I’ve lived here for 20 years. Every year this particular cartoon feature, called The Voice Masks, ran over the BBC Radio 4 lunchtime slot. Every year it appalled most of my female friends.
Why should we have to endure the uncomfortable spectre of Hayley Atwell’s Nancy Mace taking on Marjorie Taylor Greene (another character who was often mentioned in Austen)? It wasn’t just about the idea of a female avenger, it was that she had no real purpose other than simply to protect the female foetus, which was so obviously not the case for either Nancy or Patrick Collins. Atwell himself said that he needed to make an “empowering” hero and that Crowley (whose character he disliked because of her good looks and desire to be taken seriously) was that’s what he did.
It seems after a number of years that Atwell is no longer in control of this series. It’s nice to see that she and the voice creator, Caroline Atkins, apparently made peace on this and the subsequent remake, but I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for Atwell to take on the role once again, particularly when it meant no/little mention of Patrick Collins.