Sense and Sensibility: Once more into the breeches, dear friends

Dec 11 2007 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

ONE of Liverpool’s most respected actors will grace our Christmas screens in a lavish adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Emma Johnson reports

HE GOT up close and personal with Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct 2 and had all the fun of the fair in Blackpool, but now Liverpool actor David Morrissey is pouring himself into breeches and heading back to a much more refined time for what is expected to be one of the Christmas television highlights.

The 43-year-old, who grew up in Everton, stars as Colonel Brandon in the BBC’s lavish new production of Sense and Sensibility, penned by award- winning writer Andrew Davies.

As a huge admirer of Davies’s work, Morrissey jumped at the chance to take part in what is being described as a witty and stylish new adaptation of one of Jane Austen’s best-loved novels.

"I’m a massive fan of Andrew and his adaptations," he says. "And I think he’s a great, great writer. That was a big attraction for me."

One of Austen’s most adapted classics, Sense and Sensibility tells the story of the Dashwood sisters – the restrained, rational Elinor and the wildly romantic, impulsive Marianne.

When the girls’ father dies, their privileged world is thrown into chaos. With no entitlement to his estate, they are forced to live in poverty. Although the sisters' chances of marriage seem doomed, attractive men are drawn to them.

While Elinor becomes attached to the highly eligible Edward Ferrars, Marianne is wooed by both war hero Colonel Brandon and the young and glamorous Willoughby.

For Morrissey, Brandon is a far cry from Ripley Holden, the outspoken, brash and quick- witted character Morrissey played in Blackpool – the off-the- wall musical drama about a small-time entrepreneur desperate to make it big with his new state-of-the-art amusement arcade in the "Las Vegas of the North".

"Brandon is very much a single man whose life is passing him by," he explains. "He is a rich man, but he’s not fully formed – he’s broken slightly. He has good friends, who look after him, and he has company, but he can’t give his heart."

When Brandon falls for Marianne Dashwood, played by relative newcomer Charity Wakefield, he finds it hard to know what to do.

"He doesn’t know how to deal with it," says Morrissey. "He doesn’t know how to love and he doesn’t know how to communicate. He’s like a child and he finds that difficult, because he’s a grown man."

It becomes even more difficult when his love rival emerges in the form of the dashing young Willoughby, played by Dominic Cooper (who is soon to be seen in the big- screen adaptation of hit stage musical Mamma Mia!, alongside Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and Colin Firth).

"When Brandon first sees Willoughby, he only knows him as a rival," explains Morrissey. "What he sees is a person who is obviously much more suited to the girl he loves. Brandon is aware of the age difference between him and Marianne, and Willoughby is obviously of a similar age – he’s a good- looking guy.

"Brandon soon realises he’s been thwarted. But then he finds out that Willoughby is a cad, and discovers that he is not a man of his word.

"Just as he’s starting to form an idea of himself with Marianne, he’s gazumped, really, thwarted by his rival, and has to take a back step. He then tries to be honourable, even though his rival is somebody he knows is not right for this girl.

"But Brandon knows he cannot warn Marianne off Willoughby, because it will look like jealousy on his part, so he has to try and take a back seat – which is difficult for him."

Sense and Sensibility was most famously adapted for the big screen in Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning outing in 1995, which also starred a young Kate Winslet. According to Morrissey, Davies’s adaptation for this Christmas’ production is more true to Austen’s 19th-century novel.

"Davies is very respectful of Austen because he’s done such great adaptations in the past," says the actor, who is married to novelist Esther Freud and these days lives in London.

Having already watched some of his scenes back, he says he is pleased with the finished result, even though he finds it slightly awkward watching himself on screen.