For the past four weeks, I have been reacquainting myself with my old friend Jane Austen. One month ago, BBC One unveiled its latest Austen drama, a sweeping, four-part weekly miniseries starring Romola Garai, Jonny Lee Miller, and the always impeccable Sir Michael Gambon as Mr. Woodhouse. Ever since BBC One issued a press release about the series in January, I have been looking forward to watching the new adaptation.

As with other Austen adaptations, I approached the series with a set mental picture—-this time an opinion heavily influenced by Jeremy Northam and Gwyneth Paltrow’s 1996 Hollywood film version. After about ten minutes of Sandy Welch’s new work, I felt my previous mental visions of Emma slipping away. Perplexed, as this was far different from Paltrow or even Kate Beckinsale in BBC’s last adaptation, but determined to stick it out, I kept watching. Four weeks later, I am so glad I did.

Sandy Welch, one of Britain’s best period drama screenwriters, has written a fresh new version of the charming Austen story. Instead of recrafting decades old impressions of Emma, she started from scratch and wrote a light-hearted script about an average, albeit wealthy twenty-one year-old woman learning about life and love.

Romola Garai is brilliant as an immature, but still sensitive Emma, while Jonny Lee Miller shines as Emma’s biggest critic and the man unconsciously holding the key to her heart. Garai’s Emma is far less haughty and imposing than Paltrow’s, which is refreshing as I often found it hard to believe that Gwyneth’s Emma was befitting a girl who was supposedly barely out of her teens. While Miller is far from being as dashingly handsome as Jeremy Northam, his sensitivity to Emma and his quietly faithful love quickly grew on me.

As for the rest of the main characters, BBC has assembled an ensemble cast. Jodhi May, who also appeared with Garai in Daniel Deronda is stellar as Mrs. Weston.

Louise Dylan turns in a fantastic performance as the charmingly silly Harriet Smith. Toni Collette was far too mature in the 1996 adaptation, but Dylan manages to show how muddle brained Harriet must have been to seek advice on her love life from Emma.

Snooty Mrs. Elton is perfectly brought to life by Christina Cole, while her despicable (hate to speak ill of a minister, but there it is) husband is played by Blake Ritson. The two characters that are quite uniquely portrayed in Welch’s adaptation are Jane Fairfax (Laura Pyper) and Frank Churchill (Rupert Evans). While Jane is far nicer than the haughty girl (played by Polly Walker) we met in Douglas McGrath’s script, Rubert Evans brings to life a performance which makes Ewan McGregor look like a nice guy, compared to the trouble-making, selfishly moody fellow who romanced one woman while secretly in love with another. Tamsin Greig brings to the miniseries a whole new perspective in Miss Bates, one that I felt was far better and more emotionally moving that the one of chatty Sophie Thompson.

The miniseries does have a few faults—-it took me a little time to get used to Romola Garai’s portrayal, as I confess that I was comparing her to Gwyneth Paltrow. I was surprised that I didn’t immediately warm to Garai, especially after I thought she would be perfectly cast after her seeing her in other period dramas. Maybe it was the perpetual hand waving in the opening part, or the many wide-eyed and animated facial expressions. Nevertheless, by the third episode, I was hooked and quite forgetful of my dislikes in the previous two parts.

The first two parts, particularly the beginning, are the weakest, but once the halfway threshold is crossed, the series brilliantly shines as the relationship between Emma and Mr. Knightley begins to warm.

I loved the chemistry between the two as Knightley progresses from being a caring, always around neighbor and friend to a suitor in pursuit of Emma’s flighty, yet ever-maturing little heart. Their dancing scene at the ball is beautifully choreographed and will give you goose bumps as they dance together. Emma’s perplexity (and speechlessness) once Harriet declares her feelings for her third gentleman friend in one year is priceless, and several times I laughed aloud at the script’s witty one-liners.

Ordinarily, halfway through a film I start wondering about the ending, and I have spent the last week anxiously waiting to see whether Welch’s strong screenwriting would continue into the final episode, or would too much time be spent on the Box Hill trip, rushing the dawning of Emma’s heart awakening.

I had no cause to worry.

While I have no intention of giving away the ending, I will say one thing, it is the perfect finale after four fantastic hours spent in Highbury.

The new BBC adaptation of Emma will premiere in the United States from January 24-February 7, 2010 on PBS’s MASTERPIECE.