How Hallmark Quietly Became The Perfect Place For Jane Austen Fans

Everyone has a go-to Mr. Darcy. Maybe yours is Colin Firth from the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, or Matthew Macfadyen from the 2005 film — or Firth again, but in Bridget Jones’s Diary. And let’s not forget the spiritual Darcys, the ones carved in the brooding hero’s image, like Jonathan Bailey, who explicitly referenced Pride and Prejudice in his depiction of Anthony Bridgerton.

These period crushes aren’t just beloved for their cravats and steely brows, and Hallmark’s Loveuary with Jane Austen, a four-film event inspired by the author’s works, is keenly aware of that. For Lisa Hamilton Daly, the network’s executive vice president of programming, there’s a deeper reason for the character’s enduring appeal.

“I feel like Darcy’s a lens to look at the state of romance,” she tells Bustle. “[For me], it shows that no matter how embarrassing your family is, a man is still going to see through to the real you and fall in love. That is the ultimate fantasy, to be loved for who you really are.”

This month’s movie lineup — comprised of Paging Mr. Darcy, Love & Jane, An American in Austen, and Sense and Sensibility — leans into that fantasy.

It’s not the first time Hallmark has dabbled in Austen’s oeuvre, but this is its first concerted effort to engage with her work on a large scale. And it’s delightfully meta, made for those who know the seductive power of a hand flex and a soaked white dress shirt.

For instance, in An American in Austen, a young woman wakes up in Pride and Prejudice and comes face to face with Mr. Darcy himself. “Wow,” she says. “You’re hot.”

Austen’s works aren’t steamy, making them a perfect fit for the family-friendly Hallmark. The network’s movies promise a passionate kiss or two, largely leaning into what Daly calls the “frisson to limits,” romantic tension expressed through charged gestures, glances, and grazes. “When you’re actually falling in love, those things can be as exciting as anything,” she says.

Indeed, they can. In Paging Mr. Darcy, a skeptical scholar, Eloise, meets a Darcy impersonator, Sam, at a Jane Austen conference. Sam (played by Will Kemp, a trained dancer and beloved Hallmark Brit) helps Eloise with various errands, such as preparing Regency-accurate foods. Somewhere in the middle of zesting lemons and rolling dough together, he finds time to make her an omelet. “You looked hungry,” he says, unaware that the snack just made him immeasurably more attractive.

Of course, a Hallmark baking scene is a time-honored trope, but it’s also Austenian, according to Devoney Looser, Ph.D., an Arizona State University professor who’s written extensively about Austen (and Darcy). “In a way, that’s kind of similar to the dancing scenes,” Looser says. “It’s a chance to be with someone physically, meaningfully, make conversation, and work together.”

Looser, the author of the forthcoming Wild for Austen, enjoys how the Loveuary films take a playful, self-aware approach to Austen’s work. In Paging Mr. Darcy, for example, the traditionally taciturn hero is friendly from the start. “That’s a real shift,” she says. “It’s really more the Elizabeth Bennet character, Eloise, who needs to grow, [instead of the Darcy character].”

The films are “taking the things that people might appreciate — and probably make too positive — from the past, and then put them in conversation with things in the present that are more to our own tastes and likings and relationships,” Looser says.

While the first three entries in Loveuary follow modern women reckoning with their love for Austen, the fourth, Sense and Sensibility, is a true adaptation: a sumptuous period piece made under Hallmark’s Mahogany banner, which celebrates Black voices.

Ahead of the film’s Feb. 24 premiere, more than 80 fans convened on Zoom for Hallmark’s virtual book club. They answered questions about the values in the book’s title, which Dashwood sister they related to, and whether they’d prefer to marry Colonel Brandon or Edward Ferrars. Several of the attendees were engaging with Austen’s work for the first time.

“I think it’s going to bring even more new audiences to Jane Austen’s original fiction,” Looser says of Loveuary. “As a professor, I can’t be sad about any time we might read more books, or think more thoughtfully about the past.”

Fortunately, more literary crossovers may be on the horizon — especially as the Austen films have been some of the top performers in their Saturday-night time slot, per Spoiler TV ratings. “It’s fun to have well-known titles to help you draw an audience,” Daly says. “So it’s very possible that we will do more.”