Ahh. Where should I begin? BBC is obviously my God :) Nobody can outdo them when it comes to English classics, this (certainly logical) fact has proved itself to me many times. But I did not expect this series would move me so much. Never read the book, but saw the previous adaptations and felt no particular emotion. So my surprise and delight after viewing this is inexpressible.. A gem, an absolute gem.I first saw Romola Garai in Daniel Deronda and thought - wow, there's really something special about this lady. She's both beautiful in a memorable way and extremely talented. Her Emma had a pretty much same effect on me as Lizzy Bennet delivered by Jennifer Ehle - you look at the character and feel as if it's a real person. You just want to get to know her, talk to her.. This twinkle in her eyes, the smile, the facial expressions telling a thousand words, the tone of her voice.. everything seemed perfect and endearing. I definitely join Ms Garai's fanclub!Johnny Lee Miller, thank you for this wonderful Mr Knightley you gave us. Now I have yet another romantic hero to fall in love with, not just Mr Darcy :) The tender and brotherly-protective way in which he treated Emma, while loving her passionately, and also their arguments each of them making Emma grow up a little bit.. The relationship between them is just soo beautiful, and the scene where the couple finally speak of their mutual feelings made me cry endless tears of joy.Apart from the leads, every actor came up with marvellous performance. Funny how I intended to get this movie play in the background, while I was doing housework. I was glued to the screen and couldn't miss even a single tiny bit of "Emma", sitting with a silly happy smile on my face.We get comedy, we get romance, we get brilliant acting and character development, enjoyable scenery and costumes. I give it 10 stars, and would give 11 if I could. For me, this series got everything right. The only drawback, as I can imagine, may be some liberties taken with the original book and proprieties of the era, as well as modernised dialogue - but there still seems to be an amazing harmony about the whole thing. After an adaptation like that, I can't wait to read the book.Previous versions were not bad, especially Paltrow and Northam movie which I enjoyed a lot. But 2009 series is superior by far. A huge respect and bravo!

This is my favorite adaption of Emma (and trust me, I've seen them all)! I love the soundtrack, the scenery, and the characters.This miniseries is also family friendly (which is nice), so don't hesitate to watch it with your kids if they're interested. I watched it again with my thirteen year old sister (who claims she hates period dramas) and she sat through the whole thing and awkwardly admitted she liked it at the end. I found this adaption stayed true enough to Jane Austen's book to satisfy. There might have been a few minor tweaks, but nothing major that could ruin it.Mr. Woodhouse is hilarious without trying to be, and just like Mrs. Bennet from the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice, I don't think anyone could out do his performance.Emma is meddlesome, spoiled, rich, and pretty. But the strange thing is, you can't help but love her! I found this Emma to be more spirited than the (what I thought) dull Gwyneth Paltrov. She laughs, smiles, and is a believable twenty-one year old girl. She's a matchmaker out of habit, and gets in all sorts of trouble because of it.Now onto Mr. Knightley! He's extremely sweet, and I love him for it. He is supposed to be sixteen years older than Emma, and in all fairness the actor doesn't look much older than she does; But I thought his manner was very mature in contrast to hers, so I thought it worked out really well.Overall I loved this miniseries, and I'm always up to rewatching it! If you like period dramas, Jane Austen, or happy endings, definitely give Emma a go! You won't regret it. :)

As a fan of Jane Austen and in particular as a fan of Emma, I was quite excited when I heard of this BBC series (after seeing the brilliant adaptation of pride and prejudice starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth). However, Jane Austen fans, be warned!! This series was far from accurate to the book! The beginning, although also not a feature of the book, I found to be interesting as it builds up the connections of certain characters at an earlier period of time, however the continual exclusion of some of the most witty and entertaining passages of script written by Jane Austen made it almost unbearable to continue watching yet I stood strong. And not surprisingly this strength was tested again through the mix up of some characters roles (Mr John knightley examining and telling Emma about Mr Elton's attraction towards her, Mr Elton's immediately known attraction towards Emma with no hint of it being directed towards Harriet, and the poor choice for the role of Emma who seems too modern with common speech and lack of refinement) it was all very wrong! and so much pointless and horrible dialog was added in replace of Jane Austen's own words! I have to give it some credit for if I had not read the book previously I think I would have enjoyed it but as that is not the case, I'm left to say in the words of Mr knightley, a 'badly done Emma!!'

I was looking forward to this adaptation of Emma, one of my favourite books; when I read some of the enthusiastic reviews on this site, I was encouraged to splash out on a full price DVD - and, wow, was I disappointed. The worst aspect, by far, is the dreadful script: the language wanders erratically between a clumsily put together string of rather dreary twentieth (not twenty-first) century expressions and the (very) occasional emergence of mangled bits of the original dialogue. The casting, too, is awful: Emma is supposed to be young and, though rather too self-assured, essentially quite good-natured - this version has a brash and bad-mannered heroine, shouting at people, and not just getting it all wrong but scarcely recognising that she is making such a mess of other people's lives, not just her own. Actually, from this point of view, the casting of Mrs Elton and Emma would have been much better swapped around. Knightley was a rather sad lightweight, and Mr Woodhouse far too decrepit (although a valetudinarian, he should not be portrayed as older than his early 50s). Miss Bates was quite good, but given far too few lines to say; and most of the mistakes and misconceptions which give the plot its wonderful character were clumsily handled. I had just recently found and watched for the first time the 1972 BBC adaptation, and found it utterly delightful; and for a foreshortened version, I don't think that the Kate Beckinsale 1996 one has been bettered. I really cannot see why the BBC bothered to make this version; it is so much worse than the 1972 one, and has no redeeming features that I can see at all.