Wentworth Woodhouse a claim that the property had been Jane Austen's inspiration for Pemberley in her novel "Pride and Prejudice". It was thought that there might have been a connection to the house because Austen uses the name Fitzwilliam in her novel, but following the Chancellor's Autumn Statement the Jane Austen Society dismissed the likelihood that Austen had had the house in mind, given the absence of any evidence that she had visited the estate. Austen does, however, name a character Frederick Wentworth in "Persuasion", and the eponymous heroine of "Emma" has the surname Woodhouse. The series from BBC titled "The Country
Emma (1996 TV film) the servants. "Emma" was broadcast on 24 November 1996 on ITV, garnering an estimated 12 million viewers. "Emma" was also broadcast on the American channel A&E on 16 February 1997. It was released on DVD in 1999. The adaptation re-aired in 2007, as part of ITV's "Jane Austen Season", and as part of PBS "Masterpiece's" Jane Austen marathon on 23 March 2008. It was also aired on 27 December 2008, as a series of Christmas "specials" on BBC One. Many reviewers positively compared the TV drama to the 1996 feature film starring Paltrow. "People"s Tom Gliatto found it to be