Dear Will...
From Mansfield with Love is a webseries by British theatre company Foot in the Door adapting Jane Austen’s darkest and most controversial novel Mansfield Park into a vlog format, in the vein of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved Setting Updates.
Frankie Price works as live-in assistant housekeeper at Mansfield Park hotel, owned by the Bertram family. Her life is mostly spent at the beck and call of her terrifying boss Mrs Norris, and sharing tea and biscuits with best friend Edmund Bertram, a trainee history teacher (don’t worry, they’re not cousins!).
Just before Christmas, Frankie receives a camera and a letter from her brother Will. Being in the navy, they do not get to see each other often, so Will asks Frankie to record her life at Mansfield. According to Frankie, her life is fairly boring, but all that is about to change with the engagement of Rhea Bertram to boyfriend Rory Rushworth, the purchase of new hotel The Antigua and arrival of brother-and-sister design team, the Crawfords.
There is also a pug.
The show ran from December 2014 to November 2015. The Youtube channel, with all the videos, can be found here.
From Mansfield With Love contains examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: Fanny Price is renamed "Frankie" in this series, for obvious reasons. Maria Bertram has been renamed "Rhea," probably to avoid confusion with Mary Crawford.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Tom is gay.
- Adapted Out: Seemingly Frankie's father and siblings, other than Will. Susan, in this version called "Susie," shows up in the latter half of the story, but has become an old school friend of Frankie's rather than her sister.
- Age Lift: All of the main characters (Frankie, the Bertram children, the Crawfords) are in their twenties.
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: Yates's play becomes an art film in this adaptation.
- Aside Glance: Frankie does them to the camera from time to time.
- Audience Surrogate: Susie, who shows up fairly late in the series but turns out to have watched all the videos and reveals herself to be quite the Fangirl. Susie is the one who speaks popular audience opinions, calls Frankie and Ed her "OTP" and, when Frankie announces that she's ending the videos, begs her to continue with "What am I going to do without my weekly dose of Frankie?"
- Book Ends: The show begins and ends with Frankie and Ed in Frankie's room.
- Bookworm: Frankie and Ed have a book club. Frankie enjoys the classics, whilst Ed prefers fantasy.
- Break the Cutie: Mrs. Norris tries her hardest.
- The Casanova: As in the novel, Henry Crawford, though he does so mostly off camera.
- The Charmer: Both Mary and Henry are very friendly and charming towards others. Only Frankie, like her Austen counterpart, isn't entirely sold.
- Composite Character: Admiral Crawford subsumes Doctor and Mrs Grant to become the never-seen Grant Crawford.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mary Crawford, like her book counterpart. Also like her book counterpart she occasionally goes overboard with her witty comments and gets mean-spirited.
- The Ditz: Rory Rushworth and, to a lesser extent, Julia Bertram.
- Drop-In Character: Ed, especially in the earlier videos, though he still does from time to time in the later ones. More recently, Henry, though not entirely without design.
- The Dutiful Son: Ed, in comparison to the more wayward Tom.
- Extreme Doormat: Frankie rarely says no to covering other people’s work shifts, putting in extra hours, or buying food for a hotel event out of her own pocket.
- Genki Girl: Susie's perky, cheerful and energetic.
- The Ghost: Nrs. Norris. She is frequently discussed by the other characters, and we even occasionally hear her voice from off-screen, but she never shows up on camera. For a long time, Will, who is the one the videos are adressed to, seems like he'll be this as well... but he makes a surprise appearance in episode 64 and is a semi-regular character after that.
- Handsome Lech: Henry Crawford.
- Having a Gay Old Time: In Austen's time, "coming out" meant when a girl "entered society" - i.e., became eligible for marriage - by attending her first ball. This version changes this to the modern meaning with regards to Tom Bertram, though it takes Frankie a while to figure out what Mary is going on about.
- Heel Realization: Rhea eventually realizes how her actions has hurt everyone and is genuinely regretful. Mary for a moment looks like she'll go though the same, but ultimately she rejects the realization and just ends up making excuses for herself.
- Hilarious Outtakes: Three videos' worth, at the end of the playlist.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- Julia is by far the friendlier of the two Bertram sisters, but her basic obliviousness to others' feelings often makes her blurt out insensitive comments without realizing it.
- Mary can come across as this too, especially in earlier episodes. However, as the series goes on it becomes clearer that she knows far better than Julia when she steps over the line — she just doesn't view it as a problem when she does so.
- Kissing Cousins: Thankfully averted. The Prices and the Bertrams are instead old family friends in this version.
- Large Ham: Yates is a drama hound who partakes in quite a bit of Chewing the Scenery. He takes it up to eleven when auditioning for the movie, turning in the hammiest performance ever for what's supposed to be a tragic hero.
- Le Film Artistique: Episode 46 is the trailer for Yates's film of Lover's Vows (sic), which plays this trope entirely for laughs.
- Like Brother and Sister: Mary Crawford sees Frankie and Edmund’s relationship as this.
- Oh, Crap!: Frankie's reaction when Susie explains that other people than Will can see, and have seen, her videos.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Henry claims to have been stumped when Mrs. Norris referred to Frankie as 'Frances'.
- Only One Name: To Frankie's bewilderment, Yates simply goes by 'Yates' and refuses to admit to having any other names.
- Only Sane Man: Edmund (of the Bertram siblings) and occasionally Frankie (again, when around the Bertrams minus Ed).
- Patient Childhood Love Interest: Frankie to Edmund.
- Precision F-Strike: Deployed by Frankie in episode 87, at the climax of a "The Reason You Suck" Speech she unleashes on Ed.
- The Quiet One: Frankie. A couple of time it's mentioned how she's a lot more talkative on-camera than off-camera.
-
Real Song Theme Tune: "Portsmouth", a traditional English folk dance tune. - Shipping Torpedo: Ed to Rhea and Rory. Surprisingly seems to have little to do with My Sister Is Off-Limits and is more to do with how Ed thinks Rory isn’t right for Rhea.
- Shout-Out: In episode 95, Rory's conversation touches on somebody who used to look young and wear a fez, but has now aged terribly and has 'stupid sunglasses'.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Sensible Edmund Bertram vs. party-loving Tom Bertram. Down-to-Earth, compassionate Edmund Bertram vs. superficial, self-centered Rhea and Julia Bertram.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Frankie to Edmund.
- Shrinking Violet: Frankie Price, as in the source material.
- Skinny Dipping: Henry tempts Rhea to skinny-dip while they're in Brighton; it isn't shown on camera, but we see Frankie wishing she could unsee it.
- Spoiled Brat: The female Bertram children — though Julia has some moments when she's nice.
- Vlog Series: In-Universe camera with Frankie presenting each episode as a letter to her brother.
- Weight Woe: Frankie describes herself as 'fat [and] lonely'.
- Workaholic: Frankie, though not by choice.
