Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice keeps being adapted – but does ‘bad lad’ Mr Darcy still do it for Gen Z?
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”.
Nichi Hodgson
“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?
Matthew Semple
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.”
Plied and Prejudice
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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Minnitt
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.
Thousands of members of actors’ trade union Equity are being asked whether they would support industrial action over artificial intelligence protections.
The organisation has launched an indicative ballot among about 7,000 members working in film and TV.
Performers are being asked whether they are prepared to refuse to be digitally scanned on set in order to secure adequate artificial intelligence protections.
It will be the first time the performing arts and entertainment trade union has asked this whole section of its membership to vote in a ballot.
The Hollywood strikes took place in 2023. File pic: AP
The announcement follows the Hollywood strikes in 2023, when members of Equity’s sister union in the US, SAG-AFTRA, and writers, went on strike over issues including AI.
Video game actors in the US also protested over the use of AI, ending almost a year of industrial action earlier in 2025.
Equity’s ballot opens on Thursday and runs for two weeks, and will show the level of support the union has for action short of a strike.
Another statutory ballot would have to be made before any industrial action is taken.
“While tech companies get away with stealing artists’ likeness or work, and the government and decision makers fret over whether to act, unions including Equity are at the forefront of the fight to ensure working people are protected from artificial intelligence misuse,” Equity general secretary Paul W Fleming said in a statement.
“If bosses can’t ensure someone’s likeness and work won’t be used without their consent, why should performers consent to be digitally scanned in the first place?”
Mr Fleming said the ballot would give members the opportunity to “send a clear message to the industry: that it is a basic right of performers to have autonomy over their own personhood and identity”.
The union has no choice but to recommend members support industrial action, he said.
“It’s time for the bosses to step away from the brink and offer us a package, including on AI protections, which respects our members,” added Mr Fleming.
The hotly anticipated Spotify Wrapped is revealing our top tracks, artists and albums for 2025.
But how does the streaming service calculate personalised summaries of users’ listening habits and rank the UK’s hottest artists?
Here’s a look at how your data is used.
The platform describes the annual statistics as “a chance to look back on your year in sound”.
It says data is captured between January and mid-November on every account, although it mostly excludes anything streamed in private mode. (Don’t worry, your passion for the Spice Girls can be kept secret.)
Wrapped presents personalised listening statistics, which Spotify calls the “real story of your year of listening”, alongside global figures for comparison.
The streaming service says Minutes Listened reflects the actual time spent listening to audio on the platform.
Once a user streams at least 30 tracks, Spotify generates a list of Your Top Songs. Similarly, Your Top Artists ranks artists based on total minutes listening to a particular performer.
Other metrics identify the top genres users have played, as well as podcasts and audiobooks ranked by total minutes listened. And if you’ve listened to at least 70% of tracks on a record, you’ll see top albums too.
Spotify also creates Your Listening Age, a guesstimate of your age based on the era of the music “you feel most connected to”.
The streaming service says the statistic is calculated using a five-year span of music which users engaged with more than other listeners of a similar age.
Spotify has been summing up 2025’s most listened to tracks. Pic: Spotify
Swift vs Bunny
Pop superstar Taylor Swift has been named the UK’s most-streamed artist on Spotify for the third year in a row.
But she dropped out of the top spot in the global rankings, coming second to Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, who secured more than 19.8 billion streams. Third were The Weeknd, followed by Drake and Billie Eilish.
Bad Bunny’s LP Debi Tirar Mas Fotos was the most listened-to album worldwide.
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Spotify revealed Drake was the UK’s second most-listened to artist, followed by Sabrina Carpenter in third, The Weeknd in fourth and Billie Eilish in fifth.
Despite being the most listened-to artist, Swift failed to break into the UK’s top five most listened-to songs and albums of the year.
Alex Warren’s Ordinary was the most-streamed song, and Short ‘N’ Sweet, released by Carpenter last year, the top album.
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