Jane Tranter’s empathy plea: the Bennet sister who reached an unlikely viewer
At Rome’s MIA Market, the Bad Wolf co-founder urged TV makers to tell stories about acceptance and recalled how James Gandolfini shaped The Night Of.
Jane Tranter urged television makers at Rome’s MIA Market this week to tell stories that make people more empathetic, using The Other Bennet Sister as her example, Deadline reported on October 21. The Bad Wolf co-founder said a farmer in his seventies had identified with Mary Bennet, the drama’s overlooked lead.
“We have to tell stories that change the lack of empathy in our world,” Tranter told the audience, according to Deadline. She said she would keep making stories about people being accepted for who they choose to be.
Why The Other Bennet Sister mattered to her speech
The BBC period drama stars Ella Bruccoleri as Mary and draws on Janice Hadlow’s novel, which revisits Pride and Prejudice from the viewpoint of the Bennet sister usually left at the edge of the story. It follows Mary beyond the familiar family setting to London and the Lake District. The farmer’s reaction was an anecdote Tranter shared on stage, rather than a measure of the show’s wider audience.
Tranter said Mary does not look, sound or behave as some people expect a woman to, yet remains her own person. She used that character to challenge producers to seek out stories about acceptance. A three-part Christmas special of The Other Bennet Sister has been ordered, Deadline reported.
How James Gandolfini influenced Bad Wolf
Tranter also recalled making The Night Of, the HBO drama starring Riz Ahmed. James Gandolfini had championed the project, served as an executive producer and played defence lawyer John Stone in a pilot. His death in 2013 put the production on hold for a time; John Turturro later took the role, Tranter said.
Working afterward with members of Gandolfini’s crew showed her the value of a production community, Tranter said. She connected that experience to her decision to build a major studio in Wales, where Bad Wolf later filmed Doctor Who. Bad Wolf identifies Tranter as its CEO and co-founder and credits her as an executive producer of The Night Of.
Her message to producers extended beyond period drama. Tranter said they should pursue fantasy and dramas set in finance even when buyers say those genres will not sell: “Make it. Just find a way to make it.”
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Sources and context
- Jane Tranter On 'The Other Bennet Sister' & James Gandolfini InfluenceDeadline
- Jane Tranter | Bad WolfBad Wolf
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