I'm already annoyed by this Vanity Fair adaptation.

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

Never read that British sh!t. Who is it, Dickens?

Dickens - It's Thomas Hardy, you colonial numpty.

[Burney]

Dickens - It's Thomas Hardy, you colonial numpty.

William Makepeace Thackeray - as well you know.

Anyway, the wife and I had a bet on how long it would take before the first historically-unlikely black character appeared. I had five minutes (this not being the BBC) and she took 2 minutes. Lo and behold, on 1 minute, 59 seconds and 57 hundredths of a second, there was a black chick at Becky and Amelia's school.

Fine result for the wife, there.

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

William Makepeace Thackeray - as well you know.

Anyway, the wife and I had a bet on how long it would take before the first historically-unlikely black character appeared. I had five minutes (this not being the BBC) and she took 2 minutes. Lo and behold, on 1 minute, 59 seconds and 57 hundredths of a second, there was a black chick at Becky and Amelia's school.

Fine result for the wife, there.

Pìss, pot, all, same. Having suffered this sort of shíte at Eng Lit 'A' Level, I care not one jot for it now.

Except for Lark Rise to Candleford. That was excellent.

And not a BME in sight

[Burney]

Pìss, pot, all, same. Having suffered this sort of shíte at Eng Lit 'A' Level, I care not one jot for it now.

Except for Lark Rise to Candleford. That was excellent.

And not a BME in sight

There would be if they did an adaptation today. Some of the characters would simply turn up as black as your boot and there'd be not a hint of an explanation of how they got to late 19th Century rural Oxfordshire or why none of the other characters ever makes any reference to their pigmentation.

[AFC East]

There would be if they did an adaptation today. Some of the characters would simply turn up as black as your boot and there'd be not a hint of an explanation of how they got to late 19th Century rural Oxfordshire or why none of the other characters ever makes any reference to their pigmentation.

I was about to say above, fine to have a black person in the cast, just as long as every new character they met was completely shocked by their presence. I suspect this wasn't the case.

[Ash]

Pìss, pot, all, same. Having suffered this sort of shíte at Eng Lit 'A' Level, I care not one jot for it now.

I had to read The Trumpet Major by Hardy at school. Dreadful experience.

[Sir C]

I had to read The Trumpet Major by Hardy at school. Dreadful experience.

Hardy's great though, as a rule. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a triumph.

[Burney]

I had to read The Trumpet Major by Hardy at school. Dreadful experience.

My take on Hardy is that he's a wildly overrated novelist (although beloved of school curricula by virtue of his plots and themes having all the nuance of a sledgehammer to the nuts) and a wildly underrated poet.

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

I had to read The Trumpet Major by Hardy at school. Dreadful experience.

I feel for you, A. Don't even get me started on Austen, Shakespeare or Chaucer...although at least Chaucer had some smut.

[Sir C]

William Makepeace Thackeray - as well you know.

Anyway, the wife and I had a bet on how long it would take before the first historically-unlikely black character appeared. I had five minutes (this not being the BBC) and she took 2 minutes. Lo and behold, on 1 minute, 59 seconds and 57 hundredths of a second, there was a black chick at Becky and Amelia's school.

Fine result for the wife, there.

His house in Tunbridge Wells is now a rather fine restaurant - or at least it was 15 years ago. wd wmt.