A pub car park by the A1 is a far cry from the glamour of Hollywood.

But that was where ER star Alex Kingston found herself this week filming a new version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Lost in Austen is the 1813 classic with a twist as a modern-day heroine Amanda Price swaps places with main character Elizabeth Bennet to compete for dashing Mr Darcy’s affections.

Makers Mammoth Screen have used locations across Leeds and Harrogate, including Harewood House, Weeton Church near Otley and Allerton Castle just off the A1 to shoot the four-part costume drama for ITV.

Its star-studded cast includes Alex as Mrs Bennet, Hugh Bonneville as her husband, Gemma Arterton as their daughter Elizabeth and former Hex actress Jemima Rooper as new character Amanda Price.

Alex, who also starred in the BBC’s Moll Flanders, spoke to the YEP sat in the top deck of a catering bus parked next to a pub near Allerton Castle.

The mum-of-one said: “I’ve been up here before when I shot Moll Flanders.

“It’s lovely to see how many stately homes are still usable and haven’t been turned into apartments.

This is my fifth week of shooting and I’m staying in Leeds. I’d never been to the city before and I really like it – it’s amazing.

“We have the odd day off but normally I spend it doing the laundry or getting some shopping in.

“I would like to go to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park before I leave.”

Fantasy

Lost in Austen sees the original story thrown off track as London-living Amanda finds Lizzie Bennet in her bathroom.

She swaps her humdrum life in the Noughties to enter the fictional world of Pride and Prejudice.

Alex said: “I first read Pride and Prejudice as a teenager and remember thinking ‘Oh my God, I would love to go back to that time and meet Mr Darcy’ – in fact I don’t know a woman who knows the book who hasn’t had that fantasy.”

When filming finishes next week Alex will carry on the Jane Austen theme by doing the voice-over for a documentary about the 19th century writer.

She will then jet back to LA where she lives with husband Florian and their six-year-old daughter Salomé.

The 44-year-old said: “There is due to be an actors’ strike in June so going back to LA there will be a pool of actors desperately trying to get a job before the strike comes into action.

“I might have to come back here to do something up north again!”

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Shoppers watched as Leeds City Markets were transformed into London’s Hammersmith City underground station last week for the filming of Lost In Austen. The drama, which sees its heroine transported back through time to exchange places with Elizabeth Bennet, used some of the region’s most stunning locations including Bramham Park, Wetherby and York to portray the contrast between the period of Pride and Prejudice and modern day city life.

The four part series for ITV is written by acclaimed television writer Guy Andrews (Chancer, Prime Suspect, Absolute Power and Lewis) and features an all-star cast including Alex Kingston (ER), Jemima Rooper and veteran actor Hugh Bonneville.

Screen Yorkshire invested in Lost in Austen through its Production Fund and secured jobs for a number of regional trainees. The production liaison team were instrumental in attracting the drama to the region and ensured filming could go ahead without a hitch by negotiating filming permissions with local authorities and police.

Lost in Austen, a Mammoth Screen production for ITV 1 and Screen Yorkshire, is set to screen in 2008.

Hugo Heppell, Head of Production at Screen Yorkshire says

”Bringing high quality and popular drama such as ‘Lost in Austen’ to the region is critical to building a sustainable industry here. We’re working hard to build long term relationships with drama producers so we can continue to benefit from the jobs, investment and long term impact on tourism that drama production can bring. Yorkshire has a long and successful track record in film and television production and companies are attracted by the strong infrastructure, diversity of locations, comparatively low production costs and the positive filming experience they have here.”

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From itv.com

Starring: Jemima Rooper, Alex Kingston, Lindsay Duncan, Hugh Bonneville and Elliot Cowan

If only Amanda Price’s life was as exciting and romantic as the novels she reads. Poor Amanda is fed up with her life in London and losing patience with her boyfriend.

She may be a thoroughly modern girl but she longs for a man who can spark the fires that lie within. One day she is alone in her flat, reading a book. She hears a noise in the bathroom.

From that moment on her life will never be the same. Before she knows what has happened she has travelled back in time over 200 years. Jemima Rooper stars as the beautiful modern day heroine who enters the world of Lizzie Bennet and her family, the famous characters from Pride and Prejudice.

Realising she’s joined the action at the very start of the classic novel, she gets to know the remaining Bennet sisters, and prepares to meet Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan).

How will she keep the greatest love story of all time on track when Elizabeth Bennet is stuck in the modern world?

The ‘true’ story is in danger of being thrown off track by her presence. Because Amanda knows Jane Austen’s book so well she realises that she could ruin literary history for ever.

Playing Mr and Mrs Bennet are Hugh Bonneville and Alex Kingston. Lindsay Duncan is Darcy’s aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh; Morven Christie is Jane Bennet, Tom Mison is Mr Bingley, Tom Riley is Captain Wickham, and Christina Cole is Caroline Bingley.

The four part series is written by acclaimed television writer Guy Andrews (Chancer, Prime Suspect, Absolute Power and Lewis).

“Lost in Austen has the high production values of period drama. Its sumptuous period locations, costume, carriages and props are juxtaposed with Amanda Price’s very modern lifestyle. The cleverness of the script will appeal to Austen aficionados and attract a new audience to this beautiful love story,� says ITV Controller of Drama Commissioning Sally Haynes.

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Kingston: ditches her stethoscope in favour of a bonnet.

Alex Kingston, the former star of ER, will play a lead role in Lost in Austen, ITV1’s modern day take on the novelist Jane Austen’s classic story Pride and Prejudice.

The network has recruited Kingston for the role of the neurotic Mrs Bennet, her first British TV role since leaving the US hospital drama in 2004 and starring in ITV’s Boudica in 2003.

Jemima Rooper, star of the US science fiction series Hex, has been cast in the role of Amanda Price, a modern woman who swaps places with the novel’s heroine Elizabeth Bennet, played by Gemma Arterton.

In the four-part drama, Lizzie Bennet will living Amanda’s life while Mr Darcy, played by Elliot Cowen, will focus his attention upon a reluctant Amanda, a devoted follower of Austen and the world of Pride and Prejudice.

At the beginning of the story she uses the novel to escape her humdrum working life in a call centre before she is magically transported into its world.

The part of Mr Bennet will be played by veteran actor Hugh Bonneville and Rome star Lindsay Duncan will take on the role of the snobbish Lady Catherine in what is the first commission for Mammoth Screen, the independent production company set up by former ITV drama executives Michele Buck and Damien Timmer.

Written by Guy Andrews filming has just started on the drama which has been identified by industry observers as ITV1’s answer to the hugely popular BBC1 time travel drama Life on Mars. Controller of Drama Commissioning for ITV, Sally Haynes, said: “Lost in Austen has the high production values of period drama. Its sumptuous period locations, costume, carriages and props are juxtaposed with Amanda Price’s very modern lifestyle.

“The cleverness of the script will appeal to Austen aficionados and attract a new audience to this beautiful love story.”

Ben Dowell in MediaGuardian,

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