The sight of Colin Firth’s chest-rippling Mr Darcy made a profound impact on Britain’s women. Now the BBC plans to repeat the trick with a “sexed-up” Sense and Sensibility.

Period drama is back in vogue after the success of BBC1’s decision to run the Bafta award-winning Bleak House as a prime-time serial alongside EastEnders. ITV1 has started a Jane Austen revival after devoting Sunday nights to “carriage and cleavage” adaptations of Persuasion, Northanger Park and Mansfield Park, starring Billie Piper.

Stung by ITV’s ratings, the BBC is returning to Austen in partnership with Andrew Davies, the award-winning screenwriter who reinvented Pride and Prejudice for the 1995 serial, starring Firth.

Davies, whose reputation for adding lashings of eroticism to period pieces is well-earned, promised that his Sense will be “ Sex in the City set in the country.”

David Morrissey, Dominic Cooper and Dan Stevens star in a take on Austen’s tale of thwarted romance that the BBC unashamedly says will be “one for the ladies”.

But it will not be for younger viewers, according to Davies. He said: “The novel is as much about sex and money as social conventions. This drama is more overtly sexual than most previous Austen adaptations seen on screen and gets to grips with the dark underbelly of the book.”

In the story of two young sisters on a voyage of sexual and romantic discovery after the death of their father, the BBC has cast two relative unknowns as female leads.

Elinor Dashwood is played by Hattie Morahan and Charity Wakefield plays her sister, Marianne.

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