Official Anthony Stewart Head Persuasion

Persuasion
UK Television appearance
Character: Sir Walter Elliot
Original Air Date: April 1st, 2007
Network: ITV 1
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Press Summary: Anne Elliot (Sally Hawkins) is 27 and has rather given up on the idea of ever getting a husband. She lives at Kellynch Hall, a place she loves, with her widower father, the vain and spendthrift Sir Walter Elliot (Anthony), and her older unmarried sister Elizabeth (Julia Davis).

Sir Walter's costly habits have forced him, most reluctantly, to find a tenant to pay for the upkeep of Kellynch, and he intends to move to a house in Bath, where his expenses might be more manageable. When Anne hears the names of the tenants, Admiral and Mrs. Croft (Peter Wright and Marion Bailey), she is quietly alarmed. She confides in a close friend of the family, Lady Russell (Alice Krige). Mrs. Croft is the sister of Captain Frederick Wentworth (Rupert Penry-Jones), whom Anne had once hoped to marry. The relationship was discouraged by Lady Russell, who thought Captain Wentworth too poor and undistinguished for Anne, and so Anne broke it off. She and Wentworth have not seen each other since. Wentworth has now made a fortune through his exploits as a naval officer.

Sir Walter and Elizabeth leave for Bath, taking with them a young widowed neighbour, Mrs. Clay (Mary Stockley), as a companion for Elizabeth. Anne is to remain in the area, staying with her hypochondriac younger sister Mary (Amanda Hale), and her husband Charles Musgrove (Sam Hezeldine). Charles' parents Mr and Mrs. Musgrove (Nicholas Farrell and Stella Gonet) and his younger sisters Louisa (Jennifer Higham) and Henrietta (Rosamund Stephen), live in Uppercross House, close to Mary and Charles' cottage.

Wentworth seems only to be cold to Anne. When they are out walking with the Musgroves, she falls off a log while crossing a stream. He picks her up, a small gesture from which she gathers some hope, but then he walks away. She miserably watches what seems to be a burgeoning friendship of sorts between Wentworth and Louisa Musgrove.

Wentworth suggests that he and all the younger Musgroves, and Anne, take a refreshing trip to Lyme Regis, where he has a couple of friends, a Captain Harville (Joseph Mawle) and the morose, recently widowed, Captain Benwick (Finlay Robertson). There is much ribaldry and naval talk at Lyme, but Anne feels left out. She shares her misery to some extent with Benwick.

A handsome stranger is also staying in Lyme, apparently on his way to Bath. The group learns, just as he is leaving, that this is William Elliot, Anne's immensely rich cousin and the heir to Kellynch Hall (as Sir Walter had no sons of his own). Relations between this gentleman and Sir Walter are reportedly frosty

An over-excited Louisa, while out walking with the party, jumps from the Cob at Lyme, calling out to Wentworth to catch her. He fails to, and she is knocked unconscious. It has been a bad fall and Louisa cannot be moved from Lyme. Wentworth, filled with guilt, decides to go to Uppercross at once to report on the accident to Louisa's parents. He takes Henrietta with him, and Anne goes too, because it is on the way to Bath, and that is where Anne has decided to head for, with no hope of rekindling the love that Wentworth once had for her.

In Bath, Anne is coolly received by her father and sister and Mrs Clay, but more amiably welcomed by Lady Russell, who is always at her side in fashionable society. She also visits an old school friend, Mrs. Smith (Maise Dimbleby), who is a widow and has fallen on hard times. To Anne's surprise, it seems that William Elliot and Sir Walter have become reconciled, and Mr. Elliott is rarely out of the company of Sir Walter and Elizabeth and Mrs Clay.

Elliot begins to take a sincere interest in Anne, much to the fascination of Lady Russell, who thinks it would be a good match. Anne is not wholly opposed to the idea either, as it would mean that she would be able, as his wife, to return to her beloved Kellynch Hall. Then Anne learns that a wedding is imminent at Upper Cross, and that Louisa is to be the bride. She presumes that the groom will be Captain Wentworth.

Meanwhile, still in Lyme, Wentworth is horrified to learn from his friend Harville that everyone assumes he is soon to become engaged to Louisa, and that Louisa rather expects it too. Wentworth decides to put a distance between himself and Louisa by leaving Lyme for a while. When he returns, he hears from Harville that Louisa has become engaged to the sad Captain Benwick. Wentworth realises, at last, that he is overwhelmingly in love with Anne, as he always has been.

Admiral and Mrs. Croft arrive in Bath and relay the news to Anne, much to her amazement, that Louisa is marrying Captain Benwick and not Wentworth. She also hears that Captain Wentworth has arrived in Bath.

Anne's first encounter with Wentworth is interrupted by William Elliott, and her next encounter with him, at a concert, is made all the more galling for him when he hears talk of an impending match between Elliott and her. He leaves the concert before she has a chance to explain herself. And William Elliott proposes to her, expecting her answer the next day.

Wentworth pays what he thinks will be a final visit to Anne. He wants to know the truth. She tells him that the rumours of her being about to marry Elliot are entirely unfounded. He is astonished, but still leaves when a flurry of visitors, including Lady Russell, arrives.

Anne pursues him through the streets of Bath. She runs into Mrs. Smith, who tells her what she has learnt about William Elliot and his scheming ways. Despite the genuineness of his feelings for Anne, he has also been courting Mrs. Clay, in an attempt to prise her away from Sir Walter, so that she won't marry him and therefore possibly produce a new heir to Kellynch, thereby depriving Elliot of his inheritance.

Anne runs on. Captain Wentworth has left her a letter at his lodgings. It at last declares his constant and undying love for her. She runs on, trying to find him. She bumps into the Crofts, who tell her that he is now trying to find her. Finally, they meet in the street. Exhausted but elated, Anne becomes reconciled to the only man she has ever truly loved, and he to her.

Captain Wentworth, an exceedingly wealthy man, buys Kellynch Hall, thereby ensuring Anne's return to the home she always adored.