Hard times for costume dramas

Yesterday The Province had an article on how "PBS seems to have started showing another round of films based on early 1800s historical novels such as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre."

Then it went on to summarise the standard visit to Haworth in a couple of paragraphs. Curiously enough precisely today the BBC announced that:

An £8 million TV costume drama based on the work of Manchester Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell has been scrapped amid claims of BBC budget cuts. The Cranford Chronicles was due to star Dame Judi Dench (who currently can be seen on the big screen in the new version of Pride & Prejudice).

Set to be a landmark drama in the BBC's autumn 2006 season, the cancellation of the six-part adaptation is a major blow to the corporation's drama department. Knutsford-born series producer Sue Birtwistle said: "It's a huge shame, it's two years' work wasted."

This is less surprising when you bear in mind that:

Director General Mark Thompson has called for savings of £370m over the next three years, together with the loss of almost 4,000 jobs.

Elizabeth Gaskell was a friend of Charlotte Brontë's and wrote the controversial The Life of Charlotte Brontë.

So, if things continue as they are the journalist at The Province can jump with joy at the news that he will watch the same round of films time and time again for a while now.