A 2006 BBC television adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel Jane Eyre. This was the third time the BBC had adapted the novel, having previously done so in 1973 and 1983. Starring Ruth Wilson as Jane and Toby Stephens as Rochester, scripted by Sandy Welch (Our Mutual Friend, North and South, the 2009 Emma), and directed by the BBC's Bleak House co-director Susanna White.
"Reader, I used these tropes":
- Adaptational Explanation: In the novel, Mr. Rochester bought a pearl necklace for Jane to wear it on their wedding day but there is no explanation why he chose it. In this version, Adele helped Mr. Rochester pick it up because she knows that Jane prefers simple accessories.
- Adaptational Job Change: The old shepherd whom Jane met after she discovered that Thornfield Hall is ruined. In the novel, he's an innkeeper who used to work as a butler for Mr. Rochester's father. In this adaptation, he's a shepherd who used to work in the stables.
- Adaptational Skill: Mr. Rochester is given an interest in biology in this version. His study room shows that he likes to collect insects and small animals as his hobby.
- Adaptational Timespan Change: In the novel, St. John revealed to Jane that she inherited £20,000 from her uncle John and they are cousins around few weeks before Christmas. In this version, the scene happened a year later.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Blanche is again blonde.
- Adapted Out: Miss Temple is not included in this version. She appeared in one of the show's deleted scenes however.
- Age Cut: The first episode has a sequence where young Jane is seen drawing the epidemic using black crayon. When she turns the next page, it shows a grown-up Jane teaching her students to paint flowers.
- Bookends: The series begins and ends with the painting of a family portrait.
- Bug Catching: In one of the scenes in the first episode, Mr. Rochester is seen catching small fish and bugs while Jane, Adele, Mrs. Fairfax and Sophie are having a picnic.
- Canon Character All Along: Alice, one of Jane's students in Morton was tasked to ring a bell to finish the class. It is revealed in the novel that she is Jane's assistant assigned by Rosamund Oliver to help Jane in taking care of her cottage.
- Canon Foreigner: The Dent twins and John Eshton, setting up the idea that twinned souls can call each other across distances and making the ending feel much less like a sudden fantastical Deus ex Machina.
- Composite Character: George the butler is a composite of two characters in the novel: John the servant in Thornfield Hall and Sam the assistant of the guests in Mr. Rochester's party.
- Color Wash: When young Jane is trapped in Mr. Reed's room, it is tinted with a shade of red.
- Curtain Camouflage: Mr. Rochester hides in the curtains to overhear Jane's conversation with the gypsy fortune teller he hired.
- Daydream Surprise: The show begins with young Jane exploring the desert. In the next scene, Jane opens her eyes and reads an adventure book.
- Dramatic Thunder: When Adele introduces a story about the wandering ghost in Thornfield Hall to the guests in Mr. Rochester's party, a flash of lightning occurs.
- Destroy the Evidence: Jane finds a trickle of blood that dropped from Mr. Rochester's hand and wipes it with her handkerchief after the guests returned to their bedrooms. In that way, no one except Jane and Mr. Rochester will suspect that someone is injured upstairs.
- Doorstop Baby: In one of Mr. Rochester's flashbacks, a newborn Adele was left inside the hotel by her mother.
- Face Framed in Shadow: Mr. Rochester is sometimes shown like this in the first two episodes.
- Fake-Out Opening: The first episode starts with young Jane wandering in the desert.
- Family Portrait of Characterization:
- The first episode of the miniseries starts with Jane's foster family (her aunt and cousins) being painted for a family portrait. Jane is excluded.
- The miniseries bookends with Jane's family sitting outside of their house being portrayed. Jane wants Adele who is her husband's ward in the picture.
- Flashback Echo: Jane experiences this at least few times when she's in Morton. During her trip with the River sisters in the moors, they noticed a green dragonfly. Said dragonfly caused Jane to have a flashback where Mr. Rochester taught her about insects. Later when Jane visits a chapel, the scene briefly cuts in a flashback of her aborted wedding with Mr. Rochester.
