The Other Bennet Sister review — Mary Bennet finally in the spotlight

Janice Hadlow’s 2020 novel The Other Bennet Sister has been adapted into a 10-part television series by Sarah Quintrell, with additional writing by Maddie Dai. The show turns the spotlight on Mary Bennet, a character who has appeared in a handful of prior retellings, and repositions her as the centre of this lighthearted reimagining of Jane Austen’s world.

The opening places the Bennet household in the familiar frisson caused by Netherfield being let to a single man of fortune. Mrs Bennet, played by Ruth Jones, reacts with ecstatic alarm while Jane (Maddie Close), Elizabeth (Poppy Gilbert), Lydia (Grace Hogg-Robinson) and Kitty (Molly Wright) respond in the ways their characters have always done.

Mary (Ella Bruccoleri), however, asks questions and is routinely ignored; her ruddy complexion is treated as if it were social poison. The series initially lingers on Mary’s supposed unsuitability for the marriage market, a string of gags that includes spectacles and exaggerated family snubbing.

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