Masterpiece on PBS is whisking us back into the romantic Regency era world of Jane Austen, only this time, Jane’s sister Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) is our leading lady. The new Masterpiece show Miss Austen is an adaptation of Gill Hornby’s book of the same name. In that novel, Hornby attempted to solve one of the great mysteries that haunts Austen fans to this day: Why did Jane’s beloved sister Cassandra burn all of the author’s letters?
Miss Austen opens years after the death of Jane Austen (Patsy Ferran), at a moment when a close family friend is also at death’s door. Cassandra takes this moment to travel uninvited to the Fowles’ home, where her and Jane’s close friend Eliza (Madeline Walker) once lived before her own death. Cassy is there to find the letters Jane sent Eliza before her unscrupulous sister-in-law Mary Austen (Jessica Hynes) gets her claws on them.
While Cassandra is staying with the Fowles, she also finds herself roped into the drama now affecting Eliza’s youngest surviving daughter, Isabella (Rose Leslie). Now orphaned and unmarried, Isabella’s options are woefully limited. Even if a former flame still stays close by.
However the part of Miss Austen that fans might be most in love with are the flashbacks to when Jane, Cassy (Synnøve Karlsen), and their friends were young. Jane is depicted as true idiosyncratic genius, while Cassy is the perfect archetype of an Austen heroine.
Of course, with all the flashbacks and flash forwards, characters with similar names and complicated relationships, it might be tough to figure out how all these people are connected to Jane Austen. Consider this Miss Austen cast guide as your cheat sheet to how all of these characters are connected — and where you’ve seen the actors before…
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Keeley Hawes as Cassandra Austen and Synnøve Karlsen as Young Cassy
Cassandra Austen was Jane Austen’s sister, best friend, and closest confident. Cassy is also the protagonist of Miss Austen. We first meet her later in life, as a spinster sparked into action when she learns that the Reverend Fowle is on his deathbed. This news makes Cassy travel to the Fowles in order to find Jane’s letters to the family’s deceased matriarch Eliza.
Miss Austen also flits back to the past, where a young Cassy is set to marry into the Fowle family.
The great Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard, Scoop, The Durrells in Corfu) plays the older Cassandra and Synnøve Karlsen (Medici, Last Night in Soho) plays the younger version of the character.
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Patsy Ferran as Jane Austen
Jane Austen is the world famous novelist responsible for writing Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and the unfinished Sanditon. She passed away in 1817 at the age of 41.
Patsy Ferran is a Spanish-British actress who recently appeared in Mickey 17 and Black Mirror. Masterpiece fans might remember her as Mercy Myrtle from Jamestown.
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Phyllis Logan as Mrs. Cassandra Austen
Mrs. Cassandra Austen was Jane and Cassy’s mother — and Cassy’s namesake. Miss Austen depicts the clergyman’s wife as a tiny bit Mrs. Bennet-coded. In flashbacks, she dotes on older, engaged daughter Cassy and worries aloud about Jane’s future.
Phyllis Logan is a British actress probably best known for playing Mrs. Hughes in the mega-hit Downton Abbey. Fun fact: the actor playing Jane and Cassy’s father, Mr. Austen, is Kevin McNally, aka Logan’s IRL husband.
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Jessica Hynes as Mary Austen and Liv Hill as Young Mary Austen (née Lloyd)
We first meet Mary Austen as Cassy’s fussy sister-in-law in the first episode of Miss Austen. Mary is keen to find Jane’s letters so she can make money off of a biography spilling the now popular author’s secrets. In flashbacks, we learn how Mary was set up with Jane and Cassy’s widowed brother James. Mary was an awkward girl, but liked by the family because her sister was Eliza Fowle.
The older Mary is played by Jessica Hynes, best-known for her brilliant work on the classic British comedy Spaced. The younger Mary is played by Liv Hill, who recently had a smashing turn as the young Catherine de’ Medici in Starz’s The Serpent Queen.
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Madeline Walker as Eliza Fowle
Eliza Fowle might not be a familiar name to Jane Austen fans, but in many ways, she’s the lynchpin of this whole story. Eliza was close friends with young Jane and Cassie. She has died before the main events of Miss Austen, leaving her daughter Isabella (Rose Leslie) to deal with the fallout of the Reverend Fowle’s death. Again, her sister is Mary Austen and it is her correspondence with Jane that Cassy is so keen to find.
Miss Austen is one of the first big TV gigs for British actress Madeline Walker, who has tons and tons of cool theater credits to her name.
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Calam Lynch as Tom Fowle
Tom Fowle is the Reverend Fowle’s younger brother and Cassy’s first great love. The first episode of Miss Austen details the young lovers’ star-crossed story.
You probably know Calam Lynch as Eloise Bridgerton’s lower class love interest in the second season of Bridgerton or as one of the warrior elves in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2. You can catch him later this year in BritBox’s juicy Mitford sisters miniseries, Outrageous.
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Rose Leslie as Isabella Fowle
Isabella Fowle is Eliza’s youngest daughter, left in the lurch by her parents’ death. While the Reverend Fowle intended for Isabella to live with her sisters, the spirited young woman isn’t so sure that’s the right path for her. As Miss Austen goes on, it becomes clear that Isabella is stuck in her own version of Anne Elliot’s story in Persuasion.
Rose Leslie famously played Gwen in the early seasons of Downton Abbey before joining the cast of Game of Thrones. More recently, she starred in The Good Fight and The Time Traveler’s Wife.
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Alfred Enoch as Mr. Lidderdale
Mr. Lidderdale is the dashing doctor who cares for Reverend Fowle in his final days.Cassy eventually discovers that he and Isabella have a tragic history of their own.
Alfred Enoch got his start in Hollywood playing Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter movies. He’s also famous for starring in Shonda Rhimes’s How To Get Away with Murder and recently appeared in Starz’s The Couple Next Door.
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Max Irons as Henry Hobday
While you won’t meet the dashing Mr. Hobday in the first episode of Miss Austen, he has quite the role to play later in the series. Note: He’s one of the few fictional characters created only for this story.
Max Irons has recently been in Condor and Flowers in the Attic: The Origin, but I know him best as King Edward IV in Starz’s The White Queen (aka the show that launched Rebecca Ferguson and Faye Marsay).
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