‘Not everybody spoke posh’ in Jane Austen’s era, says top producer

Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Producer Jane Tranter has called on actors to stop automatically adopting ‘posh’ accents in period dramas. Photograph: Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy

For those looking to perfect their pronunciation, British period dramas are a masterclass in getting to grips with the King’s English.

But – if the wishes of one TV heavyweight come to fruition – future iterations of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and other classics could adopt a more modern, less well-spoken twang.