Jane Austen would spin in her gravy

PERIOD dramas usually get their costumes right but frequently get eating and etiquette wrong, according to a food historian.

Death Comes To Pemberley, the Pride and Prejudice sequel written by PD James and shown at Christmas on the BBC, was a particular offender.

Pen Vogler, author of Dinner With Mr Darcy, said: “You wouldn’t make a documentary or film in Italy and not try to make it look Italian.

“So, in the same way, if you do something set in 1806 or 1816 you should try to make it look as much so as you can, and not just the costumes.

“Etiquette is one of the things people get wrong on TV. Death Comes To Pemberley got the etiquette completely wrong.

“Men and women going out of the dining room arm in arm — that might have happened in Victorian times, but not in Georgian times when the ladies would proceed first by rank and the gentlemen would follow in the same hierarchy,” said Vogler.

“And in Death Comes To Pemberley they finished dinner at 9pm. In those times, and in that kind of house, they would have eaten no later than 6pm and they wouldn’t have spent three hours having dinner.”

Vogler was speaking about her book, which explores the recipes of Jane Austen’s day.

Last year, Downton Abbey came under similar criticism for its poor grasp of etiquette during dinner scenes.

The Countess of Carnarvon — chatelaine of Highclere Castle, where Downton is filmed — complained: “Glasses are back to front and things are set wrong. It’s the little details.

“I don’t want to step on people’s toes, so I’ve tried a few times to say: ‘Do you know you’re setting the table wrong?’ I do feel, after all, that it’s my dining table and, obviously, we wouldn’t set it like that.” — © The