I have now watched the two 1996 versions of EMMA, the Gwyneth Paltrow one (yuch!) and the A&R/BBC version with Kate Beckinsale, which I think has the best cast, and as I watched it, I kept wishing this cast was doing the 4-hour 2009 adaptation. The only person I think is better in the new version than in any other is Rupert Evans as Frank Churchill. Ewan MacGregor looks terrible in that wig and the A&E actor looks like a MacGregor impersonator.
I much prefer Beckinsale to Romola Garai and I think Gwyneth Paltrow is photographed unflatteringly; some of her hairstyles are truly scary, and I think she looks too old. I really like Mark Strong over Jonny Lee Miller as Knightley, but I think both are preferable to Jeremy Northam, who's a little too coy and cute for my taste. I love Toni Colette, who's very good but I think she looks far too old and husky as the waif Harriet Smith; Samantha Morton in the A&E version is the best Harriet and the actreess from the new one is alsoreally goodin the role. As to the horrible Mrs Elton, it's A&E hands down with Lucy Robinson, and maybe Juliet Stevenson coming in second in the Paltrow version. The Paltrow movie is longer than the A&E, but Andrew Davies, who did the screenplay for the Jennifer Ehle-Colin Firth PRIDE & PREJUDICE, gets more of the novel into his adaptation. I think I have to watch P&P again now.
I also liked the use of the servants in the A&E rendition: they hardly exist in the Paltrow version, and in the A&E they're seen doing all the work while the upper classes laze about and make fools of themselves and each other.