Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball

0:00:02 > 0:00:05Pride and Prejudice was published 200 years ago, in 1813.

0:00:05 > 0:00:08It's an archetypal love story,

0:00:08 > 0:00:10but also a sparkling and acute dissection

0:00:10 > 0:00:17of genteel Regency society that has captivated readers for generations.

0:00:19 > 0:00:22"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man

0:00:22 > 0:00:27"in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

0:00:27 > 0:00:28But love it as we might,

0:00:28 > 0:00:31there's a whole layer of Austen's nuance

0:00:31 > 0:00:33which is lost to modern readers.

0:00:34 > 0:00:38Austen's world was taken for granted by her contemporaries,

0:00:38 > 0:00:41but it's surprisingly distant from us.

0:00:41 > 0:00:43To understand her novel fully,

0:00:43 > 0:00:47we need to re-imagine the time in which she lived.

0:00:47 > 0:00:49In this programme, Alastair Sooke and I

0:00:49 > 0:00:53are going to step back to try to understand Austen's world.

0:00:53 > 0:00:57We're going to bring alive those details that have been

0:00:57 > 0:00:59deadened by the passage of time.

0:00:59 > 0:01:01And how are we going to do it?

0:01:01 > 0:01:04With a ground-breaking experiment.

0:01:04 > 0:01:07We're going to recreate, in the most accurate way possible,

0:01:07 > 0:01:11the event which lies at the heart of Pride and Prejudice,

0:01:11 > 0:01:13which drives the entire plot

0:01:13 > 0:01:17and where the two main characters meet and spar - the Regency ball.

0:01:18 > 0:01:20Film adaptations of the book have created

0:01:20 > 0:01:24an impression of the world of the ball, but we want to know

0:01:24 > 0:01:28what would have really happened when the candles were lit and the band struck up,

0:01:28 > 0:01:33and in doing so, try to understand better what Austen was saying.

0:01:34 > 0:01:39For one night, we will turn back the clock two centuries at Chawton House,

0:01:39 > 0:01:42the home of Austen's brother, Edward,

0:01:42 > 0:01:46and recreate a ball as Austen herself would have experienced it.

0:01:46 > 0:01:50We will prise open the Regency wardrobe to feel

0:01:50 > 0:01:54the clothes in which Austen imagined the Bennet sisters.

0:01:54 > 0:01:58We'll go to the cookbook of her friend and companion Martha Lloyd,

0:01:58 > 0:02:01to conjure the dishes she enjoyed, and we will listen to dances

0:02:01 > 0:02:05set to music taken from the Austen family's own music books.

0:02:05 > 0:02:11When darkness falls in the ballroom, it will be winter 1813.

0:02:11 > 0:02:15By discovering the minute details of the period, the sights,

0:02:15 > 0:02:19sounds and sensations Austen knew from her own experiences in the ballroom,

0:02:19 > 0:02:24we will expose the hidden codes of Regency courtship rituals,

0:02:24 > 0:02:28see for ourselves the complex hierarchies at work

0:02:28 > 0:02:33and reveal the deep structure of one of the greatest love stories ever told.

0:02:33 > 0:02:37After this, you will never read Pride and Prejudice quite the same way again.

0:02:47 > 0:02:51Pride and Prejudice is a story of love against the social odds.

0:02:51 > 0:02:55Elizabeth Bennet is a playful provincial nobody,

0:02:55 > 0:02:59wooed by Fitzwilliam Darcy, a handsome, wealthy landowner

0:02:59 > 0:03:01and they meet at a dance.

0:03:01 > 0:03:05The ball is integral to the plot of Pride and Prejudice.

0:03:05 > 0:03:09Dancing was a key pleasure of Austen's youth.

0:03:09 > 0:03:14The ball was complex, cruel and spectacular.

0:03:14 > 0:03:16We're going to create an event

0:03:16 > 0:03:19central to the involuntary bewitchment

0:03:19 > 0:03:20between Elizabeth and Darcy

0:03:20 > 0:03:24and vital to the perpetuation of Regency society.

0:03:24 > 0:03:28Ensuring we achieve absolute authenticity

0:03:28 > 0:03:31- is a coterie of experts. - Turn her around, quick, quick.

0:03:31 > 0:03:35Former ballet dancer and authority on Regency dance, Stuart Marsden.

0:03:35 > 0:03:37Keep moving up till you get to the end.

0:03:37 > 0:03:41Melodies sourced from the Austen family music books...

0:03:41 > 0:03:44This looks very similar to Austen's music hand.

0:03:44 > 0:03:47..will be orchestrated by music historians

0:03:47 > 0:03:49and played on original instruments.

0:03:50 > 0:03:54Costumes will be created with assiduous attention to detail.

0:03:58 > 0:04:01Foods the author would have tasted herself

0:04:01 > 0:04:05will be cooked by a leading expert on Regency cuisine, Ivan Day.

0:04:06 > 0:04:08This is a very challenging project.

0:04:08 > 0:04:12I don't think this has been done since the Napoleonic Wars in this country.

0:04:12 > 0:04:15Feasting our eyes on what Jane Austen saw

0:04:15 > 0:04:19will bring the background of her world into pin-sharp focus.

0:04:19 > 0:04:21By filling in the details,

0:04:21 > 0:04:24the elements Austen didn't need to explain to her readers,

0:04:24 > 0:04:26we will strip away the layers of history.

0:04:29 > 0:04:33The village of Chawton in Hampshire, where Jane Austen lived from 1809,

0:04:33 > 0:04:38resembles the fictional hamlet of Longbourn where the Bennet family live.

0:04:38 > 0:04:41The village setting is important.

0:04:41 > 0:04:45Things move very slowly in Austen's fictional world,

0:04:45 > 0:04:48but they are minutely observed.

0:04:48 > 0:04:50Revolution shadowed the Regency.

0:04:50 > 0:04:52Civil unrest was threatened at home.

0:04:52 > 0:04:55Cannons were booming across Europe,

0:04:55 > 0:04:59but in Austen's fictional world, you can hear a pin drop.

0:04:59 > 0:05:02With brothers at sea and a cousin guillotined,

0:05:02 > 0:05:06Austen obviously knew all about the wider world

0:05:06 > 0:05:11but in her fiction, she recreated that world in miniature.

0:05:11 > 0:05:15When human happiness hung on the arrival of a letter,

0:05:15 > 0:05:19a stolen glance in church or a misunderstood remark.

0:05:19 > 0:05:24Austen lived and breathed her moment but remains utterly timeless.

0:05:26 > 0:05:30Pride and Prejudice was prepared for publication in this cottage.

0:05:30 > 0:05:34Elizabeth Bennet's world was on the upper fringe of Jane Austen's.

0:05:34 > 0:05:38The novel was an inside job,

0:05:38 > 0:05:42a witheringly accurate depiction of the competitive marriage market,

0:05:42 > 0:05:47but also an analysis of the system that Austen was a part of

0:05:47 > 0:05:49and whose importance she recognised.

0:05:49 > 0:05:54The Bennet sisters don't work, but they do have a job, which is

0:05:54 > 0:05:59polishing the accomplishments that will make them marriageable.

0:05:59 > 0:06:03"A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing,

0:06:03 > 0:06:05"drawing, dancing."

0:06:05 > 0:06:09The Bennet girls are ladies in waiting -

0:06:09 > 0:06:14waiting for Mr Right. But the young men are on a mission too.

0:06:14 > 0:06:17Only marriage will secure their dynasties.

0:06:17 > 0:06:22Will Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy plant their affections in Hertfordshire?

0:06:22 > 0:06:24The community is agog.

0:06:24 > 0:06:27"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man

0:06:27 > 0:06:32"in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

0:06:32 > 0:06:36That famous opening line expresses an essential truth,

0:06:36 > 0:06:37not just about the Regency,

0:06:37 > 0:06:40but about pretty much any era in recent human history,

0:06:40 > 0:06:44which is that a single bloke with a whole load of cash

0:06:44 > 0:06:47is most definitely a catch.

0:06:47 > 0:06:50Mr Bingley causes a bit of a stir when he arrives in Meryton

0:06:50 > 0:06:54because he is rich, but Mr Darcy, who's the son of an aristocrat,

0:06:54 > 0:06:57is fabulously wealthy - 10,000 a year.

0:06:57 > 0:07:01So both men are desperate to find someone who is going to bear sons.

0:07:01 > 0:07:04In other words, it is not just Austen's young women,

0:07:04 > 0:07:07it's also the young men who are under this intense pressure

0:07:07 > 0:07:09to find a suitable mate.

0:07:09 > 0:07:11But there's a problem.

0:07:11 > 0:07:14All contact between young people was strictly controlled.

0:07:16 > 0:07:21With so much at stake, contact between the young men and women of the gentry,

0:07:21 > 0:07:25the landowning class of the Regency, was closely regulated.

0:07:25 > 0:07:29But there was one place where flirting, intimacy

0:07:29 > 0:07:33and physical contact was allowed, even encouraged -

0:07:33 > 0:07:34the ballroom.

0:07:37 > 0:07:39"Nothing could be more delightful.

0:07:39 > 0:07:43"To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love."

0:07:46 > 0:07:50The ability to dance was key to romantic success

0:07:50 > 0:07:55and the movements of the dance mimicked the to and fro of courtship.

0:07:55 > 0:07:57Clumsiness was sexual suicide.

0:07:59 > 0:08:02So it's not surprising that it's in the ballroom

0:08:02 > 0:08:05that the separate worlds of Elizabeth and Darcy collide,

0:08:05 > 0:08:09creating the possibility for all that follows.

0:08:09 > 0:08:12Their manoeuvring seems to be about the dance,

0:08:12 > 0:08:17but beneath the manners, it's all about attraction and rank.

0:08:17 > 0:08:20The novel's first ball is an assembly,

0:08:20 > 0:08:23a public event in the town of Meryton.

0:08:23 > 0:08:26Our reconstruction is inspired by the more pivotal Netherfield Ball,

0:08:26 > 0:08:29a private affair.

0:08:29 > 0:08:33The contrast between the rowdier, socially mixed gathering

0:08:33 > 0:08:36that ladies called a "promiscuous assembly"

0:08:36 > 0:08:38and the exclusive party of friends

0:08:38 > 0:08:42would have been sharply drawn for Austen's Regency leaders.

0:08:42 > 0:08:46Professor John Mullan has made Austen's life's work his life's work.

0:08:47 > 0:08:52Society at that time drew quite a sharp distinction

0:08:52 > 0:08:55between a public assembly and a private dance.

0:08:55 > 0:08:58At the Netherfield Ball, the people come by invitation only and,

0:08:58 > 0:09:02like any event that's invitation only, it has a higher prestige.

0:09:02 > 0:09:05- Well, it has some exclusivity. - Yes, absolutely.

0:09:05 > 0:09:06So as a young woman,

0:09:06 > 0:09:11- you might not risk dancing with the butcher or the baker.- That's right.

0:09:11 > 0:09:14In Meryton, essentially, if you could buy the ticket, you could go.

0:09:14 > 0:09:18And if you obeyed the conventions, you were an accepted part of the event.

0:09:18 > 0:09:23The Meryton assembly is potentially more vulgar occasion and of course,

0:09:23 > 0:09:29Mr Darcy and the Bingley sisters do sort of look down upon

0:09:29 > 0:09:31the Meryton assembly because of that.

0:09:32 > 0:09:37News of a private ball would always start with a personal invitation.

0:09:37 > 0:09:41Ours have been made with a press from 1820. Printing was expensive.

0:09:41 > 0:09:45Even Mr Bingley's invitations would have been produced in bulk

0:09:45 > 0:09:49with blank spaces for the date, time, and the name of the guest.

0:09:49 > 0:09:53Invites would be sent to local dignitaries, parents and chaperones

0:09:53 > 0:09:56and, most importantly, the genteel young of marriageable age.

0:10:00 > 0:10:04Austen was 20 when she began work on Pride and Prejudice,

0:10:04 > 0:10:07the same age as Elizabeth is when the story begins.

0:10:07 > 0:10:11By then, both should have learnt the key skill they needed

0:10:11 > 0:10:13before they could even consider

0:10:13 > 0:10:16responding to an invitation to a ball. Dancing.

0:10:16 > 0:10:19Our younger ball-goers are dance students.

0:10:19 > 0:10:22Like polite Regency youngsters,

0:10:22 > 0:10:24they're learning from a dancing master.

0:10:24 > 0:10:28In this world, it's understood, Jane Austen doesn't have to tell anybody,

0:10:28 > 0:10:31but we have to be told now that people are trained,

0:10:31 > 0:10:35literally, in the movements and how the dances work.

0:10:37 > 0:10:41Our dance master is Regency dance authority Stuart Marsden.

0:10:41 > 0:10:46Rehearsals begin with a lesson in dance history and literature.

0:10:46 > 0:10:49We will learn a dance called the Savage Dance,

0:10:49 > 0:10:51which is an English country dance,

0:10:51 > 0:10:54and, as Mr Darcy says, "Any savage can dance."

0:10:54 > 0:10:59And we're going to do a dance called La Boulanger.

0:10:59 > 0:11:02Mrs Bennet exclaims, "They dance La Boulanger."

0:11:02 > 0:11:03One imagines that the Bennets,

0:11:03 > 0:11:07even with their woeful lack of tuition and governesses

0:11:07 > 0:11:08and all that sort of thing,

0:11:08 > 0:11:13that they will have had a dancing master give them some lessons.

0:11:13 > 0:11:15We will do Lady Caroline Lee's Waltz

0:11:15 > 0:11:17and then we're going to learn instructions

0:11:17 > 0:11:19from Jane Austen's cousin,

0:11:19 > 0:11:22Fanny Austen's Lady's Companion from 1805.

0:11:22 > 0:11:25And she stayed with her in 1805.

0:11:25 > 0:11:27How central is dancing

0:11:27 > 0:11:31to the kind of turning points of the novel itself?

0:11:31 > 0:11:33I think the whole of the first part of the novel,

0:11:33 > 0:11:36which sets up especially importantly the relationship

0:11:36 > 0:11:39of Mr Darcy with Elizabeth,

0:11:39 > 0:11:42it's all done through a series of dances.

0:11:42 > 0:11:45Let's start with a cotillion, Jane Austen loved cotillions.

0:11:45 > 0:11:49So we're going to learn Le Retour du Printemps, the Return of Spring.

0:11:49 > 0:11:52So English country dances are longways dances.

0:11:52 > 0:11:53It was traditional that gentlemen

0:11:53 > 0:11:56asked the girls if they would stand up with you.

0:11:56 > 0:11:58And they have the right to say yes or no.

