“The Other Bennet Sister ”writer and star discuss the Austen spinoff’s finale: 'Did I just punch him?'

Tiffany KellySat, June 27, 2026 at 12:40 PM UTC

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Ella Bruccoleri and Dónal Finn on 'The Other Bennet Sister'Credit: BBC/Bad Wolf/James PardonKey Points -

The Other Bennet Sister, a spinoff of Pride & Prejudice,concluded with a romantic finale.

Star Ella Bruccoleri and writer Sarah Quintrell talked with EW about Mary's decisions in the last episode, and how the 1995 P&P miniseries inspired this show.

Bruccoleri will reprise her character for an upcoming three-episode Christmas special, which Quintrell will write.

The Other Bennet Sister ended its 10-episode series in typical Jane Austen fashion, with its heroine finally admitting her feelings for the man she loves.

In the finale of the hit BBC/BritBox series, which is an adaptation of the 2020 novel by Janice Hadlow, Mary Bennet (Ella Bruccoleri) accepts a marriage proposal from Thomas Hayward (Dónal Finn). As viewers know, her journey to get to happily ever after was filled with a lot of bumps in the road, as well as another suitor, William Ryder (Laurie Davidson).

The Pride and Prejudice spinoff focuses on the overlooked Bennet sister, who is left alone in the house with her critical mother after sisters Elizabeth, Jane, Kitty, and Lydia all find husbands. A move to London pushes Mary to find herself and decide what kind of life she desires.

At the recent ATX Television Festival, Entertainment Weekly spoke with the series’ breakout star, Bruccoleri, and writer Sarah Quintrell about the finale, references to previous Austen adaptations, and what’s to come. (BritBox announced this week that Bruccoleri and other members of the cast will return for a three-part Christmas special to “explore what happens after the wedding bells fade and real life begins," which Quintrell will write.)

Ella Bruccoleri on 'The Other Bennet Sister'Credit: BBC/Bad Wolf

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Ella, at the ATX TV Festival panel on the show, you said episodes 8 and 9 were your favorites. Can you elaborate on that?

ELLA BRUCCOLERI: They're really fun. Both of them are pretty much entirely set in the Lake District. There's a confrontational moment between Tom and Mary for the first time. I think it's quite interesting to watch. You have these two characters that have been yearning for each other for so long go head-to-head.

SARAH QUINTRELL: Something that was unscripted that I love in episode 9 is when you ate a whole Scotch egg and then said, “Come on, keep doing the proposal.”

E.B.: Because I’m vegan, they got these [special] Scotch eggs for me. So, I started eating, and you know when you start eating something, that’s when you realize then, for continuity, you have to get the whole thing in your mouth by the time you go.

The love declaration scene in episode 10 really stood out to me. When Mary hits Tom, it’s kind of shocking. Was that moment improvised?

E.B.: No, it was in the script. In my head, I was like, “Did I just punch him?” [Laughs.]

S.Q.: At 10, it just kind of came up. I got to that scene, and he came into the garden, and then, suddenly, they were really like… I was expecting them to want to be together, but I think it didn't feel right to Mary, and as I was writing, she just suddenly was there going, "What do you mean?”

E.B.: It kind of subverts this, the romantic trope of you think they're going to run together toward each other. And actually, that doesn’t feel right for Mary, it just doesn’t.

They reached a place of being able to be honest with each other. Like after the moment on the mountain, I think she can be really honestly outraged with him at that moment. It felt good to give Dónal a big smack.

Did you have to think of something you were really angry about going into the scene?

E.B.: I think I did feel the pure outrage of how Mary would be feeling in that moment. It’s so wild. She thinks he’s about to propose to her, and he goes weird and cold and doesn’t explain it.

And she finds out through Mr. Ryder that he was deciding to step aside. I think it's all the frustrations of being a woman during that time that kind of bubbles to the surface, not just about what's happening with Mr. Haywood. It's about the fact that she doesn't have a voice and her fate is decided by men around her, and always has been. It feels so unfair, so it's just easy to kind of tap into that.

