to watch someone playing that role, which a lot of that concept feels like it's doing. It's performative, in a way."
But while there's plenty of comedic fodder in that, Mary "starts to lose her identity a little bit".
"I think the thing that we were interested in exploring was marriage as an assault on a woman's identity. And how you can be very much in love with the person that you're with, and have that kind of perfect fairy tale, but ultimately, you're expected to become this thing that might not naturally fit with who you are very well at all," Bruccoleri expanded.
"And so it's her working at how she can live with Tom and be in love with Tom, but do it in her own way. There must be a way of doing marriage and motherhood that doesn't feel like you have to fit into this mould that's so clearly laid out for you."
"I think that's why it feels so relevant still," added Bruccoleri, who acknowledged that even when women are in relationships with loving, generous and progressive men, "the caregiving, the organisational load, the mental load, the thinking five steps ahead" still primarily falls to women.
"It's more ingrained in us that we're the ones that have to do that," she said. "It all sits with the women. And I guess we're more aware of that now, but it's still the case."
"With marriage comes a new identity and the question remains: who will Mary become as Mrs Hayward?" reads the synopsis for the Christmas special.
"But just as Mary begins this new chapter, an unexpected visitor from her past arrives at her door in need of her help."
Alongside Bruccoleri and Finn as Mary and Tom Hayward, Ruth Jones (Gavin & Stacey) returns as Mrs Bennet, alongside Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education) as Caroline Bingley and Laurie Davidson (The Girlfriend) as Mr Ryder.
Other returning cast members include Poppy Gilbert (Chloe) as Lizzie Darcy, Maddie Close (Chasing Red) as Jane Bingley, Grace Hogg-Robinson (COBRA) as Lydia Wickham and Molly Wright (The A Word) as Kitty Buncock.
Nerys Amber Stocks (Out There) has also joined the cast as Lucy, the Haywards' housekeeper.
Asked whether the festive special feels like a full stop for Mary’s story, Bruccoleri said it could serve as one if the characters are left there.
"It hasn't been left on a cliffhanger, and we didn't do that with the series either," she confirmed. "But there's more to explore, definitely. I think it's well known we won't be doing another series because they're going off and exploring other things – [the BBC has teased a follow-up based on another Jane Austen novel]. But there's a world in which we might come back for these kind of small chunks.
"That might happen, it might not happen. It's being floated but equally, it could end there. And I think it's nice to just feel like each one kind of wraps itself up."
Bruccoleri is one of the recipients of this year's BAFTA Breakthrough winner award, supported in the UK by Netflix.
"It feels kind of insane, it hasn't quite sunk in," said the actor, who didn't think she was "cool enough" to receive it.
"So to get picked – and in the year that I also did my first leading role [in The Other Bennet Sister], it's kind of mad that it's all come together in that way."
The moment feels especially significant given how anxious Bruccoleri was about leaving Call the Midwife after four years on the show.
At the time she felt "very strongly that it was time to walk away", but in the immediate aftermath, it felt like "looking into the abyss".
"The reason I got into this industry was because I love the variety; my brain tends to atrophy a little bit from just doing the same thing day in, day out," she explained. "But as soon as I'd done it, there was no work lined up and I was just like, 'Oh, I've made a bad decision.'
"But then I just waited out and lots of different things started happening. And I just think sometimes, you have to take a risk, don't you? As scary as it feels."
The full list of this year's BAFTA Breakthroughs are as follows:
- Ella Bruccoleri, Performer - The Other Bennet Sister
- Izuka Hoyle, Performer - Prisoner
- Philippa Mumford, Production Designer - Juice S2
- Sophie Stone, Performer - Falling
- Lucy Allen*, Casting Directors - Sunny Dancer
- Regina Meessen, Hair and Make-Up Designer - Dreamers
- Tom Payne*, Casting Directors - Sunny Dancer
- Husban Siddiqi, Game Director and Developer, - Rogue Eclipse
- Kate Killick, Creative Director - Pieced Together
- Niru Fekri-Arnold, Creator/Designer - Cursed Words
- Tom McKay, Lead Performer - Mysteria Ecclesiae: Kingdom Come Deliverance DLC
The Other Bennet Sister Christmas special is coming soon to BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The Other Bennet Sister season 1 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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