BBC’s The Other Bennet Sister star Ella Bruccoleri on the show’s viral lake scene: ‘I didn’t even get a tiny bit wet’

Jessie ThompsonTue, August 18, 2026 at 5:00 AM UTC

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The Independent is celebrating the greatest TV moments of the year so far, from the ones that got the nation talking to the scenes that moved us or made us laugh. In a series of articles running this summer, insiders share the part they played in making them happen.

Justice for Mary Bennet! She might not have been great at playing the piano but did she really deserve to be humiliated by her own dad in front of an entire ball?

Thankfully, Pride and Prejudice’s most overlooked character got a story of her own in The Other Bennet Sister earlier this year, the BBC’s exquisite adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s 2020 novel – and this time round, she got to be the heroine. This Jane Austen homage proved a hit with audiences as the Beeb’s biggest launch of a new drama since May 2025, and scholars embraced it too. Plans are now afoot for a Christmas special.

There was something so winning about the show, which my colleague Helen Coffey brilliantly described as, “the perfect antidote to all that climbing-the-walls steaminess and uninhibited shagging” in recent period dramas. This was about romance! Yearning! Grand gestures! And one grand gesture in particular, which offered a nostalgic throwback to the now iconic 1995 Pride and Prejudice adaptation.

Yes, that’s right, Mary Bennet – so charming played by Ella Bruccoleri – found herself in a lake surrounded by not one, but two wet-shirted suitors. The sweet, sensible Mr Haywood (Donal Finn) was rowing her around, reciting poetry, ready to declare his love, when they were rudely interrupted by the rakish Charles Ryder, whose attempts to enter the boat ended up with Haywood toppling out of it. Colin Firth, eat your heart out (times two).

Mary Bennet (Ella Bruccoleri) gets escorted back to shore by Ryder (Laurie Davidson) and Haywood (Donal Finn) (BBC)

Bruccoleri talks us through what it was like to film one of the most memorable scenes of the series, who she was channelling as her two co-stars shepherded her back to the shore, and why the scene was such an important part of Mary’s journey.

How it captured the show’s vibe

“It encapsulates the tone of the show really well, because it goes from a moment that’s very sincere and romantic, quite sentimental, to something that feels quite absurd comedically. Ryder just shows up at this remote lake in the Lake District, and suddenly he’s wading towards them. And yet both seem to somehow make sense, and I like that about the show, how it treads the line between quite sincere, earnest, dramatic moments and quite silly comedy.”

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Filming the scene

“It was a beautiful day. It was one of my favorite days on set because it was just baking hot and Donal and I were mainly just on a boat by ourselves in the middle of the lake all day. We were given a radio so that they could communicate with us, so we felt like we weren’t even being filmed really, because we were just having fun rowing on the lake all day. Indira Varma [who played Mary’s Aunt, Mrs Gardiner] showed up to set early so that she could go for a swim, and people were genuinely swimming in the lake between takes, so it was really nice.”

Bruccoleri with her (much drier) co-stars at the New York premiere of 'The Other Bennet Sister' (Getty)Complications arise

“It became quite stressful because the crew were supposed to shoot it on a different lake where they could anchor the boats to the bottom of it. And then at the last minute, they tested the water and couldn’t use it, so then we had to use a different one. Our lads were in the water for quite a long time, so there were big concerns about their health and safety.”

A secret stunt hero

“What’s really funny to know when you’re watching it is that we had a stunt diver called G [Guiomar Alonso] who was pushing the boat. So when the men are pushing it back, it looks like they're working really hard and putting loads of effort in, but there’s a woman under the boat the whole way, which I think is like a really nice analogy for life. These two men pretending to really put some muscle in!

“They were meant to wear wetsuits under their shirts to keep them safe and warm, and I think the billowing Regency shirts are just so see-through that Laurie and Donal decided that it would ruin the aesthetic. Vanity got in the way! So they didn’t put them on and they were cold, basically. They were in the water for quite a long time.”

Bruccoleri will return to the role of Mary Bennet for a Christmas special this year (AFP/Getty)Mary Bennet embraces being the main character

“I didn’t even get a tiny bit wet, I was just escorted around the lake, it was lovely. It’s funny watching that scene back because Mary just looks so smug when she’s being carted back to shore. Indira sent me a verse from Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, and I was just channeling that. I just imagined for that one moment that I was a queen being escorted around.

“She has that main character energy in the scene, which I think she rarely has. I always reference her as an uncomfortable protagonist in her own story. She doesn’t really want to be in the spotlight ever, really, so it’s nice to see those moments where she just properly leans into it.”

Referencing the iconic lake scene

“It was really fun. What I really like about our show is that it was made by people that are die-hard fans of the 1995 version, who grew up watching it with their family on Sunday nights. Jennifer Sheridan the director and Sarah Quintrell the writer are so obsessed with that version that in a way this was born out of wanting to create an homage to that one. So that’s one of many little Easter eggs that are dispersed throughout ours, and some are really obvious, like that one – you can’t see a man in a wet shirt and not think of Colin Firth – but then there are other ones that are more subtle, that you’d only know if you had watched that version on repeat. So I think it’s really nice to pay homage to it because it’s one of the defining moments of British TV, isn't it?”

‘The Other Bennet Sister’ is available to watch in BBC iPlayer and will return for a three-part Christmas special later this year

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