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Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV serial)
Encyclopedia
Pride and Prejudice is a six-episode 1995 British
television drama, adapted by Andrew Davies
from Jane Austen
's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice
. Jennifer Ehle
and Colin Firth
starred as Elizabeth Bennet
and Mr. Darcy. Produced by Sue Birtwistle
and directed by Simon Langton, the serial was a BBC
production with additional funding from the American
A&E Network
. BBC One
originally broadcast the 55-minute episodes from 24 September to 29 October in 1995. The A&E Network aired the serial in double episodes on three consecutive nights beginning 14 January 1996.
Set in England in the early 19th century, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's (Benjamin Whitrow
and Alison Steadman
) five unmarried daughters (Susannah Harker
, Jennifer Ehle, Lucy Briers
, Polly Maberly
, Julia Sawalha
) after the rich and eligible Mr. Bingley (Crispin Bonham-Carter
) and his status-conscious friend, Mr. Darcy, have moved into their neighbourhood. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Darcy has difficulty adapting to local society and repeatedly clashes with the second-eldest Bennet daughter, Elizabeth. The New York Times
called the adaptation "a witty mix of love stories and social conniving, cleverly wrapped in the ambitions and illusions of a provincial gentry".
Critically acclaimed and a popular success, Pride and Prejudice was honoured with several awards, including a BAFTA Television Award for Jennifer Ehle for "Best Actress" and an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special". The role of Mr. Darcy elevated Colin Firth to stardom. A scene showing Firth in a wet shirt was recognised as "one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history". The serial inspired author Helen Fielding
to write the popular Bridget Jones
novels; the screen adaptations featured Firth as Bridget's love interest Mark Darcy.
for the summer. Mrs. Bennet, unlike her husband, is excited at the prospect of marrying off one of her five daughters (Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia) to the newcomer. Bingley takes an immediate liking to Jane at a local country-dance, while his best friend Mr. Darcy, rumoured to be twice as rich, refuses to stand up with anyone including Elizabeth. Elizabeth's poor impression of his character is confirmed at a later gathering at Lucas Lodge and she and Darcy verbally clash on the two nights she spends at Netherfield caring for the sick Jane.
Episode 2 – A sycophantic clergyman named Mr. William Collins visits his cousins, the Bennets. He is the entailed
heir of their home, Longbourn, and decides to marry Elizabeth to keep the property in the family. On a walk to Meryton village, they meet members of the newly arrived militia, including a Mr. George Wickham. When Elizabeth witnesses Darcy's resentment of Wickham, Wickham tells her how Darcy cheated him of his inheritance. Darcy surprises Elizabeth with a dance offer at a ball at Netherfield, which she grudgingly but politely accepts. Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth the next day, but she resoundingly rejects him. While Mr. and Mrs. Bennet disagree about Elizabeth's decision, her close friend Charlotte Lucas invites Mr. Collins to stay at Lucas Lodge.
Episode 3 – Elizabeth is stunned and appalled when she learns that Charlotte Lucas has accepted a proposal from Mr. Collins. When the Netherfield party departs for London
in autumn, Jane stays with her modest London relatives, the Gardiners, but she soon notices that the Bingleys ignore her. After befriending Mr. Wickham, Elizabeth departs for the Collinses' home in Kent
in the spring. They live near Rosings, the estate of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and as Lady Catherine is Darcy's aunt, Elizabeth meets Darcy several times. Shortly after Elizabeth learns of Darcy's direct responsibility for Jane and Bingley's separation, Darcy unexpectedly proposes to her, expressing his ardent admiration and love despite Elizabeth's inferior family connections. Elizabeth flatly rejects him, noting his arrogant, disagreeable, and proud character, and his involvement in her sister's failed romance and Mr. Wickham's misfortune.
Episode 4 – Darcy justifies his previous actions in a long letter to Elizabeth: he misjudged Jane's affection for Bingley and exposes Wickham as a gambler who once attempted to elope with his young sister, Georgiana, to obtain her inheritance. Back at Longbourn, Mr. Bennet allows Lydia to accompany the militia to Brighton
as a personal friend of the militia colonel's wife. Elizabeth joins the Gardiners on a sightseeing trip to Derbyshire
and visits Pemberley
, Darcy's estate, during his absence. Greatly impressed by the immense scale and richness of the estate, Elizabeth listens to the housekeeper's earnest tales of her master's lifelong goodness, while Darcy refreshes from his unannounced journey home by taking a swim in a lake. After an unexpected and awkward encounter with Elizabeth, a damp Darcy is able to prevent the party's premature departure with an unusual degree of friendliness and politeness.