0:11:58 > 0:12:00And if it was tradition that if you said no, you would not dance.

0:12:00 > 0:12:02That meant you weren't dancing at all.

0:12:02 > 0:12:05Right? But just for now, find a partner.

0:12:05 > 0:12:07Ballroom etiquette,

0:12:07 > 0:12:11the person of the highest rank will dance closest to the orchestra.

0:12:11 > 0:12:13In an essentially quite enclosed community

0:12:13 > 0:12:17like this imaginary Hertfordshire town of Meryton,

0:12:17 > 0:12:21it's the main sort of venue for people,

0:12:21 > 0:12:23literally, trying out partners.

0:12:23 > 0:12:26Sir William Lucas, he's a buffoon,

0:12:26 > 0:12:29but he sort of comments on how good Elizabeth is at dancing

0:12:29 > 0:12:34and it seems quite clear that she and Mr Darcy are good at dancing.

0:12:34 > 0:12:36- So they're compatible?- Absolutely.

0:12:36 > 0:12:39- And when Mr Darcy...- Physically compatible?- Physically compatible.

0:12:39 > 0:12:41The ball's going to be set in 1813.

0:12:41 > 0:12:45And during this time, steps changed dramatically.

0:12:45 > 0:12:47It was all because of the French Revolution.

0:12:47 > 0:12:52Napoleon came into power and this whole noble dancing of baroque,

0:12:52 > 0:12:56nobody could do it any more because all the aristocrats had been...

0:12:56 > 0:13:02In fact, Jane Austen's cousin, her husband had been guillotined.

0:13:02 > 0:13:04So the steps sort of changed over time.

0:13:04 > 0:13:06So by the time we're doing the ball now,

0:13:06 > 0:13:09we'll actually be doing what's called quadrille steps.

0:13:09 > 0:13:11So we go skip change with the right,

0:13:11 > 0:13:13skip change with the left,

0:13:13 > 0:13:16skip change with the left, ensemble, ensemble.

0:13:16 > 0:13:18You get this extraordinary effect in the novel

0:13:18 > 0:13:21that would have been much stronger for her first readers,

0:13:21 > 0:13:23who would've sort of seen the dance. They would've seen it.

0:13:23 > 0:13:27Ready? One with the right, one with the left,

0:13:27 > 0:13:29one with the right, ensemble, ensemble.

0:13:29 > 0:13:32They would've seen the couples lining up

0:13:32 > 0:13:35and, in a way, perhaps even kind of heard the music.

0:13:35 > 0:13:38And yet, in the novel, there's this incredible focus in

0:13:38 > 0:13:41on two people who could be in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

0:13:41 > 0:13:45You know, from all the attention that is being paid to anything else.

0:13:45 > 0:13:49And the novel mimics that extraordinary concentration

0:13:49 > 0:13:51of them upon each other.

0:13:52 > 0:13:55The dance moves are rather more complicated than I'd expected.

0:13:55 > 0:14:00That said, there was rather an appeal to trying it out for myself.

0:14:00 > 0:14:03It's fantastic. I've just arrived at the studios

0:14:03 > 0:14:06to watch the very first dance rehearsal of the entire process

0:14:06 > 0:14:10and I was wondering about what Regency dance would look like,

0:14:10 > 0:14:12and it's very, very prancy.

0:14:12 > 0:14:14There's a lot of skipping, as you can see, and in a sense,

0:14:14 > 0:14:18maybe it's not going to look as alien as I thought it would.

0:14:21 > 0:14:24Go behind. Number twos, move out!

0:14:24 > 0:14:27Stuart's quite a taskmaster at times, which is a good thing,

0:14:27 > 0:14:29because we haven't got very long to rehearse.

0:14:29 > 0:14:32- OK.- I'm actually sweating and I didn't actually think I'd sweat.

0:14:32 > 0:14:35I was like, "It's going to be fine, a couple of partner work."

0:14:35 > 0:14:37And I'm actually dripping.

0:14:37 > 0:14:41I suggest you bring some Amigel next week.

0:14:41 > 0:14:42You can feel it in your calves.

0:14:42 > 0:14:45- I can't understand how they did it in that time.- Right.

0:14:45 > 0:14:48PIANO PLAYS

0:14:48 > 0:14:49No. You're on the beat.

0:14:49 > 0:14:51LAUGHTER

0:14:51 > 0:14:52You're on the beat.

0:14:52 > 0:14:55It's really hard, isn't it?

0:14:55 > 0:14:56The steps were difficult.

0:14:56 > 0:14:59And dance masters would publish manuals.

0:14:59 > 0:15:01Many of them designed to promote their dance schools

0:15:01 > 0:15:03and supplement their income.

0:15:03 > 0:15:07Edward Paine's Dance Manual of 1814 lists prices ranging from

0:15:07 > 0:15:10five shillings and sixpence for a single lesson

0:15:10 > 0:15:12to one pound and one shilling for six lessons.

0:15:12 > 0:15:15Dance tuition could be a lucrative business.

0:15:15 > 0:15:17- OK, well done. - CHEERING

0:15:17 > 0:15:22Hey, hey, hey! Stop. You've got another seven to go.

0:15:22 > 0:15:24- You're proper dancers. - Yes. We're in training.

0:15:24 > 0:15:28When he says, "Do a padaria," whatever it is, you know what he means.

0:15:28 > 0:15:31And I'm still struggling with one, two, three and then, argh!

0:15:31 > 0:15:35- You'll get there.- And then there's about another 18 steps. Yeah, thanks.

0:15:35 > 0:15:37(It's not easy.)

0:15:37 > 0:15:39Right, lunch. Go for lunch. Go, go, go.

0:15:39 > 0:15:42This morning, we've obviously done a few dances, the one I think I got...

0:15:42 > 0:15:45- Two.- Two? It felt like a lot more! - No.

0:15:45 > 0:15:49- The one I was doing was bloody complicated, I thought.- Cotillion.

0:15:49 > 0:15:51It's a real tour de force for the brain just to remember.

0:15:51 > 0:15:53But dancers in Austen's time

0:15:53 > 0:15:57didn't necessarily have to memorise every step.

0:15:57 > 0:16:01They might rely on a cleverly-concealed crib sheet.

0:16:01 > 0:16:06Here we go. This is a dance fan for the year 1792.

0:16:06 > 0:16:10Hang on. This is a fan covered in music with the steps as well.

0:16:10 > 0:16:12- With the steps on, as well. - This is a crib sheet.

0:16:12 > 0:16:14- That's kind of cheating. - That's such a cheat!

0:16:14 > 0:16:16They were common things.

0:16:16 > 0:16:18Yeah, but they're paper, so hardly any survived.

0:16:18 > 0:16:22These fans were the perfect tool for flirtation.

0:16:22 > 0:16:25A temporary fluttering screen hiding the lips,

0:16:25 > 0:16:28framing and eroticising the eyes.

0:16:29 > 0:16:32Whilst dancing in Austen's era could be delightful,

0:16:32 > 0:16:37it was also more relentless and gruelling than you might expect.

0:16:37 > 0:16:39Making matters even more challenging,

0:16:39 > 0:16:43your clothes revealed every mistake and misstep.

0:16:43 > 0:16:46Assembling the authentic clothing for our ball

0:16:46 > 0:16:49is Professor Hilary Davidson.

0:16:49 > 0:16:51Many screen adaptations of Pride and Prejudice

0:16:51 > 0:16:55dress the actors in the height of Regency fashion.

0:16:55 > 0:16:58This, though, misses a crucial point.

0:16:58 > 0:17:00In Austen's time, the outfits reflected

0:17:00 > 0:17:04the range of social ranks who would've attended these balls.

0:17:04 > 0:17:07Social division by cut, colour and texture

0:17:07 > 0:17:10would have been immediately evident to Austen's readers.

0:17:10 > 0:17:13Do you think some will be more fashion-forward than others?

0:17:13 > 0:17:16In this period, there's a far more personal input

0:17:16 > 0:17:19into clothing styles than perhaps we're used to.

0:17:19 > 0:17:21Because all clothing is made new.

0:17:21 > 0:17:23- Very little is available readymade.- Yes, it's bespoke.

0:17:23 > 0:17:28Bespoke. So the fabric that you choose, the cut you choose,

0:17:28 > 0:17:30the trimmings you put on the bottom of your skirt,

0:17:30 > 0:17:33there's far more of a personal input.

0:17:33 > 0:17:35Do you think people's position in society,

0:17:35 > 0:17:38their age and I suppose their character,

0:17:38 > 0:17:41would all be mapped in the dress they would wear for the ball?

0:17:41 > 0:17:43It would, absolutely. And what's more,

0:17:43 > 0:17:46people within the community can read that fairly precisely.

0:17:46 > 0:17:48They all know exactly what that means

0:17:48 > 0:17:51and how...what the story is behind the clothing.

0:17:51 > 0:17:53- And that's the language that's lost to us, isn't it?- It is.

0:17:53 > 0:17:57Our ball-goers are being fitted for various kinds of clothing,

0:17:57 > 0:17:59as they would have been in Austen's time.

0:18:00 > 0:18:03Guests representing men who were fashion-conscious

0:18:03 > 0:18:05and who could afford it,

0:18:05 > 0:18:10will be wearing the menswear trends of autumn-winter 1813.

0:18:11 > 0:18:15Colours are muted and the silhouette athletic.

0:18:15 > 0:18:17Exactly the looks that attracted fellow ball guests

0:18:17 > 0:18:20when Messrs Bingley, Hurst and Darcy

0:18:20 > 0:18:22arrived at the Meryton assembly.

0:18:22 > 0:18:26"Mr Bingley was good looking and gentleman-like.

0:18:26 > 0:18:30"He had a pleasant countenance and easy, unaffected manners.

0:18:30 > 0:18:35"His brother-in-law Mr Hurst merely looked the gentleman,

0:18:35 > 0:18:39"but his friend Mr Darcy soon drew the attention of the room

0:18:39 > 0:18:44"by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien

0:18:44 > 0:18:47"and the report which was in general circulation

0:18:47 > 0:18:49"within five minutes after his entrance

0:18:49 > 0:18:52"of his having 10,000 a year."

0:18:54 > 0:18:57Other guests will be a little more frugal in appearance.

0:18:59 > 0:19:02But to modern eyes, they're all rather striking.

0:19:02 > 0:19:04I like the look of it a lot.

0:19:04 > 0:19:06So much, in fact, I'm wondering if you've got a spare one.

0:19:06 > 0:19:08What does it feel like to wear?

0:19:08 > 0:19:10It's very tight-fitting,

0:19:10 > 0:19:13but it's not so tight that you can barely walk or barely move.

0:19:13 > 0:19:15You still have that...sense of presence.

0:19:15 > 0:19:19I have broad shoulders, so it fits very well, but, like,

0:19:19 > 0:19:22it just makes your back just stand up rather than...

0:19:22 > 0:19:24You can never slouch in that.

0:19:25 > 0:19:29So maybe it was the ramrod stance imposed by this clothing

0:19:29 > 0:19:32which lay behind the visual appeal of Darcy and Bingley

0:19:32 > 0:19:34when they graced Meryton with their presence.

0:19:37 > 0:19:40The clothing is rather more revealing that I'd expected.

0:19:42 > 0:19:45It is very tempting to just keep your hands...

0:19:45 > 0:19:48in, in...it feels like you need some pockets.

0:19:51 > 0:19:53So men are going to be wearing stockinged legs

0:19:53 > 0:19:56and low-heeled shoes.

0:19:56 > 0:19:58We've got lovely breeches with a full front

0:19:58 > 0:19:59and quite a complicated opening.

0:19:59 > 0:20:01And then at the back,

0:20:01 > 0:20:04they've got this little bit of room for adjustment.

0:20:04 > 0:20:05There's a lot of room in here.

0:20:05 > 0:20:08Often, men are just taking the long tails of their shirt

0:20:08 > 0:20:10and tucking them between their legs to use for underwear.

0:20:13 > 0:20:15And the other important thing about this

0:20:15 > 0:20:19is that we're really starting to see, frankly, the groin area.

0:20:19 > 0:20:23Bit of room there, yeah? And then somewhere in here...

0:20:23 > 0:20:26If we take these trousers and have a look at one of the jackets...

0:20:27 > 0:20:29This is big, isn't it? I mean, it's too big.

0:20:29 > 0:20:32..what's happened is that the whole

0:20:32 > 0:20:34front skirt of the coat has been cut off.

0:20:34 > 0:20:37And this is a very new fashion.

0:20:37 > 0:20:40What you really notice is the groin's visible

0:20:40 > 0:20:41for the first time in a long time.

0:20:41 > 0:20:44- Yeah, over 100 years.- Exactly.

0:20:47 > 0:20:51Our female ball-goers will all be wearing authentic underwear.

0:20:51 > 0:20:54From corsets to petticoats.

0:20:54 > 0:20:58The muddied hem of a petticoat was a plot device for Austen.

0:20:58 > 0:21:01It allowed the fashion-conscious Bingley sisters

0:21:01 > 0:21:03to mock carefree Elizabeth Bennet.

0:21:03 > 0:21:06But it didn't bother Mr Darcy,

0:21:06 > 0:21:10already electrified by her fine eyes.

0:21:10 > 0:21:13I feel like I've gone definitely back in time.

0:21:13 > 0:21:14It looks gorgeous!

0:21:14 > 0:21:18But what was going on underneath the muslins?

0:21:18 > 0:21:22Let's enter the mysterious world of lingerie.

0:21:22 > 0:21:25It's often thought the women are not wearing underwear, but they are.

0:21:25 > 0:21:29They're wearing at least a chemise, maybe cotton or linen

0:21:29 > 0:21:30and then another petticoat on top

0:21:30 > 0:21:34and then there's actually quite a lot going on below the skirt.

0:21:34 > 0:21:38So all of this kind of mess would have been women's daily experience.

0:21:38 > 0:21:41Although in the 18th and early 19th century,

0:21:41 > 0:21:43people are obsessed with propriety

0:21:43 > 0:21:46and the modesty of young women. Actually, they're knickerless.

0:21:46 > 0:21:48And even when the knickers come in,

0:21:48 > 0:21:51the legs are still open at the crotch.

0:21:51 > 0:21:53You actually don't join up the crotches of knickers

0:21:53 > 0:21:57until, I think, the late 19th, early 20th century.

0:21:57 > 0:21:59So crotchless knickers were the norm.

0:22:04 > 0:22:07Many guests at a country ball would have made their own clothes

0:22:07 > 0:22:09or altered existing garments.

