The sister of literary giant Jane Austen is the focus of this new Masterpiece series

In the literary world, the name Austen typically invokes images of women in billowing attire atop a breezy English cliff or traversing a John Constable-worthy pastoral landscape with book in hand, perhaps unwilling to — but about to — meet her true love. From 1811’s Sense and Sensibility to 1817’s Persuasion, author Jane Austen wrote some of the English language’s best and most recognized novels of all time — but she also completed plenty of unpublished works, perhaps most famously a collection of letters fated to burn at the hand of her elder sister, Cassandra.

In the BBC series Miss Austen, coming to Masterpiece this week, showrunner and director Aisling Walsh (Maudie) pairs with screenwriter Andrea Gibb (Call the Midwife) for a dramatic retelling of author Gill Hornby’s third novel (also called Miss Austen), which explores the love, frustration and competition between the Austen sisters.

The four-part series, first released in the U.K. in February of this year, stars Keeley Hawes (Line of Duty) as Cassandra Austen, with Synnøve Karlsen (Last Night in Soho) and Patsy Ferran (God’s Own Country) portraying young Cassy and Jane Austen, respectively. To whom the title of Miss Austen applies, however, is left to the viewers’ discretion (the remaining six Austen siblings are male), but author Hornby’s intentions are clear: Cassandra is the heroine of this particular tale.

According to the PBS Masterpiece press description, “Miss Austen takes a historic literary mystery — the notorious burning of Jane Austen’s letters by her sister Cassandra — and reimagines it as a fascinating, witty and heartbreaking story of sisterly love, while creating in Cassandra a character as captivating as any Austen heroine. Based on Gill Hornby’s bestselling novel, this period drama brings a fresh and intimate perspective to the Austen sisters’ lives — their joys, heartaches, and the passions that would shape Jane’s iconic novels.”

While Hornby’s novel debuted in 2020, the series was adapted for a 2025 release as a special way of marking the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. But while Jane is, of course, a huge part of the reason Hornby began writing, the true heroine of Miss Austen is Cassandra, Jane’s oft-overlooked older sister.

“I always feel that we who like Jane’s novels should be on our knees in gratitude for all of the good Cassandra did. Jane was a fragile person and fragile people need their wingman, and that is who [Cassandra] was,” Hornby said in a recent interview with The Guardian.

“I’m haunted by women in history who had their destinies and then had to live on their wits when things went wrong,” Hornby added.

In a Guardian review by reporter Lucy Mangan on the day the series premiered across the pond, Miss Austen earned four stars out of five, with Mangan praising “this absolute treat of a period drama” for the “unshowy magnificence” of its performances; chiefly that of leading lady Hawes, who sympathetically portrays the supposed villain in the widely accepted history of Jane Austen’s life and work.

Ultimately, viewers come to learn what many may have already suspected, that Cassandra “destroyed almost all her vast collection of her sister’s correspondence to protect her and the family’s reputation and privacy.” Neither done of malice nor
of jealousy or spite, Cassandra’s well-orchestrated purge diminished the number of letters from an estimated 3,000 to approximately 160 that were “mostly given to other family members as mementos.”

As for the complicating matters that have been woven into the fabric of the Austen sisters’ tale, that is something viewers will delight in uncovering across each of Miss Austen’s four hour-long episodes.

“I was sent the first episode of Miss Austen knowing nothing at all about this story, and instantly I found it absolutely fascinating and charming,” Hawes told writer Evie Delaney in late January 2025. “I think people will love it, because for anyone who is not aware of this backstory it’s almost like we are getting a new Jane Austen story in itself, and what a lovely surprise that is.”

Miss Austen on Masterpiece airs Sunday, May 4 on KCTS and WTVS