The Other Bennet Sister premieres on BritBox today, finally introducing Anglophiles stateside to one of the BBC’s biggest recent hits.

**Spoilers for The Other Bennet Sister Episodes 1-3, now streaming on BritBox**

Based on the novel by Janice Hadlow, The Other Bennet Sister starts off as a retelling of Jane Austen‘s Pride & Prejudice from overlooked middle sister Mary Bennet’s (Ella Bruccoleri) point-of-view. Soon, we’re following Mary as she moves to London and encounters a dashing pair of potential suitors, Tom Hayward (Dónal Finn) and Charles Ryder (Laurie Davidson).

Even though The Other Bennet Sister only premiered this morning on BritBox, American Austen fans might already be familiar with Mary’s love interests thanks to several viral clips that have made their way from across the pond via TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms.

One of these viral moments? Mary ogling Tom Hayward’s forearms as he rolls up his sleeves to teach her how to play the game graces. The BBC’s own Instagram account described the scene as a “thirst trap.”

When The Other Bennet Sisters stars Dónal Finn and Laurie Davidson swung by DECIDER HQ last week, we asked Finn if the moment was carefully choreographed or purely spontaneous.

“Jesus, no, I wish it was more choreographed,” Finn said, chuckling. “The note that we got from our brilliant block one director, Jen Sheridan, was like… They’re actually quite awkward sleeves. So she was like, ‘Can you just make this happen as fast as you can?’ Because it would take me so long to roll them up.”

Finn then revealed that Sheridan was convinced that viewers would latch onto the moment in the way that it has, even if he was skeptical.

“She did say, ‘You know, this is going to be a moment.’ And I think people have said that about other parts of the show or whatever,” Finn said. “So I was like, ‘Yeah, it’ll be a moment like anything else. The whole show is a moment or whatever.’ But I mean, yeah, it was weird. She was right.”

“And you have not rolled them down since,” Laurie Davidson quipped, noting that Finn’s shirt sleeves were rolled up once again for our interview.

“I have not. Yeah, no, even in the very cold spring of London, I’m constantly short-sleeved now.” 

“Just as you should be,” Davidson said.

The Other Bennet Sister‘s ten-episode-long run is full of these delightful moments and the stars have been made well-aware of their impact on the show’s international audience. Finn shared that he’s actually gotten messages about another scene later in the series, wherein Mary and Tom trade their best birdcall impressions.

“Someone invited me to do… They were like, ‘This is day one of me asking you to come to my housewarming to do bird noises,'” Finn said. “Which is great because they haven’t actually done the thing where they’ve like messaged again, being like, ‘This is day two of me asking.'”

“I mean it’s obviously been really well received just through the BBC and their stats of the show on iPlayer and stuff,” he said. “So we hope it has as much love in the States.”

The first three episodes of The Other Bennet Sister are now streaming on BritBox. Subsequent episodes will drop weekly on Wednesdays.