Joseph Mawle (Harry Harville) and Tobias Menzies (William Elliot) would later go on to play the parts of Benjen Stark and Edmure Tully in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011). Their respective on-screen siblings Eddard and Catelyn were married.
The role was Rupert Penry-Jones' first lead part in a costume drama. He remarked, "In modern drama everything is so overt. In period drama it's all held in. You have to find ways to show the feelings straining beneath the surface." The actor added that he enjoyed playing Wentworth "because, beyond his social grace and charm, there's a bitterness and sadness because the love of his life, Anne Elliot, rejected him."
After being cast, Sally Hawkins re-read all of Austen's works, she researched deeper, reading the author's personal letters and biographies. Speaking to The Independent's Amy Raphael, Hawkins explained "Jane was an incredible woman. She was only in her early forties when she died. I became convinced that Persuasion was about her own love life; Anne Elliot took the wrong advice and left the man who turned out to be the love of her life. She is the type of woman you'd like to be: reserved, refined, funny. I totally fell in love with her."
Persuasion was one of three novels adapted for ITV's Jane Austen Season. It was the first of the three adaptations to begin development. The drama was co-produced by Clerkenwell Films and American studio WGBH Boston. Persuasion was the third of the Austen adaptations to be shown in the UK and premiered on April 1, 2007 in the United Kingdom and was watched by 5.4 million viewers. Persuasion received positive reviews from television critics.
The sheer, dotted muslin gown worn by Jennifer Higham (Louisa Musgrove) at Uppercross is the same gown previously worn by Kate Winslet (Marianne Dashwood) in Sense and Sensibility (1995) during the lawn bowling scene at Barton Park, and by Amelia Warner (Fanny Price, age 17) in Mansfield Park (1999). The same costume was later worn by Charity Wakefield (Marianne Dashwood) in Sense & Sensibility (2008) at Norland Park.
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