0:22:09 > 0:22:11Hilary is hand-making one dress

0:22:11 > 0:22:14that Austen, deft with needle and thread,

0:22:14 > 0:22:17might have made herself for a ball.

0:22:17 > 0:22:20Right. I'll be your dressmaker's assistant.

0:22:20 > 0:22:21Tell me what to do.

0:22:21 > 0:22:25So what I need you to do is if you can...just lift your arm.

0:22:25 > 0:22:29This will be a dress that's been altered by generations of wearers.

0:22:29 > 0:22:31A hand-me-down hybrid frock

0:22:31 > 0:22:34featuring elements of early 19th century design,

0:22:34 > 0:22:37but also traces of previous eras.

0:22:37 > 0:22:40I've cut if off. If I'd used a dress from about 1800,

0:22:40 > 0:22:43we'd actually have a narrower bust.

0:22:43 > 0:22:45And we'd be having to add length onto it.

0:22:45 > 0:22:49So, this is not dissimilar to, um...

0:22:49 > 0:22:53a family at home, kind of remaking an older sister's dress, say?

0:22:53 > 0:22:54- Exactly.- Cutting it down.

0:22:54 > 0:22:59- A lot of the value is in the textile itself, isn't it?- Exactly.

0:22:59 > 0:23:00Not so much in the labour.

0:23:00 > 0:23:03And especially if you've got a good Indian muslin.

0:23:03 > 0:23:05What I'm going to do, like they did at the time,

0:23:05 > 0:23:07is kind of add a drawstring.

0:23:07 > 0:23:10And I'm going to give you princess sleeves.

0:23:10 > 0:23:15From about 1811, 1812, you start seeing these little puffed sleeves.

0:23:15 > 0:23:20I'm going to use this as a base and then give you much puffier sleeves.

0:23:20 > 0:23:23SHE CHUCKLES

0:23:23 > 0:23:25Pin that in there.

0:23:25 > 0:23:27Um...one of the big differences is

0:23:27 > 0:23:30just less fabric in the skirt at this period.

0:23:30 > 0:23:34- So a flatter fall at the front. - Totally flat fall at the front.

0:23:34 > 0:23:36Go on, give us a demo, love.

0:23:36 > 0:23:38Ba-ba-ba, like that.

0:23:38 > 0:23:41- Does that feel all right for you? - Yeah, it feels fine.

0:23:41 > 0:23:43It didn't feel at any point like,

0:23:43 > 0:23:45"Oh, this might make me trip," or anything.

0:23:49 > 0:23:51The point of all the clothing that ball-goers,

0:23:51 > 0:23:54moneyed and less well off, would have worn,

0:23:54 > 0:23:56was the public display of assets.

0:23:56 > 0:23:58Financial and physical.

0:23:58 > 0:24:01Real and imaginary.

0:24:01 > 0:24:02- Are you going to dance?- No.

0:24:02 > 0:24:05Oh, come on. I'm Stuart, by the way. Nice to meet you.

0:24:05 > 0:24:07SHE LAUGHS

0:24:07 > 0:24:08Alistair gave it a go.

0:24:10 > 0:24:12Like Alistair, I came to the studio

0:24:12 > 0:24:16to observe the young ball-goers practising their steps.

0:24:16 > 0:24:19But joining in for a moment, I began to feel a little of the joy

0:24:19 > 0:24:23that meant the energetic Lydia Bennet just couldn't stop dancing.

0:24:23 > 0:24:25LAUGHTER

0:24:32 > 0:24:34I think I'm done for now.

0:24:34 > 0:24:37The characters never laughed.

0:24:37 > 0:24:42He's telling me off there because I got the giggles in it.

0:24:42 > 0:24:46Laughing's always very bad in women in the past.

0:24:46 > 0:24:48It's a sign of sexual availability.

0:24:48 > 0:24:51You shouldn't show your teeth.

0:24:51 > 0:24:56It's a sign of being garrulous, plebeian, vulgar.

0:24:56 > 0:25:00But that's one of the reasons why I like Lizzie Bennet so much,

0:25:00 > 0:25:04because she does seem to drive the plot with her own laughter.

0:25:04 > 0:25:07So that's one of the things...her irreverence, I think,

0:25:07 > 0:25:09is one of the things that makes her so attractive

0:25:09 > 0:25:13and easy for modern audiences to digest.

0:25:16 > 0:25:18Regency dancing, it turns out,

0:25:18 > 0:25:23is anything but the prim and proper activity we see in costume dramas.

0:25:23 > 0:25:26It was a chance to show off athletic prowess

0:25:26 > 0:25:31and a prime opportunity for physical and verbal flirtation.

0:25:31 > 0:25:33But of course, it didn't take place

0:25:33 > 0:25:36in the airy spaciousness of a dance studio.

0:25:36 > 0:25:38What were the actual conditions

0:25:38 > 0:25:42in which ball-goers exhibited their hard-won skills?

0:25:44 > 0:25:47Chawton is different from Netherfield Park,

0:25:47 > 0:25:50but it is a house that Austen knew and loved.

0:25:50 > 0:25:54She came here to enjoy the hospitality of her wealthy brother.

0:25:54 > 0:25:56Just the sort of place, then,

0:25:56 > 0:25:58where private Regency balls would have taken place.

0:26:00 > 0:26:03Well, this is the space where we're actually going to put the ball on.

0:26:09 > 0:26:11What a great space!

0:26:11 > 0:26:14The thing about Edward Austen's house...

0:26:14 > 0:26:18is it doesn't feel like it's been made into some naff country hotel,

0:26:18 > 0:26:21it feels like I think it always has done.

0:26:21 > 0:26:25Jane's house is just down the road and we know that she came here.

0:26:25 > 0:26:28We don't know for sure she would've danced in a ball in this room,

0:26:28 > 0:26:32but if there was a big social gathering thrown by her brother,

0:26:32 > 0:26:35this is the obvious place to have put that on.

0:26:35 > 0:26:39Even if she wasn't dancing, you can imagine her standing by the fire, drinking,

0:26:39 > 0:26:42being the chaperone, watching, seeing what was going on.

0:26:42 > 0:26:45It's not going to take much to make this feel as authentic as possible,

0:26:45 > 0:26:47to take us right back to 1813.

0:26:47 > 0:26:51Particularly because the whole thing's going to be candlelit.

0:26:51 > 0:26:52So in fact, looking around,

0:26:52 > 0:26:58the only potential problem might be these electric chandeliers.

0:26:58 > 0:27:02Lisa White, who advises the National Trust on accurate illumination,

0:27:02 > 0:27:07will show us exactly how a ball was lit two centuries ago.

0:27:07 > 0:27:10- Splendid!- Isn't it? It's beautiful. - Yes, yes.

0:27:10 > 0:27:13So, if you imagine that we're recreating the Netherfield Ball

0:27:13 > 0:27:16and Mr Bingley wants to throw a really good party,

0:27:16 > 0:27:18how's he going to sort out the lighting?

0:27:18 > 0:27:21Well, if Mr Bingley was out to impress,

0:27:21 > 0:27:24he would have lots of light. Especially wax candles.

0:27:24 > 0:27:26Not just in the chandeliers, but all around the room.

0:27:26 > 0:27:29And he would increase the light with beautiful mirrors

0:27:29 > 0:27:31to reflect the light, as well.

0:27:31 > 0:27:34Because artificial light meant social status.

0:27:34 > 0:27:37If you could afford lots, you were obviously very rich.

0:27:37 > 0:27:40Beeswax candles were the smart candles

0:27:40 > 0:27:42grand people like Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy

0:27:42 > 0:27:45and the Bennets would've had in their best rooms.

0:27:45 > 0:27:49Servants and poor people lived with tallow candles.

0:27:49 > 0:27:53They were cheap, they were made from beef fat or pig fat

0:27:53 > 0:27:54and they were smelly.

0:27:54 > 0:27:57It was a bit like living in a fast-food shop.

0:27:57 > 0:27:59I love this idea that the candles

0:27:59 > 0:28:02would've been a form of conspicuous consumption.

0:28:02 > 0:28:06Because Austen is so attuned to all of those nuances of status,

0:28:06 > 0:28:08it's quintessential Austen,

0:28:08 > 0:28:11- and people coming would immediately have read the room?- Absolutely, yes.

0:28:11 > 0:28:15And very often, candles in the 18th century were sold by length.

0:28:15 > 0:28:18And they would burn for four hours or six hours

0:28:18 > 0:28:20so that you didn't waste very much.

0:28:20 > 0:28:23And you can imagine if you were one of the young Miss Bennets

0:28:23 > 0:28:26and you arrived for a party and there were four-hour candles,

0:28:26 > 0:28:29you'd think, "Oh, no. I want to stay longer than that."

0:28:29 > 0:28:33If you were Mr Bennet and arrived and you saw six-hour candles,

0:28:33 > 0:28:36you'd think, "Oh, no! We'll be here for ever!"

0:28:36 > 0:28:39The candles for our ball would have Mr Bennet in despair.

0:28:39 > 0:28:41They'll burn for eight hours.

0:28:43 > 0:28:46An event of the scale of the Netherfield Ball

0:28:46 > 0:28:48might have been lit by up to 300 of these candles

0:28:48 > 0:28:54At a cost of around £15, a year's wages for a manservant,

0:28:54 > 0:28:57balls were expensive affairs.

0:29:02 > 0:29:05After all the exertion of strenuous dancing

0:29:05 > 0:29:08in a candlelit and wood-fired room,

0:29:08 > 0:29:12perspiring ball-goers would have worked up quite an appetite.

0:29:12 > 0:29:16So in Austen's time, the ball also included a chance

0:29:16 > 0:29:21for the host to refresh his guests and show off with a lavish supper.

0:29:21 > 0:29:24At our ball, the supper will be cooked

0:29:24 > 0:29:27by leading expert on historical food, Ivan Day.

0:29:27 > 0:29:31These are some of the recipes. A ball supper for 20 people.

0:29:31 > 0:29:32That's it there, you see.

0:29:32 > 0:29:36Amongst the sources for our sauces,

0:29:36 > 0:29:37pies and blancmanges,

0:29:37 > 0:29:40dishes of fish, foul and game

0:29:40 > 0:29:43are recipes that Austen might have cooked herself.

0:29:47 > 0:29:49I do stuff like this all the time.

0:29:49 > 0:29:52Serving food in this very old-fashioned way,

0:29:52 > 0:29:54which was called a la Francaise,

0:29:54 > 0:29:56where all the dishes are put on the table at the same time,

0:29:56 > 0:29:58but on a smaller scale.

0:29:58 > 0:30:02It became extinct as a way of dining in the middle of the 19th century

0:30:02 > 0:30:04because it is actually very tricky.

0:30:04 > 0:30:08These young chefs that I've got are absolutely brilliant.

0:30:08 > 0:30:11'They've taken on techniques that they've never done before.'

0:30:11 > 0:30:14This is a freezing pot or a sorbetiere.

0:30:14 > 0:30:16Don't get your hands cold.

0:30:16 > 0:30:19We are going to make Georgian ice cream.

0:30:19 > 0:30:22Food combined with the extraordinary decorative

0:30:22 > 0:30:25arts of the table at this period is really quite excellent.

0:30:25 > 0:30:27'I'm hoping it will be a revelation.'

0:30:27 > 0:30:29That's really delicious.

0:30:30 > 0:30:34One dish that was on nearly every ball menu was white soup.

0:30:34 > 0:30:38Recipes vary, but a veal stock was a common base,

0:30:38 > 0:30:41as were powdered almonds, pudding rice, bacon,

0:30:41 > 0:30:44anchovies and cream.

0:30:44 > 0:30:48Ivan's version draws on the cookbook of Austen's friend Martha Lloyd.

0:30:48 > 0:30:53Pressured to set the date for the Netherfield Ball, Mr Bingley laughed

0:30:53 > 0:30:57that he'd issue his invitations when he'd made enough white soup.

0:30:57 > 0:31:02Our guests will experience a feast for all the senses.

0:31:02 > 0:31:07But Elizabeth's supper was poisoned by the sound of her mother

0:31:07 > 0:31:10boasting of daughter Jane's marital prospects

0:31:10 > 0:31:14and the sight of Mr Darcy listening in.

0:31:14 > 0:31:20The dining room is the great scene of humiliation for Elizabeth Bennet.

0:31:20 > 0:31:27But food is drenched with ideas of status in the early 19th century.

0:31:27 > 0:31:31Game is the great symbol of the gentry and that's why

0:31:31 > 0:31:37Mrs Bennet invites Mr Bingley to come and shoot partridge on her land.

0:31:37 > 0:31:40Partridge pie is just one of the delights that Ivan Day is dishing

0:31:40 > 0:31:42up for our ball.

0:31:42 > 0:31:46His recipe comes from the Housekeeper's Instructor from 1805.

0:31:46 > 0:31:49This is very much a symbol of upper-class dining.

0:31:49 > 0:31:51The pie contains four whole birds cooked in herbs, liver,

0:31:51 > 0:31:54bacon and mushrooms.

0:31:54 > 0:31:59Before serving, it's opened and filled with veal gravy and orange juice.

0:31:59 > 0:32:04The prize inside these things is to stick in your fork

0:32:04 > 0:32:07and pull out an entire bird.

0:32:09 > 0:32:12What sort of opportunities do you think the food

0:32:12 > 0:32:15and the eating offers Austen to display character?

0:32:15 > 0:32:19The food is really important because there's always a subtext.

0:32:19 > 0:32:22Food is a very important sign of status throughout the novel.

0:32:22 > 0:32:25At the Bingleys' Netherfield Ball, they are going to have really good

0:32:25 > 0:32:27food to show everybody their status and wealth

0:32:27 > 0:32:32when Elizabeth eventually gets to meet Mr Darcy's sister, Georgiana.

0:32:32 > 0:32:35This extraordinary display of food status,

0:32:35 > 0:32:39they're given grapes and nectarines and peaches, which in Derbyshire

0:32:39 > 0:32:42in the early 19th century is quite an achievement.

0:32:44 > 0:32:46While some of the cooking could have been

0:32:46 > 0:32:52done in advance, a Regency kitchen would simmer with stress on the night.

0:32:52 > 0:32:56Wherever possible, Ivan Day is recreating the taste of the past by using

0:32:56 > 0:32:59Georgian kitchen equipment.

0:32:59 > 0:33:02But the ancient range isn't in working condition.

0:33:02 > 0:33:05You are confident that despite using this modern

0:33:05 > 0:33:09technology you're going to be able to recreate the taste of 1813?

0:33:09 > 0:33:13Yes, but we don't want it just to taste like it, we want it to look like it as well

0:33:13 > 0:33:17because this is going to be sitting on authentic Regency silver.