- Funny Background Event: While Jane and Mr. Rochester are talking about Adele during picnic, Adele and Mrs. Fairfax have this conversation:
- Adele: "Madame Fairfax, Monsieur Rochester said the ladies will say I'm disgusting."
Mrs. Fairfax: "Oh that's nice dear!"
- Gilligan Cut: Jane seemed not happy when Mrs. Fairfax discovered that the former only has a grey frock as her best attire for Mr. Rochester's first meeting in the hall. Cue to her wearing the grey frock and looks on her mirror later on.
- Grave-Marking Scene: Jane, who is now grown-up is teaching art to her students near the graveyard. In the next scene, she sees the tombstone of Helen with flowers on it.
- Group Picture Ending: It ends up with Jane's family sitting outside of their house, being painted for a family portrait.
- Happy Dance: Adele is sometimes seen twirling around like a ballerina whenever she's in good mood.
- Ironic Echo Cut: Mrs. Fairfax was astonished on how she saw Jane and Mr. Rochester kissing in the middle of night.
- Adele: "I meant you're too level-headed. Too sensibly young woman to be so overwhelmed."
[cue to Jane sitting on Mr. Rochester's lap in the study room.]
Mr. Rochester: "Overwhelmed?"
- Lovable Nerd: Mr. Eshton qualifies this. He has interest in talking about science, but overall he's a kind friend and one of the nicest guests in Mr. Rochester's party.
- Not So Above It All: Although being wise beyond her years, this happens to Jane sometimes, most notably when she becomes giddy in her bedroom after Mr. Rochester thanked her from saving him from being burned in his bed.
- Ouija Board: Some of the guests in Mr. Rochester's party are playing this kind of game in episode two.
- Pets as a Present: Rosamund Oliver gives Jane a pair of white doves as a gift for teaching the girls in Morton.
- Pet Dress-Up: Adele is seen putting some ribbons on Pilot's fur upon the arrival of Mr. Rochester.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: While it is one of the longer versions, the script makes a few choices to fit the serialized format of the series. A particular example of this is the structure of the fourth episode, which plays with the idea that Jane doesn't remember Thornfield.. Also, the parts of the novel dealing with Jane growing up in Gateshead and her experiences in Lowood School, which comprise the first ten chapters of the book, are compressed into roughly the first ten minutes of the first episode.
- The Prankster: According to Mrs. Fairfax, Mr. Rochester likes to crack practical jokes to anyone since he was a kid.
- Previously on…: During its initial broadcast on TV and DVD, every episode except the first episode recap some scenes from previous episodes.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Rochester does this a number of times to Jane when begging her not to leave Thornfield to the point that one Youtube user said that it sounds like Toby Stephens is eating Ruth Wilson's face.
- Spooky Painting: Jane encounters a large painting hanging in the third floor of the hall. It depicts a group of people being mad according to Adele and Sophie is seemed being uncomfortable looking at it.
- Stock Scream: In one of Jane's dreams, she encountered a young girl screaming. Jane wakes up suddenly after hearing some noises outside her room in the middle of the night.
- Tastes Like Friendship
- While Jane is standing on the stool as a punishment received from Mr. Brocklehurst, somebody, presumably Helen gave her a piece of bread from behind.
- Mrs. Fairfax offers Jane a stew after the latter arrived at Thornfield Hall, and the two get along.
- Time-Passes Montage: On the first day of Jane teaching Adele, the former writes the date in French on a chalkboard. Few months later, Adele is seen writing it in English.
- Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Jane barely eats lunch and dinner due to thinking about Mr. Rochester's whereabouts and his relationship with Blanche Ingram.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Before the ending, Jane and Mr. Rochester are shown making out lying in the fields then the camera slowly pans away until it stops to the flow of river.
- Wall Bang Her: In one of Mr. Rochester's flashbacks, he found out that Bertha was having sex with a male stranger against the porch in their house.
- Whip Pan: This version has at least few of these, usually to move in another scenario from the same area.
