In 1995, a television film was produced that was generally well received by 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 Mrs Hawk-Monitor. The 1995 version was produced by BBC Films and Thames International, and was directed by John Schlesinger, from a script by novelist Malcolm Bradbury. It was filmed on location at Brightling, East Sussex. In 1996 and 1997, this version also had a brief theatrical run in North America, Australia and some European countries. Schlesinger reportedly used his own money to enlarge the 16mm BBC version of the film to 35mm, which was turned down by several US distributors before being distributed by Gramercy Pictures. As of April 2014, the film is still available on DVD in both the US and UK.