0:33:17 > 0:33:21The spectacle of the food is almost as important as the way it tastes.

0:33:21 > 0:33:23It's even more important actually.

0:33:23 > 0:33:25For a ball, it's all about ostentation, surely.

0:33:25 > 0:33:27You've invested enormous amount of money, and all that.

0:33:27 > 0:33:29It's a total expression of your status.

0:33:29 > 0:33:32What's interesting is if you've got a silver platter,

0:33:32 > 0:33:35a highly ornate, artificial thing, and then you're plonking

0:33:35 > 0:33:39on top of it a beautifully cooked bird, but you can see

0:33:39 > 0:33:43the talons, the claws, the neck, the beak.

0:33:43 > 0:33:46The trouble is, you are bringing your sensibilities about food.

0:33:46 > 0:33:49A lot of people enjoyed actually eating the head of the chicken

0:33:49 > 0:33:53because it cooks to a wonderful mush and you just put

0:33:53 > 0:33:56it in your mouth and you suck the eyes out and the brains out

0:33:56 > 0:34:00through the beak and it's a wonderful gastronomic experience.

0:34:02 > 0:34:04I'm going to need the soup tureen first.

0:34:04 > 0:34:10Ivan Day's 63-dish supper will be served on solid silver salvers,

0:34:10 > 0:34:14platters, dishes and tureens, all treasures from the Georgian and Regency era.

0:34:14 > 0:34:20Amongst the cutlery, spoons once used by the Prince Regent.

0:34:20 > 0:34:23The hoard is in the care of Christopher Hartop,

0:34:23 > 0:34:24an authority on English silver.

0:34:24 > 0:34:27This will have to move up.

0:34:27 > 0:34:32The savouries over, Ivan will tempt diners with jellies and blancmanges, or flummeries.

0:34:32 > 0:34:36What I've got here is a really interesting mould

0:34:36 > 0:34:38which dates from about 1790

0:34:38 > 0:34:41and it's a little bit of a delicate operation.

0:34:43 > 0:34:48What you're seeing there is what food really looked like.

0:34:48 > 0:34:52This one depicts the cipher of George III.

0:34:55 > 0:34:57I rarely get stressed,

0:34:57 > 0:35:00but technically this is the nightmare one.

0:35:03 > 0:35:05This is the big moment.

0:35:08 > 0:35:12This is one of the most famous of all Georgian jellies.

0:35:12 > 0:35:15It's called a Solomon's Temple.

0:35:15 > 0:35:18This might have pride of place on the table.

0:35:18 > 0:35:21It looks very different from the food that we eat now.

0:35:21 > 0:35:26Sensibilities of people in the Georgian period, very difference to ours.

0:35:26 > 0:35:29They have different expectations. But this is what we've lost.

0:35:29 > 0:35:33This is the food that has been totally and utterly forgotten about.

0:35:33 > 0:35:39Mr Bingley is really expecting a great deal from his kitchen staff

0:35:39 > 0:35:42for what is the big moment of his year.

0:35:42 > 0:35:46It must have been a great deal of tension down there in the servants' quarters.

0:35:46 > 0:35:51Those classes above the Bennets, like Bingley and Darcy

0:35:51 > 0:35:54and Lady Catherine and the rest of them,

0:35:54 > 0:35:57they lived in a world that was just full of stuff like this.

0:35:57 > 0:36:01So we've looked at the sumptuous food, the costume, the dance lessons,

0:36:01 > 0:36:05the lighting, but what we haven't yet explored is music.

0:36:05 > 0:36:08What did people really dance to?

0:36:08 > 0:36:10Jane Austen was a keen musician.

0:36:10 > 0:36:13Within her own collection of piano music are hidden clues

0:36:13 > 0:36:16to the kind of tunes she may have had in mind

0:36:16 > 0:36:18while writing the Netherfield Ball scenes.

0:36:18 > 0:36:23The archive at Southampton University contains the Austen family

0:36:23 > 0:36:27music books, curated by Professor Jeanice Brooks.

0:36:27 > 0:36:31We know from her letters that Austen copied out sheet music.

0:36:31 > 0:36:33Pieces in these musical scrapbooks

0:36:33 > 0:36:36include tunes she probably played herself.

0:36:36 > 0:36:41The crucial question is, does this volume contain anything

0:36:41 > 0:36:44- actually written by Jane?- Probably.

0:36:44 > 0:36:46There are a couple that are a very good match.

0:36:46 > 0:36:50This looks very similar to Austen's early music hand.

0:36:50 > 0:36:53It's so tantalising if this actually Jane Austen's hand.

0:36:53 > 0:36:56There is a glittering precision to that.

0:36:56 > 0:36:58It's a very precise copy.

0:36:58 > 0:37:02And in fact, one of the other nieces, Caroline Austen, talks

0:37:02 > 0:37:06about how Jane Austen played from her manuscript books that she copied

0:37:06 > 0:37:10out and she makes a comment about the writing and says it was so neat.

0:37:10 > 0:37:12As if it were print.

0:37:12 > 0:37:16Let's see if I can find the thing. You'll want to see that.

0:37:16 > 0:37:18All right, brilliant!

0:37:18 > 0:37:22That's amazing. Someone... What is this?

0:37:22 > 0:37:26This is a profile of a woman, a girl. This is amazing.

0:37:26 > 0:37:29Presumably this is someone who's got slightly bored whilst they're

0:37:29 > 0:37:33transcribing music and they decided to do a doodle in the margin.

0:37:33 > 0:37:39This is what I'm very fancifully calling my little Jane Austen

0:37:39 > 0:37:45- musical portrait.- Don't say it's fanciful! Let's tell them it's right!

0:37:45 > 0:37:47- SHE LAUGHS - We don't do that in academia.

0:37:49 > 0:37:53I thought that was really exciting, because feeling

0:37:53 > 0:37:56so close to Jane Austen's hand is a very rare thing.

0:37:56 > 0:38:01Certainly, that is the very first time I've seen potentially her own handwriting, the way she wrote music.

0:38:01 > 0:38:04For such a prolific writer, there is surprisingly little of her own

0:38:04 > 0:38:07hand that survived. For instance, many of her letters have been burnt.

0:38:07 > 0:38:10We don't actually have the first draft of Pride and Prejudice.

0:38:10 > 0:38:13And it was so eloquent to open up this unprepossessing,

0:38:13 > 0:38:16potentially uninteresting looking book,

0:38:16 > 0:38:20with its yellowed old pages, it just felt so old,

0:38:20 > 0:38:24and to suddenly recreate this sense of a whole community, a real social context,

0:38:24 > 0:38:29which fired and enthused Jane every single day of her life.

0:38:29 > 0:38:32In the piano music that Austen copied

0:38:32 > 0:38:35so assiduously are the melodies she enjoyed.

0:38:35 > 0:38:39There are classical pieces, folk songs and traditional airs,

0:38:39 > 0:38:42and others to which she would herself have danced at balls.

0:38:42 > 0:38:45Popular music at the time was widely collected.

0:38:45 > 0:38:50But instead of being notated for orchestras, it was summarised for the piano.

0:38:50 > 0:38:54To recreate the music of the ballroom, they have to be rearranged.

0:38:54 > 0:38:57A task undertaken by Professor William Drabkin.

0:38:57 > 0:39:01Naturally, he is using a piano from 1796.

0:39:01 > 0:39:03The things that you've got here

0:39:03 > 0:39:07are what I have done to some music that I was given.

0:39:07 > 0:39:09I don't want to overdo this,

0:39:09 > 0:39:13because after all, the focus is on the dancing,

0:39:13 > 0:39:17not on the musicians in the gallery, wherever they may happen to be.

0:39:17 > 0:39:19People come to dance

0:39:19 > 0:39:22and the musicians are there to provide music for the dance.

0:39:22 > 0:39:26They are not there to perform great music, if I can put it that way.

0:39:26 > 0:39:28So, no flourishes.

0:39:28 > 0:39:31HE PLAYS MUSIC

0:39:34 > 0:39:37Ball guests may not have been concentrating on the music,

0:39:37 > 0:39:40but they were certainly concentrating on each other.

0:39:40 > 0:39:45Guests at a Regency ball knew that appearance was everything.

0:39:45 > 0:39:49Austen tells how on the evening of the Netherfield Ball,

0:39:49 > 0:39:52Elizabeth Bennet dressed with more than usual care,

0:39:52 > 0:39:57a process that would have involved more than just her clothes.

0:39:57 > 0:40:01For someone whose letters betray such a love of fashion,

0:40:01 > 0:40:05Austen gives scant detail about the lotions and potions

0:40:05 > 0:40:09that must have enhanced the Bennet sisters' natural charms.

0:40:09 > 0:40:13But there's a clue to her ambivalence about artifice.

0:40:13 > 0:40:18The sour Bingley sisters sneer at Lizzie Bennet's healthy,

0:40:18 > 0:40:23outdoors-y complexion, so brown and coarse.

0:40:23 > 0:40:28Make-up has always been risky. Too much was the sign of a trollop.

0:40:28 > 0:40:33So did nice girls really reach for the rouge pot? It seems they did.

0:40:33 > 0:40:36Running the cosmetics team for our ball is Sally Pointer,

0:40:36 > 0:40:40a leading authority on the make-up of historical make-up.

0:40:40 > 0:40:42- Do you make all these?- I do, yes.

0:40:42 > 0:40:44- So, you sit at home in your kitchen...- Yep.

0:40:44 > 0:40:47- ..doing a bit of kitchen chemistry? - Yes. I'm an archaeologist

0:40:47 > 0:40:50by training and I research early recipes.

0:40:50 > 0:40:53Most of them use ingredients that could be got fairly easily

0:40:53 > 0:40:56and don't use any equipment that you didn't have in a normal kitchen

0:40:56 > 0:40:58so it was accessible to fairly ordinary women.

0:40:58 > 0:41:01One of the main features of the look are quite rosy cheeks.

0:41:01 > 0:41:04We could use alkanet root. Little blue flowers

0:41:04 > 0:41:07- but the root gives this lovely, clear, sheer red colour.- Right.

0:41:07 > 0:41:08This is cochineal rouge.

0:41:08 > 0:41:11I've read many studies but I've no idea what they look like.

0:41:11 > 0:41:13Each one of those is a beetle.

0:41:13 > 0:41:18To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that

0:41:18 > 0:41:20accurately-reconstructed cosmetics have ever been used

0:41:20 > 0:41:22- on an entire cast.- Oh, really?

0:41:22 > 0:41:26I believe that this is making history, doing this today.

0:41:26 > 0:41:28THEY LAUGH

0:41:28 > 0:41:30And what of the men?

0:41:30 > 0:41:33Elizabeth Bennet is initially interested in dashing officer,

0:41:33 > 0:41:38Mr Wickham. Was his elan boosted by time at the mirror?

0:41:38 > 0:41:40Did his cheeks match his coat?

0:41:40 > 0:41:42We've got a redcoat!

0:41:42 > 0:41:45Would you really have imagined that a redcoat would have worn

0:41:45 > 0:41:46make-up for a dance?

0:41:46 > 0:41:49Interestingly, small amounts of rouge turn up

0:41:49 > 0:41:51on male toiletry accounts right through to the First World War,

0:41:51 > 0:41:55- particularly on officers. - It does seem to me...

0:41:55 > 0:41:57- Are these stick-on sideburns? - They are.

0:41:57 > 0:42:02This is the period when the wig increasingly has been abandoned,

0:42:02 > 0:42:04but there would still be an older generation

0:42:04 > 0:42:06who would hang onto their wigs.

0:42:06 > 0:42:08I believe we have one or two gentlemen who are going to be

0:42:08 > 0:42:10wigged and possibly powdered.

0:42:10 > 0:42:13So, representing the goaty old men of the...

0:42:13 > 0:42:17- Sorry, representing the GOUTY old men!- Yes, yes.

0:42:17 > 0:42:20As the Netherfield Ball approached,

0:42:20 > 0:42:23anticipation was frothing in the villages.

0:42:23 > 0:42:27The thrill of getting into your party clothes is surely unchanged

0:42:27 > 0:42:28but for a Regency dance,

0:42:28 > 0:42:34that anticipation was rocket-fuelled by weeks of preparation.

0:42:34 > 0:42:38We know from Austen's letters that she was interested in fabrics

0:42:38 > 0:42:40but in her fiction,

0:42:40 > 0:42:45she makes an interest in frills a sure sign of moral weakness

0:42:45 > 0:42:49and that's why the younger Bennet sisters are slaves to haberdashery.

0:42:51 > 0:42:54"The village of Longbourn was only one mile from Meryton,

0:42:54 > 0:42:58"a most convenient distance for the young ladies who were usually

0:42:58 > 0:43:01"tempted thither three or four times a week,

0:43:01 > 0:43:03"to pay their duty to their aunt,

0:43:03 > 0:43:06"and to a milliner's shop just over the way."

0:43:07 > 0:43:09'In the costume truck,

0:43:09 > 0:43:12'Hilary Davidson is dressing our guests in the garments that

0:43:12 > 0:43:17'would have expressed exactly where a Mrs Bennet or a Mr Darcy

0:43:17 > 0:43:20'would have stood on the Meryton social ladder.

0:43:20 > 0:43:24'The quality and style of clothes were then, as now,

0:43:24 > 0:43:27'powerful social signifiers and Bingley's sisters,

0:43:27 > 0:43:29'Mrs Hurst and Caroline Bingley,

0:43:29 > 0:43:34'pay beady attention to what they and others wear.'

0:43:34 > 0:43:37This is made out of silk. This is possibly Mrs Hurst or Miss Bingley.

0:43:37 > 0:43:38Oh, really?

0:43:38 > 0:43:41- Mrs Bennet talks about Mrs Hurst's gown.- Yes.

0:43:41 > 0:43:44- She's never seen anything so elegant.- Yes.

0:43:44 > 0:43:49So, Hilary, is this a simpler dress of the kind that perhaps

0:43:49 > 0:43:50a Miss Bennet might have worn?

0:43:50 > 0:43:53Still possibly quite fancy for a country ball

0:43:53 > 0:43:56so I'm thinking this is a Lydia Bennet who, of all the girls,

0:43:56 > 0:43:58loves fashion the most.

0:43:58 > 0:44:01This is more like what Mrs Bennet would've worn.

0:44:01 > 0:44:05- The cap is the sign of matronly modesty, isn't it?- Yes.

0:44:05 > 0:44:08You just see the transformation of how people treat you.

0:44:08 > 0:44:11- You have a certain amount of authority, then?- Yes, absolutely.

