This comedy romance directed by Dennie Gordon is based on a play entitled The Reluctant Debutante by William Douglas-Home, who also wrote the screenplay; this film was released in 1958. What a Girl Wants is therefore a modernised remake of The Reluctant Debutante. It tells the tale of 17 year old teenager, Daphne Reynolds (Amanda Bynes) from New York who seemingly has everything a girl could want, but she has never known her father, Lord Henry Dashwood (Colin Firth). She knows he is English and that his family were wealthy and deemed her mother an unsuitable match for him, but that is all. On a whim she journeys to England to find him and discovers he is a successful politician up for re-election. Whilst Henry is pleased to accept her, the scandal threatens his career, and his fiancée and her daughter are certainly not welcoming. In fact they do all they can to sabotage Daphne’s efforts to be accepted. She enlists the help of Ian Wallace (Oliver James), a high society musician, but releases that the person she is becoming is not someone she likes and goes home. Henry however takes it upon himself to follow.

Release / Airing: 08/08/2003