Mary's really coming into her own at the end, and she's living life as she wants to. If she were a modern character, do you think she would still get married, or would she want to remain married?

E.B.: A part of me did want that for her. I know that was impossible.

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S.Q.: It was impossible because it was a novel, but I think she could have remained unmarried and very happy, and that was really the point I wanted to make. That's why I brought the voiceover in, which usually signals the end of an episode. I brought it in early in 10 so that you kind of go, "oh." But it's my way of saying her story is complete here, and there is an addition. And, obviously, all lives go on and have additions and whatever, but her life is where it needs to be in that moment when she's on her own.

E.B.: I think she'd be happy either way if she existed today, but yeah, I don't know. I always think of my friends who are single and struggling with the fact that they're single. There's good relationships and bad relationships, and I tend to think that being alone, it's easy for me to say, but being comfortable in yourself is much better than being in a bad relationship. It's so much more preferable.

Laurie Davidson, Ella Bruccoleri, and Dónal Finn on 'The Other Bennet Sister'Credit: BBC/Bad Wolf

I was excited to see the lake scene with both suitors who end up in the lake as a nod to the BBC Pride and Prejudice series from 1995. Can you talk more about that scene?

S.Q.: We were on the BBC in the U.K. It wasn't just random, we went, “oh, we love that, and we'll just, we'll pay homage to it.” We knew that we were carrying forward the tradition of BBC period drama.

We felt that the [1995] adaptation, which we all adored, is our really polished successful big sister. It's almost as if the story we tell, that [original] story's going on to the left — and we're in the kitchen and we're on the stairs and we're in the bedroom, these locations that I tried to pull out that allowed it to feel, our story to feel kind of human and messy. But, yeah, we wanted to pay homage to that ‘95 and, so I was going to put Hayward in the lake… and [executive producer] Jane Tranter said to me, “Both lads in the lake!”

The two of them pulling the boat is such a great image.

S.Q.: Actually, we had a stunt woman who was behind the boat. They couldn’t do it. It was too deep, very dangerous, actually. So they had to just swim and hold on, and she pushed the boat.

Even before this show was released, Austen fans have called Mary neurodiverse or autistic-coded. Were either of you thinking about that going into this show?

S.Q.: I totally see that. Obviously, I have no qualifications to what she is or what she is not in that sense. I am thrilled if people feel seen by her, I really am, and especially people who might feel like they're on the outside of things.

E.B.: I love that, and I want a whole spectrum of people to feel seen by Mary. So I don't want anyone to feel excluded by that. But, yeah, I think going into it, we weren't trying to label her as any particular thing —  I didn’t want to reduce it down to anything. The way she was written felt very specific, and all I had to do was think about just playing what Sarah had written.

Ella Bruccoleri and Dónal Finn (center) on 'The Other Bennet Sister'Credit: BBC/Bad Wolf/James Pardon

There have been many Austen adaptations over the years. What do you think it is about this show that has made people really connect with it?

E.B.: I think one of the most loved adaptations is the ‘95 Pride and Prejudice, and I feel like our show was made by obsessives and lovers of the ‘95. And [with] Sarah and [director] Jen Sheridan and so many other people… there was no like, "we're going to try and update Austen, and we're just going to try and make it different or flashy or like add all these bells and whistles in."

They just believed in the power of storytelling. That's the reason why people are still reading Austen, and so drawn to Austen today. You don't need to pad it out.

S.Q.: I think it was made with so much love for Austen, and so much love for Janice Hadlow's book.

I just wanted to tell a story that I absolutely believed in, and I think it's the love we have for Mary Bennet and this character, and our deep belief that this story was so needed in 2026 that has driven the show home, and honestly, the audience response has been wonderful, but surprising to me. We felt like that it was niche, and we were the only people who felt like this.

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This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

All episodes of The Other Bennet Sister are now streaming on BritBox.

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