0:44:11 > 0:44:13- Through your bonnet? - Oh, yeah. Totally!

0:44:13 > 0:44:16We're into more age-appropriate dressing here.

0:44:16 > 0:44:18- Mrs Bennet's not that old, by modern terms.- No.

0:44:18 > 0:44:20In fact, I think people are surprised to learn

0:44:20 > 0:44:23that she's only about 41 or 42

0:44:23 > 0:44:28- and actually, often she's played by much older actresses.- Yeah.- Oh, wow.

0:44:28 > 0:44:33She still has genuine claims to being, you know, alluring.

0:44:33 > 0:44:37'Cotton, wool and taffeta whisper to the expert

0:44:37 > 0:44:40'but muslin is the textile that most of us associate

0:44:40 > 0:44:42'with the ladies of the Regency.'

0:44:42 > 0:44:44This is a 19th-century muslin.

0:44:44 > 0:44:50This is beautifully diaphanous and it is one of the great legends,

0:44:50 > 0:44:54is it not, that women...these dresses were practically see-through

0:44:54 > 0:44:59and the women might even wet their muslins to reveal their limbs.

0:44:59 > 0:45:03You're not going to be wearing that to a dance or something like that.

0:45:03 > 0:45:04It's an extremity.

0:45:04 > 0:45:07Put a bit of water onto it and see what happens,

0:45:07 > 0:45:10- like you've just been running through a fountain.- Oh, yes.

0:45:10 > 0:45:14Or Venus arising from a shell, or something.

0:45:14 > 0:45:15If there really was this dampened muslin,

0:45:15 > 0:45:18it probably wouldn't even pass in St James's. We're talking

0:45:18 > 0:45:21private parties, where...

0:45:21 > 0:45:23- VERY private parties! - Very private parties!

0:45:23 > 0:45:25Actually, you'd see everything through that.

0:45:25 > 0:45:28This is the sort of ensemble that I imagine Mr Darcy would be wearing.

0:45:28 > 0:45:31- Oh, really?- I'm not sure he'd go so far as the red,

0:45:31 > 0:45:33I think he'd be quite conservative in his tastes.

0:45:33 > 0:45:35Look at the quality of the buttons, here.

0:45:35 > 0:45:39They're not too ostentatious, and very well-fitting breeches,

0:45:39 > 0:45:42which is of course a very important part of Regency men's dress.

0:45:42 > 0:45:47- This is our Mr Darcy. So, £10,000 a year.- £10,000 a year.

0:45:47 > 0:45:50'Mr Darcy was extremely wealthy.

0:45:50 > 0:45:52'The garments of a less well-off gentleman,

0:45:52 > 0:45:57'like Mr Bingley's brother-in-law, are more service than substance.'

0:45:57 > 0:46:00Perhaps the person we could pin this on is Mr Hurst.

0:46:00 > 0:46:05Mrs Hurst is explained as marrying a man of more fashion than fortune.

0:46:05 > 0:46:08You can see just how flashy this waistcoat is,

0:46:08 > 0:46:11by comparison with our Mr Darcy's quite restrained one.

0:46:12 > 0:46:15'Invitations to a country ball might also extend

0:46:15 > 0:46:18'to the sons of local gentlemen.'

0:46:18 > 0:46:22This is made out of wool and the colours are far more restrained.

0:46:22 > 0:46:24This is provincial gentility as opposed to

0:46:24 > 0:46:27- metropolitan fashion?- Absolutely.

0:46:28 > 0:46:30'Hilary has been burning the midnight oil.'

0:46:30 > 0:46:33So, Hilary, can we at long last see the dress?

0:46:33 > 0:46:36'Time to reveal the dress she's been making by hand.

0:46:36 > 0:46:41'A hybrid of various hand-me-down garments that the Bennet girls -

0:46:41 > 0:46:43'and Austen herself - would've recognised

0:46:43 > 0:46:47'and at which the Bingley sisters would have sneered.'

0:46:47 > 0:46:50- This is the little white dress of the Regency period.- Yes.

0:46:50 > 0:46:53You can make it as elaborate or simple as you want to.

0:46:53 > 0:46:56Given that Jane Austen herself was good at embroidery, do you think

0:46:56 > 0:47:00there'd be an expectation that you would improve the dress yourself?

0:47:00 > 0:47:03If you were a good needlewoman, which you're expected to be,

0:47:03 > 0:47:05it's one of the female accomplishments, you can

0:47:05 > 0:47:09absolutely show off your work in your clothing.

0:47:09 > 0:47:11So, who would wear this dress?

0:47:11 > 0:47:14- I think this is an Elizabeth Bennet dress.- Oh!

0:47:16 > 0:47:18In the final hours before the ball,

0:47:18 > 0:47:22there's a thrill of anticipation throughout Chawton House.

0:47:22 > 0:47:25Austen was well aware of the tingling excitement

0:47:25 > 0:47:29generated by waiting for an event that brought the possibility of

0:47:29 > 0:47:32life-changing romance, delivering heat and light

0:47:32 > 0:47:34in the dead of winter.

0:47:34 > 0:47:39"If there had not been a Netherfield Ball to prepare for and talk of,

0:47:39 > 0:47:42"the younger Miss Bennets would have been in a pitiable state

0:47:42 > 0:47:45"at this time, for from the day of the invitation

0:47:45 > 0:47:50"to the day of the ball, there was such a succession of rain

0:47:50 > 0:47:53"as prevented their walking to Meryton once."

0:47:54 > 0:48:00Perhaps we've neglected balls as arenas of...

0:48:00 > 0:48:02not just social but sexual interaction.

0:48:02 > 0:48:06Yeah. In 19th century novels, there are lots of balls

0:48:06 > 0:48:08but in Pride and Prejudice,

0:48:08 > 0:48:13it has a sort of minute kind of attention to the nuance

0:48:13 > 0:48:14and gesture of every...

0:48:14 > 0:48:17Every single detail is so dramatically telling.

0:48:17 > 0:48:19No other novelist does it as brilliantly.

0:48:19 > 0:48:22And there is this extraordinary structural thing.

0:48:22 > 0:48:27They're a series of dances and you can see them manoeuvring

0:48:27 > 0:48:32around each other, sort of denying what is becoming ever more evident.

0:48:32 > 0:48:39Especially Mr Darcy. This absolutely proper person but actually, sensual.

0:48:39 > 0:48:45And that the dance is the epitome of his mix of correctness

0:48:45 > 0:48:51and restraint on the one hand, and...fervour on the other.

0:48:51 > 0:48:55Like Austen herself, the genteel readers who first devoured

0:48:55 > 0:48:59Pride and Prejudice knew the sights and sounds of the ballroom.

0:48:59 > 0:49:03She was free to concentrate on the drama of emotion,

0:49:03 > 0:49:07leaving modern readers with tantalisingly few clues

0:49:07 > 0:49:09about the ball itself.

0:49:09 > 0:49:12That economy can sometimes be frustrating.

0:49:12 > 0:49:16Yeah, and trying to find out about the historical background

0:49:16 > 0:49:20to things that happen in Jane Austen can be really, really important.

0:49:20 > 0:49:25Because she is asking you to see things which she could be

0:49:25 > 0:49:31confident her first readers could see, and which we can't see any more.

0:49:31 > 0:49:34Austen's economy of style is particularly apparent

0:49:34 > 0:49:38when it comes to the specifics of what goes on in the dining room.

0:49:38 > 0:49:41The food we've prepared is like the clothes and the make-up,

0:49:41 > 0:49:45almost theatrical in its flamboyance. The Netherfield supper

0:49:45 > 0:49:49features some of the most important exchanges in the novel.

0:49:49 > 0:49:52Now, we begin to see what the dining room might have looked like.

0:49:52 > 0:49:54- You're all professional waiters. - ALL: Yes.

0:49:54 > 0:49:57Well, Ivan and I are going to try and make you unlearn everything

0:49:57 > 0:50:01you've learned because this is going to be completely different

0:50:01 > 0:50:03from any table you've ever served at.

0:50:03 > 0:50:06We're going to have three rows of dishes laid out

0:50:06 > 0:50:08when the people sit down.

0:50:08 > 0:50:11At each end of the table, there'll be a soup tureen.

0:50:11 > 0:50:13There are two soups. There's a choice.

0:50:13 > 0:50:15I don't know how it was done,

0:50:15 > 0:50:18but I would imagine one of you will be in charge at this end

0:50:18 > 0:50:21and then the waiters will take the hare soup

0:50:21 > 0:50:23to Colonel Blenkinsopp over here

0:50:23 > 0:50:26and white soup to Jane Bennet over there.

0:50:26 > 0:50:28You'll be able to do this,

0:50:28 > 0:50:31just apply some of the common sense from your experience.

0:50:31 > 0:50:32It'll be fun to see how you get on.

0:50:32 > 0:50:36We're going to lay a fork on the left. To our eyes, upside down.

0:50:36 > 0:50:38Blade of the knife facing into the plate.

0:50:42 > 0:50:45I mean, I'm amazed at how many dishes are going to be on here.

0:50:45 > 0:50:48The sheer logistics of it is what we found daunting.

0:50:48 > 0:50:53Keeping track of each dish and then having to go down to the kitchen,

0:50:53 > 0:50:55decorate it and then bring it up

0:50:55 > 0:50:59and put it in exactly the right position is very, very complex.

0:50:59 > 0:51:01The trouble with this sort of dining is that

0:51:01 > 0:51:03no-one really says very much about it.

0:51:03 > 0:51:05Jane Austen only gives us little clues.

0:51:05 > 0:51:09So how are you so sure that what we're going to recreate

0:51:09 > 0:51:11will be what would've been at Netherfield?

0:51:11 > 0:51:15We can pick up things, for instance, in the literature about dining

0:51:15 > 0:51:19which was published at the period. The trouble is it's open to debate.

0:51:19 > 0:51:21The only way of finding out is to do it

0:51:21 > 0:51:23and that's what this is really about.

0:51:23 > 0:51:26In recreating the Netherfield Ball's supper,

0:51:26 > 0:51:30we're hoping to bring to life this forgotten world

0:51:30 > 0:51:33of Georgian dining which Jane would've been very familiar with.

0:51:33 > 0:51:37Do you think it will give us a more nuanced understanding of the novel?

0:51:37 > 0:51:41Of the whole milieu of this extraordinary period

0:51:41 > 0:51:44in British history, which is one of our finest.

0:51:44 > 0:51:47We've got a table plan, here. This is based on

0:51:47 > 0:51:50one published in 1815, so we know it's pretty authentic.

0:51:53 > 0:51:58As dusk approaches, and the beginning of the ball draws near,

0:51:58 > 0:52:01one other crucial and surprising element has to be added

0:52:01 > 0:52:02to the reconstruction.

0:52:03 > 0:52:07Lisa, as you can see, we've got this electric moon.

0:52:07 > 0:52:09Moonlight would've been extremely important,

0:52:09 > 0:52:14not only to help light guests as they came towards the ball

0:52:14 > 0:52:16but even more importantly for when they left.

0:52:16 > 0:52:20The last highwayman to be hanged for his felonies was only

0:52:20 > 0:52:24a couple of years after Pride and Prejudice was published.

0:52:24 > 0:52:28The thin light of the moon was enough to make journeys safer

0:52:28 > 0:52:29to and from the venue,

0:52:29 > 0:52:32but the light inside the ballroom had a different purpose.

0:52:32 > 0:52:37Film electricians are more used to putting light IN than taking it out

0:52:37 > 0:52:40but the electric chandeliers must go for something rather older.

0:52:42 > 0:52:46Lisa and I have got a little bit of light work to do as we create the

0:52:46 > 0:52:50conditions under which Darcy first fell underneath Elizabeth's spell.

0:52:52 > 0:52:55"No sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends

0:52:55 > 0:52:58"that she had hardly a good feature in her face,

0:52:58 > 0:53:02"than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent

0:53:02 > 0:53:05"by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes."

0:53:13 > 0:53:17Two hours after moonrise, our guests are gathering.

0:53:17 > 0:53:20In the dreary winters of a small village,

0:53:20 > 0:53:25a ball was a fairytale highlight in the enveloping darkness.

0:53:29 > 0:53:32And out here in the hallway, the common passages -

0:53:32 > 0:53:35we're in the 21st century, we're ready to observe

0:53:35 > 0:53:37but as soon as anyone passes through this door,

0:53:37 > 0:53:40they're in 1813, or as near as we can get it.

0:53:47 > 0:53:50When Elizabeth Bennet arrived at the Netherfield Ball,

0:53:50 > 0:53:53she was out to conquer the heart of Mr Wickham.

0:53:53 > 0:53:57But a few short hours and just two dances later,

0:53:57 > 0:54:01and her furious thoughts are all fixed on Mr Darcy.

0:54:01 > 0:54:05But like all the guests, Lizzie came to see and be seen,

0:54:05 > 0:54:08keen to please the man on whom she'd set her sights.

0:54:14 > 0:54:17Everything that happens in the novel, all the romances

0:54:17 > 0:54:22and a lot of the misunderstandings start at the ball and in a way,

0:54:22 > 0:54:25Jane Austen is making fictional use of something which must have

0:54:25 > 0:54:27been the case in a small town like Meryton.

0:54:27 > 0:54:30This is simply the biggest event of the year.

0:54:30 > 0:54:32It's the moment that lights the blue touch paper.

0:54:32 > 0:54:35GUESTS CHATTER

0:54:35 > 0:54:40The excitement is palpable, isn't it? The hubbub, everybody arriving.

0:54:40 > 0:54:42- Yes.- Is this a key moment of the drama?

0:54:42 > 0:54:44Absolutely, it is all part of it

0:54:44 > 0:54:48because you're seeing not just who's wearing what, but who's there.

0:54:48 > 0:54:50So no guest list goes round the village?

0:54:50 > 0:54:53Well, normally, there'd be lots of gossip, of course

0:54:53 > 0:54:57but you're explicitly told in Pride and Prejudice that the Bennets

0:54:57 > 0:55:01had been cooped up for five days by the rain and so Elizabeth

0:55:01 > 0:55:05thinks Wickham is going to be there and she has no way of knowing

0:55:05 > 0:55:08- from gossip that he's not going to be.- Also, presumably,

0:55:08 > 0:55:12- cabin fever is mounting. - Absolutely, they've been pent up.

0:55:12 > 0:55:14So it was ratcheted up to a new height.

0:55:14 > 0:55:17You can imagine what state Lydia's in, can't you?

0:55:17 > 0:55:19Pent up for five days, she's ready to go.

0:55:21 > 0:55:24Coming in, they're all watching each other.

