Bonnets at the ready, with 2025 marking two and a half centuries since Jane Austen’s birth, does “bad lad” Mr Darcy still do it for Gen Z?

From erotic audio books to one-woman comedy shows, an Austen invasion is under way this year with various reinterpretations of her work being offered up from those savvy enough to spot a marketing opportunity.

Many promise their own modern twists on classics like Pride & Prejudice but does Austen’s work really need updating to appeal to modern tastes?

Nichi Hodgson – whose book The Curious History Of Dating: From Jane Austen To Tinder compares Regency romance to now – understands how the “rituals of the era” can sometimes be “a stumbling block for people that want to read the stories”.

“But if you do read the books it really is about the emotions and characters,” she insists.

“Mr Darcy… at the beginning, he’s kind of a bad lad. The key tenants of the connection… wanting to kiss all night, you know, that’s still appealing to people.”

Of course, what you won’t find in Austen’s classics are any explicit sex scenes.

As Hodgson explains: “People didn’t really have sex before marriage, it was completely frowned upon.

“Skip forward to the Victorian era and actually one-in-three working class brides were already pregnant on their wedding day… but in Jane Austen’s era, it wasn’t the done thing.”

But for modern readers who prefer taking a story that’s a little spicier to bed, audio erotica platform Bloom Stories has just released its version of Pride & Prejudice.

Listeners get to hear 14 hours of their steamy reimagining of Austen’s iconic love story.

Hannah Albertshauser, Bloom Stories’ chief executive, admits they “created it because people have been daydreaming about Mr Darcy for generations”.

“Sexual desire undoubtedly existed in Austen’s time, but it was rarely expressed openly in literature.

“With this adaptation, we wanted to celebrate sexual empowerment by giving voice to the desires that were once left unsaid and of course, highlight female agency and pleasure.”

The fact that people are still reimagining Austen’s work today is arguably testament to her solid plots… but is it patronising to assume younger readers would only pick up Pride & Prejudice with a sexier rewrite?

Australian playwright Matthew Semple says the original is “absolutely a story for and of and by young people”.

“Jane Austen wasn’t much older than many Gen Z’s today when she wrote it.”

Transferring to London from a sellout run in Australia, his show Plied And Prejudice plays the classic novel for laughs.

Five actors scramble to play twenty characters in a chaotic retelling of Elizabeth Bennet and Mister Darcy’s love story.

“After we opened it in Brisbane…we had to add about a month’s worth of shows because it just popped off,” he says.

And while there’s plenty for his audiences to find funny, “a lot of the cultural aspects”, he insists, are still as relevant today when it comes to “the way we view gender politics“.

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Young stand-up comedian Rosalie Minnitt agrees: “We’re still all wrestling with this idea of love that came from that period of history.”

Minnitt is currently on tour with her Austen-inspired one-woman show after her character Lady Clementine proved to be one of the stand-out hits at the Edinburgh Fringe.

“We’re in quite an interesting space with genders, men and women not really understanding each other, people struggling with dating, and it feels as though the show has taken on a really interesting new energy,” she admits.

While the world of dating has changed wildly from Austen’s times, Minnit – whose show is all about her character’s hunt for “the one” – believes plus can change.

“So much of her work was about poking fun at the world she lived in… being let down by men, being pressured by your mum, these are all things that I think that modern women are still dealing with.”

Plied And Prejudice runs at The Vaults, Waterloo until 27 April.

Rosalie Minnitt: Clementine is touring the UK including at London’s Soho Theatre on 9 and 10 May.

Nichi Hodgson’s book The Curious History Of Dating: From Jane Austen To Tinder is available to order online.

Former Love Island winner Jack Fincham has won an appeal against his prison sentence for two dangerous dog offences.

Fincham, 32, was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment at Southend Magistrates’ Court on 29 January after pleading guilty to two counts of having a dangerously out-of-control black cane corso.

But within hours of the sentencing, he was released on conditional bail and vowed to appeal it.

On Friday, Fincham, who won the ITV dating show with Dani Dyer in 2018, was told by a judge at Basildon Crown Court that the original sentence had not been “just in the circumstances”.

Instead, Judge Samantha Leigh set aside the custodial sentence and extended a suspended sentence he was given in March last year for two unrelated offences in 2023 – drug driving and fraudulent use of a registered trademark.

The order of 12 weeks custody – suspended for 18 months – has been lengthened by three months, Judge Leigh told the court.

The court heard previously that Fincham’s dog, Elvis, bit and injured the arm of a runner named Robert Sudell in Swanley, Kent, in September 2022.

Separately in June 2024, the dog grabbed a woman’s leg in Fincham’s hometown of Grays, Essex. It left no injury but the animal was said to be out of control.

Fincham attended a police interview of his own volition that month, when he received a caution and was told to keep the dog muzzled.

Prosecuting, Hannah Steventon said police then attended a hotel in August 2024 following reports the dog had been in a public pool area and was not on a lead or muzzled.

