An early blast of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance sets the mood of this 21st-century take on Jane Austen’s comedy of manners. Award-winning writer Ava Pickett transplants the fictional village of Highbury to deepest Essex and dials up the modernity, music and laughs. Emma (Amelia Kenworthy) is a serious-minded type, albeit still insufferably self-regarding and judgy. View image in fullscreen Carefully observed … Sofia Oxenham as Harriet and Amelia Kenworthy as Emma. The action edges from social satire, of sorts, to full-on revolving-door farce and clowning, high-pitched and hysterical, in the second half.