Episode 5 – Elizabeth and the Gardiners receive an invitation to Pemberley, where Darcy and Elizabeth share significant glances. The next morning, Elizabeth receives two letters from Jane, discussing Lydia's elopement with Wickham. As Elizabeth is about to return to Longbourn, Darcy walks in and, upon gradually digesting the bad news, offers his help. When he leaves, Elizabeth supposes she will never see him again. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet try to deal with the possible scandal until they receive a letter from Mr. Gardiner, saying that Lydia and Wickham have been found and are not married, but will be soon under the Gardiners' care. After Mr. Bennet states his surprise at how easily the issue has been resolved, Elizabeth informs Jane about her last meeting with Darcy, including her ambivalent feelings for him.
Episode 6 – After Lydia carelessly mentions Darcy's involvement in her wedding, Mrs. Gardiner enlightens Elizabeth how Darcy found the errant couple and paid for all the expenses. When Bingley and Darcy return to Netherfield in the autumn, Darcy apologises to Bingley for intervening in his relationship with Jane and gives his blessing for the couple to wed. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who has heard rumours of an engagement between Darcy and Elizabeth but wants him to marry her sickly daughter Anne, pays Elizabeth an unannounced visit. She insists that Elizabeth renounce Darcy, but Elizabeth does not rule out a future engagement. When Elizabeth thanks Darcy for his role in Lydia's marriage, Lady Catherine's story encourages Darcy to reconfirm his feelings for Elizabeth. Elizabeth admits the complete transformation of her feelings and agrees to an engagement, which takes her family by surprise. The series ends with a double wedding in the winter months: Jane and Bingley, and Elizabeth and Darcy.
the many characters of Pride and Prejudice, producer Sue Birtwistle
and director Simon Langton were looking for actors with wit, charm and charisma, who could also play the Regency period. Their choices for the story's protagonists, 20-year-old Elizabeth Bennet
and 28-year-old Mr. Darcy, determined the other actors cast. Hundreds of actresses between 15 and 28 auditioned, and those with the right presence were screen-tested
, performing several prepared scenes in period costumes and makeup in a television studio. Straight offers were made to several established actors.
British-American actress Jennifer Ehle
was chosen out of half a dozen serious candidates to play Elizabeth, the second Bennet daughter, the brightest girl, and her father's favourite. At the time in her mid-20s, Ehle had first read Pride and Prejudice at the age of 12 and was the only actor to be present throughout the whole filming schedule. Sue Birtwistle particularly wanted Colin Firth
, a relatively unknown British actor in his mid-30s at the time, to play the wealthy and aloof Mr. Darcy (the novel gives his first name as Fitzwilliam). Birtwistle had worked with him on the mid-1980s comedy film Dutch Girls
, but he repeatedly turned down her offer as he neither felt attracted to Austen's feminine perspective nor believed himself to be right for the role. Birtwistle's persistent coaxing and his deeper looks into the Darcy character finally convinced him to accept the role. Firth and Ehle began a romantic relationship during the filming of the series, which only received media attention after the couple's separation.
Benjamin Whitrow
and BAFTA-nominated Alison Steadman
were cast to play Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth's distinguished but financially imprudent and occasionally self-indulgent parents. Steadman was offered the role without auditions or screen tests. Elizabeth's four sisters, whose ages ranged between 15 and 22, were cast to look dissimilar from each other. Susannah Harker
portrayed Elizabeth's beautiful older sister Jane, who desires to only see good in others. Lucy Briers
, Polly Maberly
, and Julia Sawalha
played Elizabeth's younger sisters – the plain Mary, the good-natured but flighty and susceptible Kitty, and frivolous and headstrong Lydia. Being 10 years older than 15-year-old Lydia, Julia Sawalha of Absolutely Fabulous
fame had enough acting experience to get the role without screen tests. Joanna David
and Tim Wylton
appeared as the Gardiners, Elizabeth's maternal aunt and uncle. David Bamber
played the sycophantic clergyman, Mr. Collins, a cousin of Mr. Bennet. Lucy Scott
portrayed Elizabeth's best friend and Mr. Collins's wife, Charlotte Lucas.
