The Netflix movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion was filmed in Bath and other nearby locations in 2021. I was lucky enough to be in town, and went along to watch the filming. So if you are interested in reading about filming locations you should also read my blog post from the time: Persuasion (Netflix) filming in Bath. This movie starred Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliot and aimed for a post-Bridgerton audience.
This article contains spoilers.
Filming locations in Bath
The principal filming locations for Netflix’s Persuasion in Bath are all fairly close together and easy to visit in a short walk. The movie settings are in the historic heart of the city, so you will also enjoy the best of Bath’s architecture and charm while on a short Persuasion tour.
Royal Crescent – In the novel, the Elliots rent a house on Camden Crescent, a steep walk uphill from the centre of Bath. In this movie the status-conscious family stay on Bath’s most famous and grand street, the Royal Crescent.
Bath Street – This colonnaded street, alongside Bath’s branch of Primark, is transformed into a lively shopping street in the Netflix movie, with the creation of a Regency shopping emporium. Window displays, a painted shop sign, extras in historic dress and passing horses and carriages bring the scene to life.
Roman Baths – The Roman Baths entrance on Stall Street is dressed up as the exterior of the White Hart Inn, shot from Bath Street. The real White Hart Inn where the Musgroves stay in the novel Persuasion was further up the street.
Gravel Walk – When Anne runs after Captain Wentworth near the end of the Netflix Persuasion, this quiet pedestrian lane is where she catches up with him. This location is actually true to the book, as Gravel Walk is where Jane Austen specifies her two characters walk together after reuniting. I was around on the day the scene was being filmed; there were large privacy screens in place to prevent passers-by witnessing The Kiss. While I wasn’t a big fan of this movie adaptation, I was pleased to see this authentic Austen location being featured. (Gravel Walk links Queen’s Square and the Royal Crescent and is included in my Bridgerton walking tour, as I love this route.)
Filming locations outside Bath
Trafalgar Park – The seat of the Elliot family, Kellynch Hall was represented in the Netflix movie by Trafalgar Park in Wiltshire. Read about Trafalgar Park in Country Life
Brympton House in Somerset, just outside Yeovil, played the part of Uppercross, home of the Musgroves.
Lyme Regis features as itself, and the Dorset coast is the backdrop to several scenes.
Several Bath scenes were actually filmed on sets at Ammerdown House near Radstock in Somerset. In real life this is home to the Ammerdown Centre, a spiritual retreat.
Osterley Park (National Trust) near London was used as the location for Bath Assembly Rooms interior scenes.
More Austen, Persuasion and Bridgerton too
- BBC Persuasion (1995) – filming locations. This is my favourite of the adaptions of Persuasion to date, mainly thanks to Amanda Root’s sensitive and compelling portrayal of Anne. There are lots of Bath locations featured.
- Bridgerton locations in Bath – this wildly successful Netflix take on costume drama was filmed in some of the same Bath locations as Persuasion, and uses lots more local scenery too. I’ve also created a walking tour of Bridgerton locations.
- Plan a Bridgerton break in Bath – these ideas for a Bridgerton-style break in Bath would also work well for Persuasion and Austen fans.
My opinion of this Netflix Persuasion(if you love this adaption, don’t read on!)
I’ll admit I didn’t much care for this adaption. The screenplay and direction tried a partial updating in attitude and added in anachronisms which weren’t exaggerated enough to be witty, nor sympathetic enough to engage traditionalist Austen fans.
From Anne’s first appearance Dakota Johnson portrays her as knowing, superior, mocking and smug. She seems happy and amused to be telling us about her family and their sins. I think the conceit of Anne breaking the fourth wall and addressing the viewer directly has a fundamental flaw. Jane Austen’s Anne is isolated, unobserved and keeps her emotions bottled up within her. Netflix’s Anne is a very different type of protagonist, the romcom heroine who must make a fool of herself, engage in excruciatingly embarrassing faux pas, get drunk (Anne swigs wine at every opportunity), behave arrogantly, and get cut down to size by humiliation. Her wackier and zanier Bridget Jones moments will make fans of Austen’s more dignified character cringe.
Austen’s clever use of irony and understatement in conveying information and character is replaced by direct explanation. Writers are taught to show, not tell, but the dialogue in this Persuasion does the opposite, spelling everything out for characters and the viewer. Marriage is transactional for women, we’re informed. Mary is a narcissist. Why have this uncomfortable, uncharismatic Captain Wentworth tell Anne (and the viewer) at length that she is good in an emergency, when we’re about to witness the famous Lyme scene when she demonstrates this, to his appreciation?
I’m not sure if there is one particular accent coach who imparts to all their American actor pupils the same strained nasal twang during vowel sounds, or whether it’s a natural consequence of trying to adapt accents. But like some other US actors performing English roles, Johnson’s slips of accent become distracting and are an occasional impediment to her acting (Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma had the same affliction). There are plenty of excellent high profile English actresses who could have played Anne, but I suppose that wasn’t the point.
The casting of Captain Wentworth was hard to understand, but the film does take a turn for the better with the entry of the charming, smooth and witty Mr Elliot played by Henry Golding, providing one of the best performances in the movie.
Some of the actors seem understandably uncomfortable with the uneasy combination of period settings/themes with jokey modern directness and American English (“he’s been all over”.) Transient modernisms will seem cringily outdated within a few years (“he saw me”).
“It is often said if you’re a five in London, you’re a ten in Bath,” as declared by Mrs Clay, was one of the better of the non-Austen lines. I decided that if there had been a more whole-hearted transposing of the story into a comedy of modern manners, and a more thorough tongue-in-cheek update, it might have worked better. I don’t object on principle to playing around with the canon – I enjoyed ITV’s Lost in Austen, which had a lot of fun with Pride and Prejudice.
While I’ve been critical of this movie, I don’t think there has been a perfect adaption of Persuasion yet. My favourite is the BBC 1995 version, but that isn’t perfect. However, every adaptation offers different, maybe new, ways of looking at the source material. As readers’ worlds change with time, then perceptions and readings of the book will change too, and of course this will be reflected in commercial screen adaptions.
If you’re a fan of the book, you will quite likely be outraged by some of the script and acting in the Netflix movie. But I do think it’s worth seeing each adaption to appreciate different elements: acting, location filming, wit, heart. Discussing and analysing different aspects can provide its own entertainment and allow us all to interrogate our own readings of the novel and our relationships with it.
Personally I think there was scope for a more daring updating of Persuasion, which there are glimpses of in the script. Or for a clever, funny and sexy comedy of manners with an original non-Austen script but perhaps a mock-historic setting or creating stories for minor Austen characters; some of the scenes with Dakota Johnson and Henry Golding showed potential for this. Alternatively what most Jane Austen fans would have liked (and I realise this movie wasn’t aimed at fans) would have been a sincere retelling of a sensitive and surprisingly modern novel about a woman’s place in society, the building of inner strength, learning from past mistakes, and love regained.
