Miss Austen air date confirmed with first trailer for Keeley Hawes and Rose Leslie adaptation
This year marks 250 years since Jane Austen's birth – and the BBC has an exciting new drama to look forward to.
The BBC has confirmed that upcoming Keeley Hawes drama Miss Austen will begin airing at the start of next month – with the show launching on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 2nd February 2025.
All four episodes of the series – which is based on Gill Hornby’s best-selling novel of the same name and marks 250 years since Jane Austen's birth – will become available on iPlayer at 6am that morning, while the instalments will also be broadcast weekly on BBC One starting that evening.
In announcing the news, a new trailer for the drama was also released, giving a first glimpse at Line of Duty and The Durrells star Hawes as Cassandra Austen and "her bond with and loyalty to her sister, Jane".
The trailer also sees Young Cassy (Synnøve Karlsen) and Jane (Patsy Ferran) in flashback as they navigate "the romantic infatuations, female friendships and dashed hopes which shaped their lives, and laid the foundations for Jane’s unforgettable stories".
You can watch it in full below:
The series has been adapted by Elizabeth Is Missing screenwriter Andrea Gibb, and provides a fictional spin on a real-life literary mystery: why did Cassandra burn Jane's letters?
According to a press release, the series will begin in 1830 – more than a decade after Jane's death – and sees Cassandra visiting Isabella (Rose Leslie), the niece of her long-dead fiancé who is about to lose her home following her father’s death.
The synopsis continues: "Cassandra is ostensibly there to help Isabella, but her real motive is to find a hidden bundle of private letters which, in the wrong hands, she fears could destroy Jane’s reputation.
"On discovering them, Cassandra is overwhelmed as she is transported back to her youth."
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The star-studded cast for the series also includes significant parts for Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey), Max Irons (Condor), Alfred Enoch (How to Get Away with Murder), Calam Lynch (Bridgerton) and Liv Hill (The Serpent Queen).
Meanwhile, there are roles for Jessica Hynes (Life After Life), Mirren Mack (The Witcher) and Kevin McNally (The Crown) in the series, which is directed by BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Aisling Walsh (Maudie, Elizabeth Is Missing) and produced by Stella Merz (Gentleman Jack, Renegade Nell).
The BBC had previously released several first-look images for the series at the tail end of 2024.
Miss Austen will air on BBC One and iPlayer from Sunday 2nd February 2025.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
