Six literary adaptations that outdo The Pursuit of Love

The actress Winona Ryder once declared that if anyone attempted to film The Catcher in the Rye, she’d have to burn the studio down, such was her love for the book.

There’s many a Mitfordian wishing they could enact this retrospective action on the new BBC production of The Pursuit of Love. RAGE-messaging amongst my friends began even before Emily Mortimer’s directorial debut dropped on the iPlayer. ‘There’s not a single line from the book in the trailer!’ ‘Has she actually read the book?’ ‘Let’s go and crack stock whips under her window’.

There’s so much not to like about it (Andrew Scott’s viciously fabulous Lord Merlin notwithstanding): the jarring soundtrack lifted from Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, the loss of much of the humour. But what has most upset the book’s many, many fans is that Mortimer (who also wrote the script) often substitutes her own leaden dialogue for Nancy’s effervescent wit.