featured: Carey Mulligan (Kitty Bennet in the Keira Knightley P&P, and Isabella Thorpe in the recent NA); Emma Thompson (Elinor in S&S); Rosamund Pike (Jane Bennet in Keira Knightley P&P); Dominic Cooper (Willoughby in Andrew Davies' P&P); and Sally Hawkins (Anne Elliot in the famous "Bath Marathon" Persuasion).

Carey Mulligan's career as two JA characters raises another intriguing question: how many actors have been in more than one JA adaptation? I can think of a few, besides her, off hand -- Blake Ritson played both Mr. Elton (in the Romola Garai Emma) and Edmund Bertram (in the execrable Billie Piper MP); Jonny Lee Miller played Edmund (in the Patricia Rozema MP) and Mr. Knightley (in the Romola Garai Emma); and Sylvestra le Touzel played Fanny (in a long-ago MP) and Mrs. Allen (in the most recent NA). Basically, JA provides unending work for excellent British character actors -- yet another thing we should thank her for.