Fanny and Linda
The new three-part period drama The Pursuit of Love is something of a labour of love for Emily Mortimer.
Not only does she take a supporting role as The Bolter (so named because of her habit of leaving her husbands), but the Mary Poppins Returns actress also directed the series and adapted the screenplay from the classic novel by Nancy Mitford.
So, it may come as a bit of a surprise that she didn’t originally come up with the idea of bringing the book (which has previously been filmed in 1980 and 2001, although both of those versions combined it with Mitford’s follow-up, Love in a Cold Climate) to the screen. It was actually her agent who secured the rights and asked if Emily would be interested in writing the script.
Sunday, 9th May 2021 at 11:30 am
Emily Mortimer’s adaptation of Nancy Mitford‘s classic novel The Pursuit of Love finally arrives on BBC One tonight. Despite being filmed in the middle of a global pandemic, the three-part period drama is outrageously good-looking.
Advertisement
You’ll see beautiful country estates, stately homes, posh hotels and university quads. And in the middle of all this, impetuous Linda Radlett (Lily James) and her sensible cousin Fanny (Emily Beecham) are about to take their first tentative steps out into the world – in search of love, marriage and happiness.
Episode one opens with a pregnant Linda being bombed out of her London home during the Blitz, before the action flashes back to when she and Fanny were teens in the early 1930s…
An exclusive behind-the-scenes with The Pursuit of Love executive producer Charles Collier for the inside track on its stately filming locations around the UK and Paris
The Pursuit Of Love starring Lily James now has a trailer and release date
It really looks very good
By Meghna Amin
If
The Pursuit Of Love rings a bell, it could be because you’ve read the classic Nancy Mitford novel of the same name. Or (possibly more likely) because it’s what Lily James and Dominic West had been filming in the months prior to
those paparazzi photos hitting the headlines in September.
Scandal aside, if you miss
Downton Abbey or couldn’t get enough of
A Suitable Boy earlier this year, then
The Pursuit Of Love has your name all over it. Yep, the BBC’s hard at work bringing us a romcom period drama set between the two World Wars and we’re ready to be obsessed. Here’s the lowdown on the plot, the cast and everything else you need to know…