Ella Bruccoleri, right, portrays Mary Bennet and Laurie Davidson is Mr. Ryder in the BritBox period drama The Other Bennet Sister.James Pardon/Supplied
Jane Austen fans are very familiar with Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, the romantic couple at the centre of Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth’s elder sister, Jane, and her two youngest sisters, Kitty and Lydia, are also fairly recognizable. But when it comes to the “pedantic” piano-playing sister Mary, the character exemplifies middle-child syndrome: She’s often ignored and excluded.
Until now, that is. With the debut of BritBox’s The Other Bennet Sister, Mary Bennet is finally showing main character energy.
The 10-episode series debuted May 6 on the streaming service and is based on Janice Hadlow’s 2020 novel of the same name. Each 30-minute episode follows Mary (Ella Bruccoleri) as she attempts to fit in with her family before travelling to London, where she begins discovering who she truly is. Ruth Jones plays her mother, Mrs. Bennet, and Richard Coyle and Indira Varma star as Mary’s uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner.
Showrunner and scribe Sarah Quintrell adapted the story after realizing she had a lot of things she wanted to say about the experience of a character like Mary. In order to do that without brutalizing her, she decided to inject the story with humour and inner thoughts so that audiences knew the character was okay, even when she was being marginalized.
“We wanted to create something that was warm and fun, but know that she had something to say for herself,” Quintrell says. “I was drawn to the idea that happiness is in our own hands. We can’t control the world around us, but we do have a chance to be true to ourselves and how we want to live.”
Sarah Quintrell attends The Other Bennet Sister's New York City premiere on April 29.Valerie Terranova/Getty Images
What emerges are themes of self-acceptance, the transformative power of kindness and a little bit of romance.
“There’s no glow-up. No one gets a makeover,” explains Quintrell. “Mary is pedantic. She says the wrong things. She messes up all the time. She’s a regency woman who can’t sing, can’t ride a horse. Romance is part of the jigsaw, but unlike most Austen, it’s not the jigsaw.”
For Bruccoleri, the role was an opportunity to take a character from one of Austen’s most beloved books and present her as a comical, archetypal figure. She would love if younger people who haven’t necessarily found their tribes yet watch this series, because no matter how different you may feel from those around you now, there are others in the world like you.
“We pick apart her psyche and tried to understand why she is the way she is,” Bruccoleri says. “When she changes locations, everything changes for her because she finds chosen family. That’s such a heartening takeaway.”
Although this story centres on Mary and gives her life outside of the Pride and Prejudice universe, Quintrell faced the challenge of keeping it set in that world and crafting it for a modern audience. That meant juggling viewers who know Austen’s language “like the back of their hand,” and those who had never come to it before.
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To achieve that, Quintrell avoided alienating language and included Easter eggs for fans. There is an homage from the 1995 film adaptation of the novel and other recognizable bits for fans of stories such as Mansfield Park or Sense and Sensibility. While those are fun nods, the showrunner says her main goal was establishing connection throughout.
“It had to have clarity. It’s a very buttoned up world and that can make you feel slightly removed from it,” she says. “We’re telling the story of the outsider, the story of the odd one out. Women like Mary don’t sit at the heart of any dramas, let alone period dramas.”
In this take, Bruccoleri believes Mary feels fresh and modern despite the traditional landscapes, costumes and music.
“Mary doesn’t quite inhabit that Regency period and doesn’t understand the rules of the game in the way her sisters and other women around her do,” she says. “She ends up breaking these rules in a way that feels new and exciting. She’s not lady-like or prim and proper. She’s the opposite of all that – messy and preachy and powerful and intelligent and very funny.”
The actor adds that her hope is this version of Mary empowers others and helps them to feel seen in their own lives.
“The more Mary embraces her authenticity and all the things people see as flaws, the more people love her for them,” she adds. “I hope that’s something everyone takes away from this.”