Emma

I was kind of dreading this, but it is now my favorite Emma adaptation. Much better than either the Paltrow or the Beckinsale version.

Romola Garai was as close to perfect an Emma as I could imagine. Jonny Lee Miller was an excellent Mr. Knightley. I adore Jeremy Northam but really he was almost too dishy to be a credible Knightley. With Northam around how could Emma ever think herself in love with anyone else? With Miller, Knightley became a more credible character -- that pleasant, cultivated, somewhat older man from next door that Emma had known all her life and never realized she loved because she was so used to him.

Michael Gambon was wonderful as Emma's father. He is easy to overplay to comic effect for his idiosyncrasies -- a foolish, fussy hypochondriac. With Gambon, he was more nuanced -- his fear of illness and accident was understandable (people did die of such things a lot in the 18th century, and he had lost his wife in tragic circumstances). He seemed genuinely loving of Emma, not just exploiting her as a dutiful daughter. You could understand why Emma was genuinely fond of him.

The rest of the cast was also excellent and the English countryside never looked so gorgeous.

There were some smallish glitches. I am quite sure, for example, that Frank Churchill would never have sprawled on the ground with his head on Emma's lap, as he did in the Box Hill scene. All Highbury would have been shocked.

So far this is proving to be a great series - up there with BBC's Pride and Prejudice. Jonny Lee Miller plays a very good Mr Knightley. He comes across as a slightly softer character than when Mark Strong played Mr. Knightley - but it's done well. The interaction between him and Emma is very enjoyable to watch - I love all the dialogue. I must say, although I like Jonny as an actor, I wasn't sure how he'd come across in this role but he's doing it very well. I will buy this on DVD when it comes out as it's one to keep. It has a very romantic feel to it and the filming is excellent. I love it when they do a great adaption and put the right actors in the right roles. If you haven't seen this - I would highly recommend it.

With the enduring interest in the novels of Jane Austen, an author eons ahead of her time as far as writing stories that dealt with women's view of the world, it is not unexpected that the film makers repeat versions of these rollicking tales. This may be the fourth or so version of EMMA and for this viewer it is the most successful. A large part of the success of this version of the novel is both the screenplay by Sandy Welch and the direction by Jim O'Hanlon who elect to open the graphic gates of Highbury with a sequence that shares with the audience the background of the diaspora of the children whose parents have died and whose lives will eventually come together as adults. It works very well in setting the scene and the mood of class distinction so prevalent in England of the period.

Emma is brought fully to life by Romola Garai and this role further establishes her as one of the more important character actresses on film. The remainder of the cast is perfectly balanced, with Michael Gambon as Emma's ever needy father, Jonny Lee Miller as the perfect Mr. Knightley, Lousie Dylan as the ditsy Harriet Smith, Tamsin Grieg as the hilariously boring and mouthy Miss Bates, the striking Blake Ritson as the vicar Mr. Elton, talented Laura Pyper as Jane Fairfax, and Jodhi May as the governess turned neighbor Anne Taylor. The ensemble casting is as fine as any of the Austen transitions to the visual and the cinematography and costumes are first class.

The words may not all belong to Jane Austen (Sandy Welch has introduced some very apropos new lines), but the feel of the novel would likely please the author as much as it pleases the audience. The 4 episode BBC production comes in two CDs and the quality of production is superb. In every way, this EMMA is a joy.

Grady Harp

Emma was really beautiful to watch. Though I will say, and I am not trying to be a killjoy here, but the book is better. In general, this mini series was very well done, not only in terms of acting but visually and musically as well. The mini series was exquisitely photographed, with camera work that never felt rushed in any way. It perfectly captured the breathtaking scenery and the gorgeous colourful costumes. I will confess whenever I watch a period drama I always look at how the drama is filmed, and as far as I am concerned Emma scored full marks on that. The music was just as perfect, very beautiful and pleasant. And the acting was fully professional. Romola Garai looked stunning as Emma and managed to stay true to her character. Johnny Lee Miller may look a bit too young, but I do think he was very handsome and charismatic enough as Knightley, and in general Miller is a very competent actor. The two leads's chemistry was convincing too. Michael Gambon is an exceptional actor, and he was superb as Mr Woodhouse. For me, any scene he was in brought some depth, darkness and poignancy that was very much needed. In fact, I don't think there was a single bad performance, maybe not the definitive interpretations, but solid enough. I do have two flaws with this mini series. It does distort the book, and I did notice some modernisations in the script, that sounded uneven and didn't quite work. My other flaw is that there were scenes that didn't quite ring true. As one reviewer said, the scene with the Knightley children screaming Uncle George was poorly done, and that is a real shame because the scene before I thought was very impressive indeed. Despite the flaws, it is a very solid adaptation of a wonderful book. 9/10 Bethany Cox

• not that there's anything the matter at all with the two 1996 versions of Austen's novel or their two Emmas, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale, but I think that Romola Garai releases an Emma that's perfect: her obtuseness as far as the hearts of others are concerned is matched perfectly with the special kind of air-headed charm that Garai delivers (so very far from the sensible Cordelia she delivered in Ian McKellen's "King Lear"). Paltrow was beautiful, Beckinsale sweet, but Garai manages an Emma who seems unaffectedly oblivious to her own beauty and sweetness and only strives to do right by others – and fails. This appears to me to be the essence of the character that is the most fallible of Austen's heroines, with the possible exception of Catherine Morland in "Northanger Abbey." But apart from that, the scenes between Garai's Emma and Jonny Lee Miller's Mr. Knightley are electrifying. Especially their argument after Emma has talked Harriet Smith into rejecting Knightley's champion, Robert Martin. Miller's Knightley doesn't just correct Emma with a wish to render her a more blameless person – this Knightley truly enjoys his rows with Emma, without knowing it himself, of course: that clearly comes across.

The fact that the Director O'Hanlon has been extremely aware of every opportunity of non-verbal communication where the camera studiously catches every frown, every half-smile, every twinkling of an eye makes this version a pure delight to watch from beginning to end.

It's lovely.