0:55:24 > 0:55:26This will be the moment when you get the first glimpse

0:55:26 > 0:55:30of the taffetas and think, "Will my own muslin cut the mustard?"

0:55:30 > 0:55:33Absolutely, and of course, it's a big deal in Pride and Prejudice

0:55:33 > 0:55:36because this is the Bingleys' ball and the Bingleys

0:55:36 > 0:55:40- are London people.- Mm.- They wear more fashionable clothes

0:55:40 > 0:55:43so these Hertfordshire folk are all sort of jostling

0:55:43 > 0:55:47for their approval as well as trying to compete with each other.

0:55:51 > 0:55:52I hadn't thought about this at all

0:55:52 > 0:55:54but of course they'd need to change their shoes

0:55:54 > 0:55:57because you can't walk through the snow in your dancing pumps.

0:55:57 > 0:56:00You're not going to go dancing in a pair of really heavy boots,

0:56:00 > 0:56:03you want to be changing into something soft and light

0:56:03 > 0:56:06and just encases the foot. This isn't something we do any more,

0:56:06 > 0:56:09we forget that they had this culture of changing the shoes.

0:56:09 > 0:56:12This looks like the kind of thing that a ballerina might wear today.

0:56:12 > 0:56:15But everyone's doing it, all of the blokes as well.

0:56:15 > 0:56:18This is the origins of ballet shoes.

0:56:18 > 0:56:21So, you would inevitably have your own pair of dancing shoes?

0:56:21 > 0:56:23Of course, you'd be coming to the ball

0:56:23 > 0:56:26with your lovely little bag of shoes, changing them

0:56:26 > 0:56:27and you're ready to go.

0:56:27 > 0:56:30Practically speaking as well, our ballroom's got wooden floorboards.

0:56:30 > 0:56:33If you had heavy boots, that'd be making a tremendous racket as well.

0:56:33 > 0:56:36You couldn't hear the musicians over that kind of noise.

0:56:36 > 0:56:39Contemporary accounts speak of dancing shoes being

0:56:39 > 0:56:43shredded in a single night through the exertions of the dancers.

0:56:43 > 0:56:47It's also a kind of parade of social distinctions.

0:56:47 > 0:56:50How you arrive at the ball is in itself significant.

0:56:50 > 0:56:53Who has their own carriage? Who has to get a lift from somebody else?

0:56:53 > 0:56:57The Bennets had their own carriage, they're actually quite well off.

0:56:57 > 0:57:00But we're told that the horses for the carriage

0:57:00 > 0:57:02had to be used on the farm as well.

0:57:02 > 0:57:06So they're sort of slightly in-between grand

0:57:06 > 0:57:07and actually shabby genteel.

0:57:07 > 0:57:11HORSES' HOOVES CLATTER, WHEELS TRUNDLE

0:57:11 > 0:57:14The carriage is one of the key markers in Jane Austen's novels

0:57:14 > 0:57:18and in reality in the early 19th century, between really,

0:57:18 > 0:57:20the wealthy and the merely genteel.

0:57:20 > 0:57:24You need about £1,000 a year to own a carriage.

0:57:24 > 0:57:26Because it's not just the carriage, is it?

0:57:26 > 0:57:29- It's the horses and all the tackle and the stabling.- Yes, yes.

0:57:29 > 0:57:32A man is even linked to the nature of the transport he has.

0:57:32 > 0:57:35How grand a carriage, how big a carriage and of course,

0:57:35 > 0:57:38going to the ball, it's a simple fact,

0:57:38 > 0:57:40do you depend on somebody else for a lift there and a lift back?

0:57:40 > 0:57:43Are you going to have to leave when somebody else does?

0:57:43 > 0:57:45Or are you going to be like Mrs Bennet,

0:57:45 > 0:57:46who's in command of her destiny

0:57:46 > 0:57:49and she specially makes sure that the Bennet carriage

0:57:49 > 0:57:51is the last to leave?

0:57:55 > 0:57:57GUESTS CHATTER, MUSIC PLAYS

0:57:59 > 0:58:02The guests are presented to the host and hostess.

0:58:02 > 0:58:05This was the moment when, at the Meryton Assembly Ball,

0:58:05 > 0:58:08Mr Bingley made himself acquainted

0:58:08 > 0:58:11with all the principal people in the room.

0:58:11 > 0:58:16All this formal introducing, do you think it's significant?

0:58:16 > 0:58:18I suppose it doesn't seem unreasonable

0:58:18 > 0:58:19for the Netherfield Ball.

0:58:21 > 0:58:25Dr Hannah Greig is a specialist in the history of high society.

0:58:28 > 0:58:31Hierarchy pervades all the sexual encounters

0:58:31 > 0:58:34in the kinds of community that Austen writes about.

0:58:34 > 0:58:36This is, in fact, a private ball.

0:58:36 > 0:58:39Isn't that a crucial distinction for the Regency gentility?

0:58:39 > 0:58:42Yeah, there's a fundamental distinction. The private events,

0:58:42 > 0:58:44it's invitation-only, whereas a public assembly,

0:58:44 > 0:58:46it's much more mixed company.

0:58:46 > 0:58:48There must have been lots of people who thought

0:58:48 > 0:58:49they were better than the rest.

0:58:49 > 0:58:52And Austen makes that very clear, particularly in Pride and Prejudice

0:58:52 > 0:58:56where Darcy, at the Meryton Assembly, appears to be too proud

0:58:56 > 0:58:58to participate in any of the dances

0:58:58 > 0:59:00and he says, "I didn't know any of other women present

0:59:00 > 0:59:02"so I only danced with Bingley's sisters."

0:59:02 > 0:59:06- And as she says, "What, and no-one can be introduced at a ball?"- Yes.

0:59:06 > 0:59:07Ladies and gentlemen,

0:59:07 > 0:59:10if you would like to be standing and form sets for the cotillion,

0:59:10 > 0:59:12the Return Du Printemps.

0:59:13 > 0:59:15Austen makes very clear that Darcy

0:59:15 > 0:59:20and the Bingleys feel relatively close to high-ranking London circles

0:59:20 > 0:59:24and that they had a knowledge of what it was to be fashionable.

0:59:33 > 0:59:37This is the cotillion, the first dance of the evening

0:59:37 > 0:59:39and this is the dance that I tried out a bit in rehearsal

0:59:39 > 0:59:42and I can attest, it's hard work.

0:59:42 > 0:59:48But then, the entire ball is hard work, with physical,

0:59:48 > 0:59:52social and emotional investment and cost.

1:00:04 > 1:00:08Cotillions were French versions of traditional English country dances.

1:00:08 > 1:00:12The French tended to dance at home, in small salons,

1:00:12 > 1:00:14and the square shapes of the cotillion

1:00:14 > 1:00:17worked well in tight domestic spaces.

1:00:17 > 1:00:21Their formations were more intimate and you were much more likely

1:00:21 > 1:00:25to dance with people of the same rank and expertise.

1:00:25 > 1:00:29MUSIC CONTINUES

1:00:29 > 1:00:32John, does it make any difference to you,

1:00:32 > 1:00:34seeing a re-enactment before you,

1:00:34 > 1:00:36being in such close proximity with the dancing?

1:00:36 > 1:00:37Yeah, it makes a real difference.

1:00:37 > 1:00:39I mean, apart from anything else,

1:00:39 > 1:00:42I've always laughed at Mr Collins for being such a terrible dancer

1:00:42 > 1:00:46and Elizabeth suffering the first two dances with him.

1:00:46 > 1:00:48But, actually, you feel bit of sneaking sympathy for him,

1:00:48 > 1:00:51cos these dances are beautifully elaborate but really tricky.

1:00:51 > 1:00:54You need to really learn them and it's not surprising

1:00:54 > 1:00:57that he finds the challenge just much too much.

1:00:57 > 1:01:00We should have some clodhoppers in there, don't you think?

1:01:00 > 1:01:02Well, you can imagine there must have been a few people

1:01:02 > 1:01:04who were not as proficient.

1:01:04 > 1:01:07But I think, obviously, some of them were.

1:01:07 > 1:01:10People like Elizabeth, you imagine that she and Mr Bingley

1:01:10 > 1:01:14and Jane and Mr Darcy probably were very good at doing it

1:01:14 > 1:01:19and, when you see them doing this, you think the opportunities

1:01:19 > 1:01:22to make a Mr Collins of yourself are absolutely legion.

1:01:26 > 1:01:28- It goes on for ever!- It does.

1:01:28 > 1:01:30It adds a new sort of sense, doesn't it?

1:01:30 > 1:01:34For me, it does, that when Elizabeth is dancing with Mr Collins,

1:01:34 > 1:01:38she's having to endure it for a long time.

1:01:38 > 1:01:41Seeing this man do the wrong things and having everybody watch you

1:01:41 > 1:01:45and, of course, watch Elizabeth and Mr Collins

1:01:45 > 1:01:47and think of them as possible partners.

1:01:56 > 1:02:00You could tell they were absolutely exhausted by the end of it.

1:02:00 > 1:02:01They were tired. You could see.

1:02:01 > 1:02:05Next, we have the Savage Dance and then we have the waltz,

1:02:05 > 1:02:09which is very, very pretty, and I think one of their favourite dances.

1:02:09 > 1:02:12Then finally Boulanger, which will KILL them!

1:02:14 > 1:02:17You all came out looking...hot!

1:02:17 > 1:02:20- I've literally never experienced that before.- Just non-stop...?

1:02:20 > 1:02:23We never, ever have done a dance that's longer than five minutes.

1:02:23 > 1:02:26Ever. Like... And so it's quite...

1:02:26 > 1:02:29- And that's just the first one! - Exactly!- That's the first one.- Yeah.

1:02:29 > 1:02:31You know Stuart was talking a lot about,

1:02:31 > 1:02:35- "There's a lot of time for flirtation, for talking..."- Yes.

1:02:35 > 1:02:37Was there any? Or was it all just kind of like, dance, dance, dance?

1:02:37 > 1:02:39There was, there was.

1:02:39 > 1:02:42A partner that I had, there was a moment where we were just like,

1:02:42 > 1:02:45"Hey, again." And it was kind of like flirty in that way,

1:02:45 > 1:02:47rather than like making a move.

1:02:47 > 1:02:50- It was kind of like, "It's us again."- Who was that?

1:02:50 > 1:02:51- Matt Jolly. - SHE LAUGHS

1:02:51 > 1:02:55- I hear you had a flirty moment. - Yeah.- Yeah.

1:02:55 > 1:02:58Good. The ball is working! That's excellent.

1:02:58 > 1:03:01- I think I can marry him. - You should try the dance.

1:03:01 > 1:03:04- You're right, I should try it. - Maybe you should take...

1:03:04 > 1:03:06Put on the costume and...

1:03:06 > 1:03:10I have had a costume fitted and I am thinking that I should...

1:03:10 > 1:03:12You need to, you need to find your wife.

1:03:12 > 1:03:15- Maybe we should dance together. The waltz.- We should.- Shall we?

1:03:15 > 1:03:18- Is that an offer? An invitation?- I'd love to!

1:03:18 > 1:03:19I look forward to dancing with you.

1:03:19 > 1:03:21And you, too, sir.

1:03:21 > 1:03:22LAUGHTER

1:03:22 > 1:03:24Good.

1:03:27 > 1:03:32'Everybody looks lovely. It seems to be pure pleasure.'

1:03:32 > 1:03:36But, presumably, there are other tensions under the surface,

1:03:36 > 1:03:38which, you know, we can't see.

1:03:38 > 1:03:42Yeah, and I think that's actually revealed by a recreation like this.

1:03:42 > 1:03:45This is more than just kind of a scene of romance

1:03:45 > 1:03:46and young flirtations.

1:03:46 > 1:03:49There's also a whole range of other sorts of social interactions

1:03:49 > 1:03:52and connections that are being made or broken at a ball.

1:03:52 > 1:03:55So perhaps a business transaction might be happening in one corner.

1:03:55 > 1:03:57Someone might be trying to approach a patron

1:03:57 > 1:04:00to try and enhance their trade.

1:04:00 > 1:04:02There might be distant family members

1:04:02 > 1:04:05trying to reacquaint themselves

1:04:05 > 1:04:08with more privileged people within their family.

1:04:08 > 1:04:12In a way, it's kind of a microcosm of society, then,

1:04:12 > 1:04:16and all of the sort of social obligations and networks

1:04:16 > 1:04:20- and alliances and tensions.- Yeah.

1:04:20 > 1:04:22Helping to lubricate those tensions -

1:04:22 > 1:04:27liberal supplies of Portuguese wine and fortified Negus punch.

1:04:27 > 1:04:31In the kitchen, Ivan is preparing a beverage for later -

1:04:31 > 1:04:34a stimulant without which no Regency ball was complete.

1:04:34 > 1:04:38I'm making punch a la Romaine, Roman punch.

1:04:38 > 1:04:43And it's basically a mixture of alcohol - usually rum or brandy -

1:04:43 > 1:04:47with lemon, water and Italian meringue,

1:04:47 > 1:04:49which is basically egg whites

1:04:49 > 1:04:51that have been whipped up into a real froth.

1:04:51 > 1:04:55And then a very, very hot sugar syrup is dribbled in. Champagne.

1:04:55 > 1:04:56And it's just frozen.

1:04:56 > 1:04:59This is actually a refreshment that is going to be served,

1:04:59 > 1:05:01perhaps in an interval.

1:05:01 > 1:05:05And it had become really popular in about 1813.

1:05:06 > 1:05:09This isn't the only frozen delicacy.

1:05:09 > 1:05:14In the early 19th century, Italian eateries started to appear.

1:05:14 > 1:05:18This fashion for Italian food may explain why Parmesan ice cream

1:05:18 > 1:05:23features in Frederick Nutt's Royal and Imperial Cook book of 1809.

1:05:23 > 1:05:27- Now, what flavour do you think that is?- Cheese!- Yeah, it is.- Is it?

1:05:27 > 1:05:30- It's Parmesan cheese ice cream.- Is it really?!- Yes.- Very, very creamy.

1:05:30 > 1:05:33Yeah, but they had pretty high-level tastes.

1:05:33 > 1:05:36At least at the level of Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley.

1:05:36 > 1:05:38It's nice! I like it.

1:05:38 > 1:05:40It's really rich, isn't it? You couldn't eat a lot of it.

1:05:40 > 1:05:42I'd better get on with lots of other things.

1:05:42 > 1:05:45I think there's a little bit of an issue with the sturgeon,

1:05:45 > 1:05:47which may be very urgent.