Defending, Richard Cooper, said Fincham had chosen the hotel specifically because it was advertised as “dog-friendly” online.

He then “let him off the lead at the swimming pool”, broadcasting the scene to his social media followers, “of which there are about two million”, he said.

Judge Leigh described this as “his own stupidity”.

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As part of the original sentence, Fincham was ordered to pay £3,680, including £2,000 in kennelling costs, a fine of £961, and £200 in compensation to Mr Sudell.

His lawyer said he had made “remarkable progress” since his last court appearance, “returning to a nine-to-five job” and boxing.

The judge warned him to be “very careful now”.

Disney’s use of CGI to create the seven miners at the heart of the live-action remake of Snow White And The Seven Dwarves has left little people feeling “disregarded” and “erased,” according to a disability activist.

Comedian, model and content creator Fats Timbo, who has spoken about being bullied as a child, told Sky News she believes Disney has missed a golden opportunity to educate children in what is likely to be their first encounter with someone with dwarfism.

Timbo, who has dedicated her activism to raising the profile of people of short stature, has achondroplasia, a genetic condition that inhibits growth and affects around one in 27,500 people.

Award-winning actor Peter Dinklage, who has the same condition, previously criticised the film, telling the WTF With Marc Maron podcast: “It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that f***ing backward story about seven dwarves living in a cave together?”

Following the remarks, Disney said it consulted with members of the dwarfism community to “avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film”.

It was the 1937 classic that established Disney’s name as an industry leader. But the remake has been beset by controversy.

Early on it was labelled “woke” due to its casting of Latina actress Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian-Polish descent, in the lead role.

Zegler also faced backlash after suggesting the early version of the film had content that was unsuitable for the 21st century – namely the fact the prince “literally stalks” Snow White.

There was then speculation as to whether Zegler and Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who plays the evil queen, got on as they have previously expressed very different views over the Gaza war.

Not dwarves but ‘animated magical creatures’

Now the erasing of the dwarves – first from the title, then from the film, at least in human form – is proving highly divisive.

Disney used computer-generated images (CGI) to create what they called “animated magical creatures” rather than using little people in the roles.

Timbo tells Sky News: “Our representation is already small as it is – no pun intended. It’s already limited. To erase that and use CGI, like we’re mythical creatures or people that could be made on computers, it’s disregarding us in general.”

She goes on: “Let’s say kids have never seen somebody that has my condition and they’ve seen a CGI version of me. It’s going to be a bit baffling to children. It could have been a real educational piece to have actors that have the condition and give them the role they deserve.”

Timbo says lack of visibility for small people has real-world consequences.

“I used to get made fun of all the time. [Kids would be] saying ‘You’re one of the dwarves from Snow White,’ that kind of thing. I think now when somebody sees a little person, they’re not going to believe it’s real. They’re going to see that CGI version on Snow White instead of seeing a real little person that has real character with real depth.”

‘Snow White And The Little People’

Timbo says other children’s films were also used to taunt her, including Charlie And The Chocolate Factory: “The Oompa Loompas – I got called that all the time.”

In the Snow White remake, Martin Klebba voices CGI Grumpy, while George Appleby has a physical character, playing one of a band of seven robbers – both actors are little people.

But the decision not to use people of small stature to play all seven dwarves on-screen has left many scratching their heads.

And it’s not the first time small people have been edited out of movies.

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’s 2023 re-make, Wonka, used special effects to shrink down Hugh Grant to play an Oompa Loompa, while 2012 film Snow White And The Huntsman replaced its dwarves with able-bodied actors Ian McShane, Ray Winstone and Nick Frost.

Not a fan of the term dwarfism, Timbo says she thinks Disney would also have done well to tackle the title differently, too: “If they had put a different spin on it where it was Snow White And The Little People, that would have sounded great.”

She says that in an attempt to avoid controversy, Disney chose “the safe option” of simply cutting the physical roles completely, and letting CGI fill the void.

It’s a decision Timbo calls “upsetting,” due to the fact it “reaffirms the negative stereotypes of little people not being actual people”.

Disney’s poisoned apple

Timbo’s 2023 book Main Character Energy, about living fearlessly in the face of adversity, seems like it could be a good read for the bosses of Disney right now, as they face growing criticism over the decision.

With a muted release (no Leicester Square premiere, and a limited LA debut) it’s been a less-than-fairytale opening for a movie which had been intended to rival the success of 2017 remake Beauty And The Beast. Many might say it has turned into something of a poisoned apple.

Proving controversial and polarising, the response couldn’t be more removed from Disney’s brand proposition if it tried. Early reviews are so far mixed.

Timbo says she will give the movie a shot: “I want to see if it lives up to the hype or the bad press.”

Box office figures and audience ratings will soon deliver a verdict, and Timbo remains generous despite reservations: “I want it to surprise me, I want to enjoy it… I hope it does do well. But obviously, I think Disney could have done things a bit differently.”

Sky News has contacted Disney for comment.

Snow White is in cinemas now.