BBC made a meal of Jane Austen errors

Period dramas get their costumes right but frequently get eating and etiquette wrong, according to a food historian.

Death Comes To Pemberley, the Pride and Prejudice sequel written by PD James and shown at Christmas on the BBC, was a particular offender.

Pen Vogler, author of Dinner With Mr Darcy, said: "You wouldn't make a documentary or film in Italy and not try to make it look Italian.

"So in the same way, if you do something set in 1806 or 1816 you should try and make it look as much so as you can, and not just the costumes.

"Etiquette is one of the things people got wrong on telly. Death Comes To Pemberley got the etiquette completely wrong.

"Men and women going out of the dining room arm in arm – that might have happened in Victorian times but not in Georgian times, when the ladies would proceed by rank and then the gentlemen would follow in the same hierarchy.

"And in Death Comes To Pemberley they finished dinner at 9pm. In those times, and in that kind of house, they would have eaten no later than 6pm and they wouldn't have spent three hours having dinner.