1:05:47 > 1:05:52This noble fish will be stewed in a vinegar, lemon and horseradish stock,

1:05:52 > 1:05:54as directed by William Henderson

1:05:54 > 1:05:57in The Housekeeper's Instructor of 1805.

1:05:57 > 1:06:02Sturgeon can grow up to 16 feet long. Even this one's a challenge.

1:06:02 > 1:06:04Yeah, it's never going to go in there.

1:06:04 > 1:06:07What I suggest is a bit of surgery.

1:06:07 > 1:06:10We can probably ornament it to such a degree,

1:06:10 > 1:06:14people won't notice it's rather a squat, short sturgeon.

1:06:14 > 1:06:17In Austen's day, the fish was common.

1:06:17 > 1:06:20But today, wild sturgeon are endangered.

1:06:20 > 1:06:22Ours had to come from a fish farm.

1:06:22 > 1:06:25- Hang on a minute, don't pull it yet. - No.- That's it.

1:06:27 > 1:06:29There we are.

1:06:30 > 1:06:35Look at that. No-one will ever know, will they? Look.

1:06:35 > 1:06:37The fish reduction complete,

1:06:37 > 1:06:41Ivan moves into the kitchen to turn up the temperature.

1:06:42 > 1:06:46We want everything out on the table within the next 20 minutes or so.

1:06:46 > 1:06:51The two hot dishes, that have to be ready first, are the two soups.

1:06:51 > 1:06:55If we're going to get this stuff up there, we've got to go.

1:06:55 > 1:06:58The team have worked on 63 dishes -

1:06:58 > 1:07:0140 of them sweet,

1:07:01 > 1:07:0423 savoury.

1:07:04 > 1:07:06The proof of their puddings - and everything else -

1:07:06 > 1:07:08is just two dances away.

1:07:12 > 1:07:16Back in the ballroom, the dancers prepare for the second dance.

1:07:16 > 1:07:19The Savage Dance was a craze in 1813,

1:07:19 > 1:07:21taken from a song-and-dance routine

1:07:21 > 1:07:24in a musical based on Robinson Crusoe.

1:07:25 > 1:07:30Savagery on the dance floor stopped short of unbridled tropical abandon,

1:07:30 > 1:07:33but there was plenty of opportunity for eye contact

1:07:33 > 1:07:35and whispered asides.

1:07:36 > 1:07:39Ladies and gentlemen, the Savage Dance.

1:07:39 > 1:07:42THEY PLAY AN ENERGETIC TUNE

1:07:54 > 1:07:56Are they flirting while they're dancing?

1:07:56 > 1:07:57Absolutely, they're flirting.

1:07:57 > 1:08:00There are these moments of formalised

1:08:00 > 1:08:02but sort of quite physical...

1:08:02 > 1:08:05Everybody's wearing gloves, you know, it's not flesh-on-flesh

1:08:05 > 1:08:09but, still, these moments of physical contact and movement.

1:08:09 > 1:08:12Jane Austen called it, in another of her novels,

1:08:12 > 1:08:14"the felicities of rapid motion."

1:08:14 > 1:08:17And doesn't Mr Darcy put his finger on it,

1:08:17 > 1:08:20because Sir William Lucas asks him to admit

1:08:20 > 1:08:25that dancing is one of the sort of polite accomplishments

1:08:25 > 1:08:27of a civilised society.

1:08:27 > 1:08:30And Mr Darcy says, "Every savage can dance."

1:08:30 > 1:08:33He's saying that these genteel people

1:08:33 > 1:08:37in this Hertfordshire town in the early 19th century,

1:08:37 > 1:08:40they're actually doing something rather primal!

1:08:42 > 1:08:47The dance that Elizabeth and Darcy have, she doesn't specify,

1:08:47 > 1:08:51but it's a dance which is movement and talk.

1:08:51 > 1:08:54And it clearly also pairs people off.

1:08:54 > 1:08:57You see them in the ball together

1:08:57 > 1:09:00and you sort of see them as they are throughout the novel.

1:09:00 > 1:09:04Apparently resisting each other,

1:09:04 > 1:09:06even being slightly hostile to each other.

1:09:06 > 1:09:11The relationship proceeds entirely by resistance.

1:09:11 > 1:09:12And it's quite striking, isn't it?

1:09:12 > 1:09:16They have their most, in a sense, unguarded conversation

1:09:16 > 1:09:17while they're dancing together.

1:09:17 > 1:09:20Later in the novel, when they're in the same room together,

1:09:20 > 1:09:22on their own, they're completely silent.

1:09:22 > 1:09:28So it's as if they need the ball to sort of release those energies.

1:09:28 > 1:09:32It literally acts out their mutual fascination.

1:09:36 > 1:09:38It's like a fairy tale come true.

1:09:38 > 1:09:40It's such a joy to see the dancers in the setting,

1:09:40 > 1:09:44with the costume, the hair. It's superb.

1:09:44 > 1:09:46It's an absolute dancer's dream.

1:09:46 > 1:09:49It's been so hot and the whole room just felt

1:09:49 > 1:09:53so much more romantic and my heart started to go in my chest

1:09:53 > 1:09:55and I really felt as though I was falling in love with someone

1:09:55 > 1:09:58that was meant to be a potential suitor.

1:09:58 > 1:10:00It's wonderful how I've been completely transformed.

1:10:00 > 1:10:02I never thought it would be like that.

1:10:05 > 1:10:09To modern readers, the interaction between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet

1:10:09 > 1:10:13at the Netherfield Ball does seem very, very flirtatious.

1:10:13 > 1:10:18But do you think it's anachronistic to use a term like "flirtation"

1:10:18 > 1:10:20- for the early 19th century? - No, not at all.

1:10:20 > 1:10:23To us, it seems like an incredibly modern conceit,

1:10:23 > 1:10:27but it is actually an 18th-century word used quite commonly,

1:10:27 > 1:10:30and particularly, actually, in reference to balls.

1:10:30 > 1:10:35You can never be seen to be flaunting any kind of immodesty

1:10:35 > 1:10:39by even seeming to kind of invite a man's attention.

1:10:39 > 1:10:41Potentially, you're risking your reputation.

1:10:41 > 1:10:43It's a difficult path to tread.

1:10:43 > 1:10:45And it's interesting that, you know,

1:10:45 > 1:10:47Charlotte Lucas suggests to Elizabeth Bennet

1:10:47 > 1:10:51that maybe she should be slightly more forthcoming towards Mr Darcy.

1:10:51 > 1:10:54Well, and also, doesn't she say that Jane should do the same

1:10:54 > 1:10:57to Mr Bingley to secure him and that she should actually be warmer...

1:10:57 > 1:11:01- Yes. Yet, yeah.- ..than she really is.- To completely seal the match.

1:11:01 > 1:11:04Which is interesting, cos there are these conduct-book rules

1:11:04 > 1:11:05of how young women should behave.

1:11:05 > 1:11:08Somebody's got to break the rules a bit

1:11:08 > 1:11:10for a courtship to move forward.

1:11:13 > 1:11:17It is warm in there. But it also looks beautiful, with the candles.

1:11:17 > 1:11:19I'm delighted that I did get a costume

1:11:19 > 1:11:22so that I can experience what the ball's like.

1:11:22 > 1:11:26I'm actually feeling quite excited. Lizzie hates it.

1:11:26 > 1:11:28Although everyone seems to be having quite a good time here,

1:11:28 > 1:11:32there were all manner of disasters and social awkwardnesses,

1:11:32 > 1:11:35um, which I suspect I may be about to experience for myself.

1:11:37 > 1:11:39- Ellie.- Hello.- Hello.

1:11:39 > 1:11:43- You look really good! - Good. Thank you.- Nice!

1:11:43 > 1:11:45- You do like it? - I do like it, actually.

1:11:45 > 1:11:48I think it makes the guys look SO good.

1:11:48 > 1:11:50- You sort of stand differently. - Yes, definitely.

1:11:50 > 1:11:52Will you please, pray, take your partners

1:11:52 > 1:11:54for Lady Caroline Lee's Waltz.

1:12:04 > 1:12:07THE BAND PLAY A WALTZ

1:12:13 > 1:12:17I'm really struck by how much looking is possible,

1:12:17 > 1:12:21because even if you're not dancing with the man you're interested in,

1:12:21 > 1:12:25you could be sort of twirling about in full view.

1:12:25 > 1:12:27Yeah, I think that was really brought home to me.

1:12:27 > 1:12:30Yes, you never get such close encounters with people

1:12:30 > 1:12:34and a permission to kind of stand and stare.

1:12:34 > 1:12:36It was said, in the late 18th century,

1:12:36 > 1:12:39that a man who could not dance was at a disadvantage to love.

1:12:39 > 1:12:42Because she couldn't show himself in his best form.

1:12:44 > 1:12:47But the other thing which I thought was really striking

1:12:47 > 1:12:51is what happened when Alastair joined the dancing.

1:12:51 > 1:12:54Because you could see all the girls around him

1:12:54 > 1:12:56were really rather thrilled that he was there

1:12:56 > 1:12:58and it sort of changed the temperature.

1:12:58 > 1:13:00All the women's eyes were on Alastair.

1:13:00 > 1:13:03And you can imagine him turning up

1:13:03 > 1:13:05and everyone else just sort of not standing a chance

1:13:05 > 1:13:07or everyone being, yeah, dazzled.

1:13:07 > 1:13:10MUSIC CONTINUES

1:13:15 > 1:13:19It's a funny double sense - even while you're looking at the person

1:13:19 > 1:13:21that you're most interested in and you hope they're looking at you,

1:13:21 > 1:13:24you are being watched by other people.

1:13:24 > 1:13:27Some very kind of private moments that people are having,

1:13:27 > 1:13:30- but in front of everybody else. - In a blaze of publicity.

1:13:30 > 1:13:33Yes, and everybody else coming to conclusions about who is with who

1:13:33 > 1:13:36and how they're behaving and what it tells them.

1:13:36 > 1:13:40Even the most intimate encounters are also a performance.

1:13:54 > 1:13:59At least I didn't disgrace myself. I wasn't quite Mr Collins.

1:13:59 > 1:14:04It was more raucous and a little bit ragged around the edges

1:14:04 > 1:14:05and I think that's a good thing,

1:14:05 > 1:14:09because it's real and it's not that vision we have of the past,

1:14:09 > 1:14:14in which it's extremely decorous and tightly controlled.

1:14:14 > 1:14:16It's like a proper ball should be.

1:14:16 > 1:14:20At least I think tonight I proved every savage can dance.

1:14:20 > 1:14:22It feels trancelike and almost mad.

1:14:22 > 1:14:24You wouldn't know that until you do it

1:14:24 > 1:14:28and I guess that's one of the real pleasures about restaging this ball,

1:14:28 > 1:14:30is that we can go back to the book

1:14:30 > 1:14:33with a much more nuanced understanding of what Austen wrote.

1:14:33 > 1:14:37Actually approach it almost like those very first readers in 1813.

1:14:39 > 1:14:42One inescapable factor is the heat.

1:14:42 > 1:14:48Right on cue, Ivan's frozen punch a la Romaine arrives to relieve us.

1:14:48 > 1:14:51- That is good.- That's lovely. - That IS good!- That is really good.

1:14:51 > 1:14:54It's got a bit of a kick, but that's refreshing.

1:14:54 > 1:14:56These were traditionally served in between dances

1:14:56 > 1:14:59and the idea was that it was an opportunity to scan the room

1:14:59 > 1:15:02and see if you could think about your next partner.

1:15:02 > 1:15:04If you danced twice with someone,

1:15:04 > 1:15:08that was a particularly good sign, especially if you're Mrs Bennet,

1:15:08 > 1:15:12and you notice that Jane and Bingley have danced twice.

1:15:12 > 1:15:16These spoons actually belonged to the Prince Regent.

1:15:16 > 1:15:18They come from Brighton Pavilion.

1:15:18 > 1:15:20- I think they're rather valuable as a result.- Yeah!

1:15:20 > 1:15:22The dance at the end, I'm sure after you've had

1:15:22 > 1:15:25one of these in between every dance, that dance is a fun one.

1:15:25 > 1:15:29I feel like we could dispense with the spoons and then just down it.

1:15:29 > 1:15:32- But that probably wouldn't be very Regency.- No.

1:15:32 > 1:15:35I just need to consult my oracle here.

1:15:35 > 1:15:38Right, we basically need to start dishing up.

1:15:38 > 1:15:42We need big spoons, we need ladles, we need slices.

1:15:42 > 1:15:45Down the corridor, the last dishes are ready for the waiters.

1:15:45 > 1:15:49In a few moments, our guests would taste a fricandeau of veal

1:15:49 > 1:15:53and the remarkable curled fowl with skewers, or attelets,

1:15:53 > 1:15:56garnished with crayfish, olives and black truffles.

1:15:57 > 1:16:00Amongst the hot fare, a favourite of Austen's,

1:16:00 > 1:16:04a dish of slow roasted veal, shredded and strewn with

1:16:04 > 1:16:08hard-boiled egg yolks, mushrooms, false meatballs and sweetbreads.

1:16:08 > 1:16:12This is a dish that gets mentioned a lot in Jane Austen's novels,

1:16:12 > 1:16:17particularly in Pride and Prejudice. It is a ragout of veal.

1:16:17 > 1:16:19This is emblematic, really,

1:16:19 > 1:16:23of the sort of thing that would have happened in Mr Darcy's kitchen.

1:16:23 > 1:16:26It is a dish that is heavily associated

1:16:26 > 1:16:28with the enemy of the period, which is France.

1:16:28 > 1:16:33So it's not considered, really, to be a patriotic dish to eat.

1:16:33 > 1:16:36And it's associated with foppish and high living.

1:16:36 > 1:16:40Mr Hurst, who was very fashion conscious,

1:16:40 > 1:16:43when he discovered that Elizabeth actually preferred a plain dish

1:16:43 > 1:16:47to a ragout, he had absolutely nothing to say with her,

1:16:47 > 1:16:51so he felt that the ragout actually was a dish

1:16:51 > 1:16:53that was a very worthy one.

1:16:53 > 1:16:57OK, so could you go and get it into position?

1:16:57 > 1:16:58Some dishes are hot, for now,

1:16:58 > 1:17:01but the roasted widgeon - a type of duck -

1:17:01 > 1:17:04and another favourite of Austen's, haricot of mutton,

1:17:04 > 1:17:07have to travel through the corridors and passages.

1:17:07 > 1:17:11- How close are we for them? - They're waiting on us now.- Oh.

1:17:11 > 1:17:14These moulded ices, set in Georgian moulds,

1:17:14 > 1:17:17are flavoured with bergamot, oil of orange.

