Playing the Tourist: Georgian London
Yes, I could wax lyrical like Marianne about the beauty of Sussex where Norland Park is located, or rhapsodize about Devonshire and Barton Cottage, but I won't. Because to me the most important location in all of Sense and Sensibility is actually London. While other books by Austen mention and even visit London through the narratives of other characters, no other book uses it so successfully as a backdrop to our heroines heartaches as Sense and Sensibility. To me the heart of the book is that time in Mrs. Jennings's house on Berkeley Street in London, in the heart of Mayfair. While I most think of anything "Berkeley" in London as being associated with that lovely miniseries Berkely Square, I must now make a place for Elinor and Marianne there as well. While much of the short street is now filled with the modern, from Starbucks to a Holiday Inn, the facades of many of the shops hearken back to an older time.
Going Northwest up Berkley Street to Berkley Square away from Piccadilly you will see some remaining Georgian architecture on the far side of the park. Yes, there's still the occasional more modern edifice, more Victorian or Art Nouveau, but what's wonderful about London is the old is there, just hiding around a corner, waiting for you to find it. In fact comparing this map from 1830 with modern day London you can see how little has changed in almost two-hundred years! If you're wanting to walk in the footsteps of Sense and Sensibility I couldn't recommend anything more fun than walking around Mayfair. From Berkley Street it's a short seven minute walk to Conduit Street and the Middletons, and two streets over are the Palmers in Hanover Square. If you decide to take a slight detour north into Marylebone beware, because Willoughby lurks near there, as do the Dashwoods! We won't even discuss where Lucy Steele lives, it's so unfashionable!
First Impression: Berkeley Square... only it wasn't him! OK, I'm totally confused. I would have put money on the fact that he was the soldier that Hermione Norris was fooling around with... I think I must re-watch the entire series to see why I got it wrong. Really, I'm doing it for us, not just for me. So I guess that means The Forsyte Saga and Dartie it is for my first impression. Which is really a shitty first impression, because the character doesn't have anything redeeming about him till he dies...
Lasting Impression: I want to say Coupling, because yes, he did make an impression on me... but really it's Zen! Why? Because for the first time I really saw the depth in his acting and saw that he was more then just a womanizing ass. 
What else you've seen them in: More a TV actor then a film actor, though he has starred in some big name movies like Speed Racer, Ninja Assassin, and The Affair of the Necklace, if you're a BBC miniseries addict you sure know who he is. He spent many years perfecting the womanizing ass until he transitioned to elder statesman with perhaps a little bit of darkness thrown in. Just look at his role in the newer tv adaptation of Dracula or even the aforementioned Zen! Though personally my favorite of all his roles was as Sir Timothy Midwinter in Lark Rise to Candleford. Why couldn't he and Dorcas have worked it out? Or at least she could have ended up with someone better then Gabriel. Yes, I am still bitter. 
Can't believe it's them: V for Vendetta. Really, that's him! I mean a lot of that movie is, OMG, look who it is because it's peopled with British actors I know and love, but still, V for Vendetta man! 
Bio: Ben started acting on television in the mid-90s after training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but it wasn't until 2000 when he was cast as Patrick in Coupling that he got his big break. Which begs the question as to why he hasn't appeared on Doctor Who! I mean come on Steven Moffat, you gave him his start, get on this! End rant. After this many roles followed in numerous miniseries. He is married to a fellow actress, Emily Raymond, and among his theatre credits is a stint in Richard II opposite his father-in-law. Lately he has been starring more and more onstage and can be seen as Thomas Cromwell on Broadway when Wolf Hall transfers there next year. Though I'm still bitter that my friend Mike got to see him and a plethora of my other favorite actors on Broadway a few years back in the revival of The Norman Conquests which went on to win a Tony. Perhaps I might go and see Wolf Hall to level the playing field...
Dawn's Early Light by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher
The Berkeley Square Affair by Teresa Grant
Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell
The Unfairest of Them All by Shannon Hale
A Phantom Enchantment by Eve Marie Mont
