"Mr Darcy, have you seen the new costume dramas?"

In the last 150years humanity has experienced many changes.

Technology has made our liveseasier, fashions have come and gone (and been revived again) and fast-food nolonger means a visit to the roasted chestnut street-seller - so in this time ofradical change why are we still obsessed with the literature of the Victorianera?

This autumn seesthe return of the costume drama.

In recent years viewers have seen portrayalsof Jane Eyre, Lark Rise to Candleford,Persuasion and Cranford.

The BBC's new offerings of Tess of thed'Urbervilles and Little Dorritjuxtapose beautifully against ITV's fun and interesting take of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lost in Austen.

There's nodenying that Britainexcels more than any other country in the Costume Drama genre.

Americanchannels have recently aired such British series as Sense and Sensibility and BleakHouse.

Viewers are attracted by the elegant costumes and lavishmansion-settings.

We enjoy looking back nostalgically at a simpler time in ourhistory, when global warming didn't exist and men didn't hesitate at holding adoor open for a lady.

It's just thiscontrast that ITV have wonderfully played to in Lost in Austen which was aired earlier this month (and can bewatched on 30-day catch-up here).

Prideand Prejudice is Austen's best known work and had been famously serialisedin 1995 starring Colin Firth as a brooding Darcy and made into a film in 2005.

Inthis alternative version ITV takes Amanda Price (played by Jemima Rooper) a 21stcentury Austen-enthusiast and plonks her into an unusual world of politenessand dresses.

It was just this contrast that attracted Rooper to the part - shefound the character of Amanda refreshing "foralthough Amanda is the heroine of the piece, she is really funny and a bitscatty."

The contrast of our society and the distant Victorian way of lifeis showcased intelligently here, culminating in Amanda treating Darcy andguests to an unaccompanied version of Down Town.

Viewers will squirm with embarrassment as Price unintentionally changes theplot of this classic novel.

Jamie, an Englishstudent found Lost in Austen refreshing"as it was a lovely modern take on aclassic and showed everyone in a new light.

"As someone who has read the book itwas nice that they added twists, like Wickham actually being a nice guy andAmanda's references to the modern world."

Currently showingon BBC1 is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tessof the d'Urbervilles (Sunday 9pm).

Hardy's characters are far more gritty thanthe ladies and gentlemen of Austen's works and are set against a realisticallytough background. 12»