Cold Comfort Farm Have Always Been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm", set several years later and based on "Conference at Cold Comfort Farm", when Flora is married with several children, was broadcast. In 1995 a television film was produced which was generally well-received, with critics. Janet Maslin in the "New York Times" wrote that this screen version "gets it exactly right". The film starred Kate Beckinsale as Flora, Joanna Lumley as her friend and mentor Mary Smiling, Rufus Sewell as Seth, Ian McKellen as Amos Starkadder, Eileen Atkins as Judith, Stephen Fry as Mybug, Miriam Margolyes as Mrs. Beetle, and Angela Thorne as
Kate Beckinsale Jesse Hassenger of "The A.V. Club" felt her "charismatic" performance was wasted. Also that year, she starred alongside Simon Pegg in the poorly received British comedy "Absolutely Anything", as an author agency employee and the love interest of a man (Pegg) chosen by four aliens to do anything he wants. Tom Huddleston of "Time Out" said her character "is never really developed—which is perhaps a blessing, because her cut-glass-posh performance is almost as grating as Pegg's." In the romantic comedy "Love & Friendship" (2016), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Beckinsale reunited with her "Last Days of Disco" collaborators