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T10 WHATS UP! January 12 - 18, 2020 her attention on something lighthearted and cheery: she began work on "Sanditon." Unfortunately, she never fin- ished her witty novel and died only months after starting. In this "Masterpiece" adap- tation, the lively, impulsive and unconventional Charlotte Hey- wood (Rose Williams, "Reign") makes her way from her rural home of Willingden to the coastal fishing village of Sandi- ton. Thanks to a serendipitous mishap, the ambitious Tom Parker (Kris Marshall, "Death in Paradise") makes the ac- quaintance of the respectable Heywood family and invites their eldest daughter, Char- lotte, for an extended stay at Sanditon. There, she attempts to reinvent herself as she is ex- posed to a world of intrigue, dalliances, high society and colorful characters, like the mysteriously charming and brooding Sidney Parker (Theo James, "Divergent," 2014), Tom's brother. Naturally, sparks fly between the adven- ture-seeking Charlotte and dapper-yet-unpredictable Sid- ney, and like all great romantic stories, many obstacles stand in the way of their relationship. Over the course of the eight- episode limited series, we are introduced to a bevy of curious and unpredictable characters that Charlotte could never imagine meeting back home. As Tom, a kind family man, works towards his dream of trans- forming the sleepy seaside vil- lage into something bigger and better, the townspeople do not always co-operate. He hopes to turn the village into a fashion- able health resort and partners with the wealthy Lady Denham (Anne Reid, "The Aeronauts," 2019), a twice-widowed woman who lives with her ward, Clara Brereton (Lily Sacofsky, "Sum- mer of Rockets"). While promoting the series last year, writer Davies dis- cussed what brought him to the project but also what view- ers could expect: "Jane Austen managed to write only a frag- ment of her last novel before she died — but what a frag- ment. 'Sanditon' tells the story of the transformation of a sleepy fishing village into a fashionable seaside resort, with a spirited young heroine, a couple of entrepreneurial brothers, some dodgy finan- cial dealings, a West Indian heiress and quite a bit of nude bathing. It's been a privilege and a thrill for me to develop "Sanditon" into a TV drama for a modern audience." On the surface, the period piece might seem like your typical costume drama, but there is much more to it. As The Guardian put it, the par- tially completed novel is a strange fiction about en- croaching modernity in the in- dustrial age and, more specifi- cally, a seaside resort on the Sussex coast. Readers of "San- diton" can attest that it is in- deed a strange and compelling bit of fiction worth adapting into a bold and lavish series. With that said, the adapta- tion process has not been an easy one. ITV, the British net- work that originally aired the series last fall, decided to use the unfinished source material as the basis of only the pre- miere episode. Davies used Austen's incomplete work as a launching pad for the rest of the episodes. As with all adaptions, some fans of the source material will not be happy, and while "Sanditon" is already a huge hit overseas, it's also a source of great controversy and de- bate. Tune in to the dazzling period piece to find out why when "Sanditon" premieres Sunday, Jan. 12, on PBS. Rose Williams and Theo James in a scene from "Sanditon" continued from page T2 Love is in the air: Jane Austen heads to PBS with 'Sanditon' TV FEATURE