The producers found Crispin Bonham-Carter
to have the best physical contrast to Firth's Darcy and gave him his first major television role as the good-natured and wealthy Mr. Charles Bingley. Bonham-Carter had originally auditioned for the part of Mr. George Wickham, a handsome militia lieutenant whose charm conceals his licentiousness and greed, but Adrian Lukis
was cast instead. Anna Chancellor
of Four Weddings and a Funeral
fame played Mr. Bingley's sister Caroline Bingley (of interest to Austen fans Anna Chancellor
is also Jane Austen's niece by eight generations ). Mr. Bingley's other sister and his brother-in-law were played by Lucy Robinson
(Louisa Hurst), and Rupert Vansittart
(Mr. Hurst). Casting the role of Darcy's young sister, Georgiana, proved hard as the producers were looking for a young actress who appeared innocent, proud and yet shy, had class and could also play the piano. After auditioning over 70 actresses, Simon Langton suggested Joanna David's (Mrs. Gardiner) real-life daughter Emilia Fox
for the part. Barbara Leigh-Hunt
was cast as Darcy's meddling aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, without auditions or screen tests.
's novel Pride and Prejudice
had already been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations, including five BBC
television versions in 1938, 1952, 1958, 1967 and 1980. In the autumn of 1986, after watching a preview of Austen's Northanger Abbey
, Sue Birtwistle
and Andrew Davies
agreed to adapt Pride and Prejudice, one of their favourite books, for television. Birtwistle in particular felt that a new adaptation on film
would serve the drama better than the previous videotape
d Pride and Prejudice television adaptations, which looked too "undernourished" and "unpoetic". The needs of TV scheduling forced Davies to change his original plan of a five-episode adaptation to six. Birtwistle and Davies then offered the first three scripts to ITV
in late 1986 to build on the guaranteed BBC audience, but the recency of the last TV adaptation put the project on hold. When ITV announced its renewed interest in 1993, Michael Wearing
of the BBC commissioned the final scripts and green-lit the project with co-funding from the American A&E Network
. Director Simon Langton and the art department joined pre-production in January and February 1994.
Although Birtwistle and Davies wished to remain true to the tone and spirit of the novel, they wanted to produce "a fresh, lively story about real people", not an "old studio-bound BBC drama that was shown in the Sunday teatime slot". Emphasising sex and money as the driving themes of the story, Davies deliberately shifted the focus from Elizabeth to both Elizabeth and Darcy and hinted at Darcy's role in the narrative resolution much earlier. To portray the characters as real human beings, Davies added short backstage scenes such as the Bennet girls dressing up to advertise themselves in the marriage market. New scenes where men pursue their hobbies with their peers departed from Jane Austen's focus on women. The biggest technical difficulty proved to be adapting the long letters in the second half of the story. Davies employed techniques such as voice-over
s, flashback
s, and having the characters read the letters to themselves and to each other. Davies added some dialogue to clarify events from the novel to a modern audience, but left the novel's dialogue mostly intact.
Twenty-four locations, most of them owned by the National Trust
, and eight studio sets were used for filming. Reflecting the wealth differences between the main characters, the filming location for Longbourn showed the comfortable family house of the Bennet family, whereas Darcy's Pemberley
needed to look like the "most beautiful place", showcasing good taste and the history of the aristocracy. The first location that the producers agreed on was Lacock
in Wiltshire
to represent the village of Meryton. Luckington
Court, which was nearby, served as the interior and exterior of Longbourn during 10 weeks of filming. Lyme Hall in Cheshire
was chosen as Pemberley, but management problems forced production to film Pemberley's interiors at Sudbury Hall in Sudbury, Derbyshire
.
The producers found Belton House
in Grantham, Lincolnshire the best match to Lady Catherine de Bourgh's estate, Rosings, which needed to appear "over-the-top" to reflect the disagreeableness of its fictional owner. Old Rectory at Teigh
in Leicestershire
was chosen as Hunsford parsonage, Mr. Collins's modest home. Edgcote Hall in Banbury, Oxfordshire served as the interior and exterior of Netherfield, Bingley's estate, along with Brocket Hall
in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire as the Netherfield ballroom. The London
streets and coaching inn were filmed in Lord Leycester Hospital
in Warwick, Warwickshire. Wickham's and Georgiana's planned elopement in Ramsgate
was filmed in the English seaside resort Weston-super-Mare
in Somerset
.
