While TV and film adaptations of Jane Austen’s celebrated books are plentiful, you’ll struggle to find much about the author’s personal life. This is partly because her older sister, Cassandra Austen, burned many of Jane’s letters, which it’s thought contained a wealth of private and personal information.

Now, in a reimagining of history, the upcoming BBC One series Miss Austen – based on Gill Hornby’s bestselling novel of the same name – imagines what was in the letters through the prism of Jane’s sister, Cassandra, played by Keeley Hawes.

“I can’t speak for Cassandra, but I think she did quite a brilliant thing getting rid of anything that was distracting from [Jane’s] work, which is, I believe, the reason for [burning the letters],” says Hawes. “I know a lot of Austen fans feel it was an act of cultural vandalism, but Cassandra couldn’t possibly have known about the world we live in now, where everybody wants to know everyone’s innermost thoughts at every second of the day. To look after her legacy in the way that she did, I think it’s the greatest act of love.”

In the 250th anniversary year of Jane Austen’s birth, Miss Austen follows Cassandra as she finds a bundle of Jane’s private letters years after her death. Through reading the letters, Cassandra is transported back to her youth and, via flashbacks, we meet a young Cassy and Jane as they navigate the romantic infatuations, family feuds and dashed hopes of young women growing up in the 1800s.

“When I received the script, I had been sort of hoping for something like this – I was interested in doing something about love, and this is a story about love in all its forms: sisterly love, romantic love and unrequited love,” Hawes explains.

At the heart of the story is Jane and Cassandra’s sisterly bond growing up, a bond that Hawes describes as “quite extraordinary”.

“They’re almost like twins, I think. They slept in the same bed, they were very, very close. Cassandra was a brilliant sister to Jane,” says Hawes.

The fact the series is so focused on the close bond between two women isn’t lost on Hawes.

“Women are [often] pitted against each other, and I think this is quite unique in that it’s a celebration of women being there for each other. Usually, it’s romantic love that is the be-all and end-all in most stories about love, but actually, this is quite unusual in that it is the sisterly love that wins out.”

Hawes is joined on screen by Jessica Hynes, who plays Mary Austen; Rose Leslie, who plays Isabella; and Synnøve Karlsen and Patsy Ferran, who play the young Cassandra and Jane, respectively. It’s refreshing to hear that that on-screen celebration of women translated behind the camera, as the actor explains that the mostly female cast formed a strong bond while filming.

“We had a sort of little sisterhood of our own, which is so lovely. I absolutely loved going into work every day because of the bond that we all created,” says Hawes. “With TV, mostly you turn up, you rehearse once in the room and then before you know it, you’re shooting. Quite often, people will then go back to their room for some quiet time, but in this instance, everyone was together in the green room and we’d all be chatting and getting to know each other.”

She added: “It felt like the old days in that you would go in and sit around a little bar heater, because we were in freezing old country houses. More and more these days, we’re all on our phones, but this was a job where we all sat around, running our lines, having a natter and actually getting to know each other. Oh God, I’m turning into my grandmother. ‘On their phones!’” she laughs.

“But when I look back over my career, I’ve had some of the best times ever working with some incredible actors and if I’d been sat there on my phone, I wouldn’t have had those experiences with [actors like] Maggie Smith. Being together on set every day for lots and lots of hours – that’s a big part of creating a show together, and I think it does translate to the screen.”

Miss Austen will air on BBC One Sunday 2 February at 9:05pm, and the full series will be available on BBC iPlayer the same day.

Images: BBC/Robert Viglasky