1:17:17 > 1:17:20They would be brought into the dining room at the very last minute.

1:17:20 > 1:17:22Grab the pineapple

1:17:22 > 1:17:25and I want you to dress it with some myrtle leaves very quickly.

1:17:25 > 1:17:28More water ices, flavoured with tamarind,

1:17:28 > 1:17:30and alcoholic Negus punch.

1:17:30 > 1:17:34This is a "fly by the seat of your pants" job, isn't it?

1:17:34 > 1:17:38- Excuse me, folks, where's the ices? - They're gone.

1:17:38 > 1:17:41Oh, no, no, they've got to be dressed with leaves very quickly.

1:17:42 > 1:17:46A haunch of venison and a gallon of gravy are readied for the journey.

1:17:46 > 1:17:50A flotilla of savoury dishes heads to the dining room,

1:17:50 > 1:17:51travelling by silver.

1:17:51 > 1:17:54Just time to dress the remaining sweet items that will arrive

1:17:54 > 1:17:56when the savouries are finished.

1:17:58 > 1:18:03In Jane Austen's Emma, Mrs Weston proposes a ball with sandwiches.

1:18:03 > 1:18:08She's shouted down by the company, who agree that a ball

1:18:08 > 1:18:12without a supper is a fraud upon women and men.

1:18:15 > 1:18:18Ladies and gentlemen, would you like to be seated for supper?

1:18:21 > 1:18:23In Pride and Prejudice,

1:18:23 > 1:18:28eating brings everybody together in the ritual of a meal

1:18:28 > 1:18:32but also divides them into two sorts of people -

1:18:32 > 1:18:34those with manners

1:18:34 > 1:18:36and those without.

1:18:36 > 1:18:38Do you think that's an important moment,

1:18:38 > 1:18:43when there's the break for supper and you move on in and eat together?

1:18:43 > 1:18:46Well, it's a very important moment at the Netherfield Ball

1:18:46 > 1:18:52in Pride and Prejudice because, of course, it's half-time, as it were.

1:18:53 > 1:18:57We're not told very much about what they're eating at that table,

1:18:57 > 1:19:00- but it's clear that... - It would be a show-offy affair.

1:19:00 > 1:19:02It absolutely would be a show-offy affair.

1:19:06 > 1:19:08That is like an artwork.

1:19:08 > 1:19:13Mr Bingley and his sister would have made sure that the locals,

1:19:13 > 1:19:15those who were lucky enough to be invited,

1:19:15 > 1:19:18were left in no doubt of the Bingley wealth.

1:19:21 > 1:19:23Hi.

1:19:23 > 1:19:26- The table seemed to be full. Everything here.- All sorts.

1:19:26 > 1:19:28Did you try a little bit of everything?

1:19:28 > 1:19:32We tried a lot of the different meats, had hare soup.

1:19:32 > 1:19:36- Yeah? How was that?- That was great. It was really interesting. I've never had hare before.

1:19:36 > 1:19:39The fish kind of went that way, but this is very different to normal.

1:19:39 > 1:19:41Don't have a spread put on like this every day.

1:19:41 > 1:19:44What Ivan was saying is that it would be weird to see

1:19:44 > 1:19:47how people would exchange the food.

1:19:47 > 1:19:48Yeah, and leaning across as well.

1:19:48 > 1:19:51They were happy to just lean across and grab something

1:19:51 > 1:19:53and pass that to someone else and move over here.

1:19:53 > 1:19:56So not that, sort of... In a sense, not so polite, just quite...

1:19:56 > 1:20:00- No, yeah, just get in there.- People were hungry after the dancing!- Yeah!

1:20:00 > 1:20:02The meat was really good.

1:20:02 > 1:20:04It was cooked a bit different than I would usually cook it

1:20:04 > 1:20:05and I really enjoyed it.

1:20:05 > 1:20:09I really love the whole "grab it" atmosphere.

1:20:09 > 1:20:11You know, what you can't get away with at home.

1:20:13 > 1:20:14With supper in progress,

1:20:14 > 1:20:18a few guests sneak away to dance some Scottish reels.

1:20:18 > 1:20:24And that is exactly the dance that Darcy invites Elizabeth to try,

1:20:24 > 1:20:26which she refuses to contemplate

1:20:26 > 1:20:30when she's staying at Netherfield Park when Jane has the flu.

1:20:30 > 1:20:35SHE PLAYS A JAUNTY TUNE

1:20:35 > 1:20:39In the dining room, the sweet course is arriving.

1:20:39 > 1:20:41By 1794, it's thought

1:20:41 > 1:20:45that there was over 700 confectioners in London alone.

1:20:45 > 1:20:48And our menu reflects just what a sweet tooth

1:20:48 > 1:20:51the Bingleys, Bennets and Darcys are likely to have had.

1:20:51 > 1:20:54Two kinds of gateaux, six kinds of biscuits,

1:20:54 > 1:20:58a deluge of hothouse fruits, jellies

1:20:58 > 1:21:01and, of course, the flummeries.

1:21:02 > 1:21:05- Mmm! That's amazing! - This is basically an ice bucket.

1:21:05 > 1:21:10- Parmesan ice cream.- It's very bizarre but it's gorgeous.

1:21:10 > 1:21:13The way that dishes were spread out across the table

1:21:13 > 1:21:15at Regency ball suppers,

1:21:15 > 1:21:18forcing people to help themselves and each other,

1:21:18 > 1:21:22made for a very lively and raucous dining experience.

1:21:22 > 1:21:25But it didn't stop diners from watching and listening.

1:21:25 > 1:21:29So this whole thing about Mr Darcy overhearing a conversation

1:21:29 > 1:21:31- from the other side of the table. - You can hear.- Yeah?

1:21:31 > 1:21:33If you're tuning in to someone talking...

1:21:33 > 1:21:34I can listen to April now,

1:21:34 > 1:21:36but I can hear them talking about the ice cream.

1:21:36 > 1:21:39And especially if someone is being overtly loud,

1:21:39 > 1:21:42you will definitely pick up on what they're saying.

1:21:42 > 1:21:44At the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice,

1:21:44 > 1:21:47what do people talk about at that table?

1:21:47 > 1:21:49One of the things they talk about... Mrs Bennet talks about...

1:21:49 > 1:21:51Have you scored before half-time?

1:21:51 > 1:21:53Mrs Bennet talks very, very loudly

1:21:53 > 1:21:57about what she sees has been going on in the first half

1:21:57 > 1:22:00and very loudly and tactlessly,

1:22:00 > 1:22:04because she's talking about how she thinks, already, presumptuously,

1:22:04 > 1:22:07she thinks her eldest daughter, Jane, has got Mr Bingley,

1:22:07 > 1:22:10the biggest prize, the new, rich young man.

1:22:10 > 1:22:13And Mr Darcy can hear it all

1:22:13 > 1:22:16and Elizabeth, she can see that he can hear

1:22:16 > 1:22:19and that he must be sort of thinking something

1:22:19 > 1:22:22about how terrible her family are.

1:22:22 > 1:22:24And what about the entire evening?

1:22:24 > 1:22:26It's definitely been an amazing experience.

1:22:26 > 1:22:28Cos when you hear "Pride and Prejudice,"

1:22:28 > 1:22:31you're like, "Oh, yeah, old book, like, it's about olden times,"

1:22:31 > 1:22:33but if everyone got to experience this,

1:22:33 > 1:22:36I think you'd just sort of take a different look at it and think,

1:22:36 > 1:22:39- "This is incredible."- Well, I'm glad you've had such a good ball.

1:22:40 > 1:22:45After more than 60 dishes, it's time for the final dance.

1:22:45 > 1:22:47The Boulanger is one of the few dances

1:22:47 > 1:22:50that Austen actually names in Pride and Prejudice.

1:22:50 > 1:22:53Its name is a reference to cheeky folk tales

1:22:53 > 1:22:56of amorous goings-on down at the bakery.

1:22:56 > 1:22:59This dance, it's a fitting last dance

1:22:59 > 1:23:02because it's a saucy, rollicking showstopper.

1:23:04 > 1:23:07Ladies and gentlemen, La Boulanger.

1:23:07 > 1:23:08HE LAUGHS IN DELIGHT

1:23:10 > 1:23:13THE BAND PLAY A JAUNTY TUNE

1:23:26 > 1:23:28So, the very last dance.

1:23:28 > 1:23:31Our dancers are still quite sprightly.

1:23:31 > 1:23:33The boulanger, the baker,

1:23:33 > 1:23:35who's sort of dancing with every woman in the village.

1:23:35 > 1:23:39That is something else that you don't get, I think,

1:23:39 > 1:23:43from the book that you can see when you see these dances.

1:23:43 > 1:23:46You're with your partner but you're also with a lot of other people,

1:23:46 > 1:23:48lots of sort of exchanging of partners.

1:23:48 > 1:23:51- It's like men are trying you on for size.- Yeah, yeah.

1:23:51 > 1:23:54You know, all that sort of jigging about,

1:23:54 > 1:23:57- it's not actually terribly decorous or polite.- No.

1:23:57 > 1:24:00I think that's probably the thing that struck me most,

1:24:00 > 1:24:02is that the dancers we have doing it -

1:24:02 > 1:24:05I mean, they're young, they're fit, they're practised.

1:24:05 > 1:24:08And, after a couple of dances, the sweat's pouring.

1:24:08 > 1:24:11When it says, "Lydia danced every dance,"

1:24:11 > 1:24:14you really think, "She's got a bit of heft in her, that girl."

1:24:14 > 1:24:18It is a really physical thing and that's part of the thrill

1:24:18 > 1:24:21and excitement of it for people. I mean, they build up...

1:24:21 > 1:24:22It's as if you have to go into training.

1:24:22 > 1:24:25All the more reason why there's a lot of time afterwards,

1:24:25 > 1:24:27not just to analyse what's happened

1:24:27 > 1:24:30but actually to sort of recover from it, really.

1:24:34 > 1:24:36Seeing them dancing here,

1:24:36 > 1:24:39is there anything that you hadn't quite pictured

1:24:39 > 1:24:41from reading accounts of it in manuscripts?

1:24:41 > 1:24:43I'm struck by how difficult it looks.

1:24:43 > 1:24:47But the men actually look physically quite exposed.

1:24:47 > 1:24:49Their clothing reveals the men's footwork.

1:24:49 > 1:24:51Cos you find... I'm kind of gazing at their calves,

1:24:51 > 1:24:53like, as they're doing all of those leaps and things,

1:24:53 > 1:24:55in a way that I'm not so much drawn to the women.

1:24:55 > 1:24:57Yeah, it's hidden by their skirts.

1:24:57 > 1:25:00So do you think it's more important for men to be able to dance well

1:25:00 > 1:25:04- than for women?- That is kind of what I feel that I've learned.

1:25:04 > 1:25:07Even when you're reading Pride and Prejudice,

1:25:07 > 1:25:10you tend to presume that the ball is exciting for the Bennet sisters,

1:25:10 > 1:25:12that it's particularly important for them.

1:25:12 > 1:25:15But, actually, for me, it's the men

1:25:15 > 1:25:17- who seem to be facing the greatest challenge.- Mm.

1:25:23 > 1:25:26After I finished the waltz, I had a little bit too much punch,

1:25:26 > 1:25:30so I came outside, but they are still going strong

1:25:30 > 1:25:35and it's so clear now just how exciting the Netherfield Ball would have been -

1:25:35 > 1:25:38full of people, fine clothes, lots of booze.

1:25:38 > 1:25:40They're clearly having a whale of a time.

1:25:40 > 1:25:42LAUGHTER AND WHOOPING

1:25:49 > 1:25:54What have we learned, really? Have we justified our focus on the ball?

1:25:54 > 1:25:57I mean, the ball is very important in the plot

1:25:57 > 1:26:01but, in a way, you can see how the ball is so important to Austen

1:26:01 > 1:26:04because it sort of epitomises what the whole novel is about.

1:26:04 > 1:26:07The sort of set of manoeuvres, really,

1:26:07 > 1:26:13which are at once quite formalised but also quite sort of sensual

1:26:13 > 1:26:17and that people are kind of manoeuvring,

1:26:17 > 1:26:19especially Elizabeth and Mr Darcy,

1:26:19 > 1:26:25sort of moving around each other in a way that is kind of playful

1:26:25 > 1:26:27but also restrained

1:26:27 > 1:26:30and it's as if the whole of their relationship is a kind of dance.

1:26:30 > 1:26:32But it's not just love, is it?

1:26:32 > 1:26:38We're also seeing that this is a kind of vortex for snobbery

1:26:38 > 1:26:44and the exhibition of rank and inclusion and exclusion.

1:26:44 > 1:26:45Yeah, it's all of those things.

1:26:45 > 1:26:50The ball is taken by Jane Austen as being kind of like life.

1:26:50 > 1:26:52So it's not just the dance of love, it's the dance of life?

1:26:52 > 1:26:57It's about class and status and who you know

1:26:57 > 1:27:00and it's about a world in which everything you do

1:27:00 > 1:27:02is being watched by somebody else.

1:27:02 > 1:27:06It's the representation of a society in which every single

1:27:06 > 1:27:10kind of gesture is open to interpretation from other people.

1:27:21 > 1:27:25Perhaps the most important thing our ball has revealed to me

1:27:25 > 1:27:29is the jeopardy at play on the dance floor.

1:27:29 > 1:27:32In an era where marriage was unbreakable,

1:27:32 > 1:27:34and a polite girl's only career,

1:27:34 > 1:27:37your future could be sealed in a single twirl.

1:27:37 > 1:27:41A dance was never just a dance.

1:27:41 > 1:27:44When Darcy and Elizabeth touch and talk,

1:27:44 > 1:27:49bristling hostility is giving way to irresistible attraction.

1:27:49 > 1:27:52Readers knew that it could only end one way.

1:27:54 > 1:27:57Pride and Prejudice is the textbook novel of courtship,

1:27:57 > 1:28:01filtered through the consciousness of the heroine.

1:28:01 > 1:28:05It's also an exquisite comedy of social manners.

1:28:05 > 1:28:08And dancing turns out to be central to both.

1:28:10 > 1:28:17As a social historian, I knew that a ball was a goldfish bowl for local polite society -

1:28:17 > 1:28:22magnifying alliances and networks, tensions and rifts.

1:28:22 > 1:28:24But I had no idea that dancing

1:28:24 > 1:28:28was such a powerful accelerator of romance.

1:28:30 > 1:28:35To find out more about the ball and Regency life, visit the BBC website.

1:28:47 > 1:28:50Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd