The Other Bennet Sister (2026)

Review

The Other Bennet Sister is a 2026 adaptation of the novel of the same name by Janice Hadlow with was adapted for television by Bad Wolf for the BBC. Adapted by Sarah Quintrell, the series focuses on the middle Bennet sister, Mary, who is plainer than her sisters and socially inept. In the novel Pride and Prejudice, Mary is describes as being as silly as her mother but with a fondness for books like her father which encourages her to take the moral high ground even when she is wrong, The series attempts to rehabilitate Mary’s character by portraying her as a constant disappointment to her mother whose mission to get all five of her daughters married. Unable to please her mother or match her sisters in beauty, Mary retreats into her books and decides she may has well be disagreeable.

The series is split into ten episodes that last 30 minutes with the first few episodes being a rehash of the events of Pride and Prejudice but from Mary’s point of view. As Mary watches her sisters marry one by one, she is left to ponder a life as a companion to her disagreeable mother after the death of her father. However, Mary receives a get out of jail card from her maternal aunt, Mrs Gardiner, who invites Mary to stay with them in London as a governess to her children. While Mary is initially awkward, she begins to blossom under the guidance of her aunt and eventually develops a strong bond with Tom Hayward who it turns out is betrothed to someone else.

Mary isn’t disappointed for long as she soon attracts the attention of William Ryder, much to the annoyance of the caustic Caroline Bingley. It seems Ryder is about to become the heir to the exceedingly wealthy Catherine de Bourgh and for once Mary has a suitor that makes her mother giddy with glee, however Ryder wants Mary to accompany him to Italy without the inconvenience of a marriage. Naturally, Mary turns him down and is just resigning herself to the notion that marriage is not for her until she learns Tom Hayward isn’t getting married after all.

While I wasn’t exactly bowled over by the book when it was released, the series fares better with a good performance from most of the cast, especially Ella Bruccoleri as the much maligned Mary and Ruth Jones as her horrible mother. Mrs. Bennet is often portrayed as a silly woman but in this series she is downright nasty so it is particularly satisfying when Mary finally stands up to her. While the series has all the attributes of a Jane Austen creation, the dialogue often irritated me with its vagueness which is probably a reflection of Mary’s social awkwardness. But when you have two people saying nothing but “yes, um, quite” in a conversation it tends to grate after a while.

It was nice to see another version of Mary and to watch her blossom in a different environment, however I still don’t buy that Jane Austen’s version would have ever been capable of changing so much.