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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a filmmaker in want of a fortune must be in possession of the script of a classic novel. Certainly Joe Wright, the director of this year's sumptuous yet speedy version of Pride and Prejudice, looks set to make himself a packet. You know the story: proud but pretty Mr Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen) buys a stately home and is pronounced boring by the local stunner, Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley). Cue one misunderstanding after another as true love proves itself once again to never run smooth.
And run it does. This Austen motors along at a cracking pace. If that means saying farewell to some of her subtler ironies, then I can't really see that we can complain. Austen, like all great novelists, may strictly be unfilmable. But by reminding us of what great stories she told, Keira and co have done us all a favour.
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The same goes in spades for The Wings of A Dove (BBC2, 10.10pm, Saturday; Buena Vista DVD), Iain Softley's take on Henry James's most cunningly plotted (and clotted) book. Helena Bonham Carter and Linus Roache (son of Corrie's William) are the impoverished lovers on the trail of Alison Elliott, the wealthy consumptive who - if only she can be made to fall for Linus before dying - might vouchsafe them a few quid. Among the picture's many delights is the fact that it is over in an hour and a half - around the time it takes the average reader to labour through a paragraph of late James.
James's novelist friend Edith Wharton has yet to be given the complete Hollywood makeover, though Martin Scorsese's misconceived Age of Innocence (Sky Movies 7, 6.10pm, Wednesday; Columbia DVD) is quite enough to be going on with, thank you. 
Last week: The Longest Yard
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