SUMPTUOUS DRAMA

The Pursuit Of Love, BBC iPlayer

FIRST shown on BBC1 last May, this exuberant three-part adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel is available to watch on iPlayer until next Monday, May 9. Loosely based on the story of Mitford’s own family, it follows upper-crust bright young things as they blaze a trail through the inter-war years. Lily James and Emily Beecham (pictured) star as Linda and Fanny, cousins with very different outlooks on life — Fanny is well-educated and quite serious, while Linda ‘lives in a world of superlatives’, and has a blind devotion to the idea of love that will surely be her undoing. Written and directed by Emily Mortimer (who plays Fanny’s flighty mother, ‘The Bolter’), its superb cast also includes Dominic West and Andrew Scott.