The producers imagined Darcy to be dark despite no such references in the novel, and asked Firth to dye his naturally light-brown hair, his eyebrows and lashes, black. They additionally instructed all male actors to let their hair grow before filming began and warned them to shave off their moustaches. Three brunette wigs were made to cover Ehle's short, blonde hair, and one wig for Alison Steadman (Mrs. Bennet) because of her thick, heavy hair. Susannah Harker's (Jane) hair was slightly lightened to contrast with Elizabeth's, and was arranged in a classic Greek style to highlight the character's beauty. Mary's plainness was achieved by painting spots on Lucy Briers's face; her hair was greased to suggest an unwashed appearance and was arranged to emphasise the actress's protruding ears. As Kitty and Lydia were too young and wild to have their hair done by the maids, the actresses' hair was not changed much. Makeup artist Caroline Noble had always considered Mr. Collins a sweaty character with a moist upper lip; she also greased up David Bamber's hair and gave him a low part to suggest baldness, although the actor was not balding at all.
Composer Carl Davis
had been writing scores for BBC adaptations of classic novels since the mid-1970s and approached Sue Birtwistle during pre-production. Aiming to communicate the wit and vitality of the novel and its theme of marriage and love in a small town in the early 19th century, he used contemporary classical music as inspiration, in particular a popular Beethoven septet
of the period. For complete control over the sound, the music was pre-recorded in six hours by a group of up to 18 musicians and was then fed into tiny earpieces of the on-screen musicians, who mimed playing the instruments. The actresses whose characters played the piano were given the opportunity to practice weeks ahead of filming, although Lucy Briers (Mary) and Emilia Fox (Georgiana) were already accomplished pianists. Among the songs and movements that were played in the serial were Handel
's "Air con Variazioni" from Suite No. 5 in E Major HWV 430, and "Slumber, Dear Maid
" from his opera Xerxes, Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca", "Voi Che Sapete", and other music from his operas The Marriage of Figaro
and Don Giovanni
, Beethoven's Andante Favori
, the second movement from Muzio Clementi
's Sonatina No.4, and the traditional folk song "The Barley Mow
". A soundtrack with Davis's themes was released on CD in 1995.
As dancing was an integral part of social life and courtship in Austen's time, many key scenes in the book were set at dances or balls. Choreographer Jane Gibson used a 1966 book named The Apted Book of Country Dances by W.S. Porter for instruction, which included several late-18th-century dances by Charles and Samuel Thompson such as "The Shrewsbury Lasses", "A Trip to Highgate", and "Mr. Beveridge's Maggot". Although these dances gave the mini series an impression of authenticity, they were not correct for the period being depicted, as they would have already been out-dated by the time the story takes place. Some fifteen dances were choreographed and rehearsed before filming began. Polly Maberly and Julia Sawalha, who played the dance-enthusiastic Kitty and Lydia, had three days to learn all of the dances. Three days were allotted for the filming of the ball at Netherfield, whose pace and style designedly focused on elegance rather than the community enjoying themselves as at the dance at Meryton. Like the musicians, the dancers had tiny earpieces with music playing to not affect dialogue recording. Many wide-shots of Elizabeth's and Darcy's dance at Netherfield later turned out to be unusable because of a hair trapped in front of a camera lens, and the editors resorted to close-up
shots and material provided by a steadicam
.
To translate Austen's emphasis on the heroines' subjective experiences onto film without a witty and intrusive narrator, the serial delegates the novel's first ironic sentence to Elizabeth in an early scene. The adaptation instead opens with a view of Darcy's and Bingley's horses as they race across a field toward the Netherfield estate, expressing vitality; Elizabeth watches them before breaking into a run herself. While the novel indicates Elizabeth's independence and energy in her three-mile trek to Netherfield, the adaptation of this scene also shows her rebelliousness and love of nature.
In what is "perhaps the most radical revision of Austen's text", the BBC drama departs from the late 18th-century vision of emotional restraint and instead visualises emotions as a modern interpretation of the story. While the novel leaves both Elizabeth and the reader uncertain of Darcy's emotions, the adaptation uses additional scenes to hint at Darcy's inability to physically contain or verbally express his emotional turmoil. Scholars argue that activities such as billiards, bathing, fencing, and swimming (see the lake scene) offer Darcy to a female gaze; he is often presented in profile by a window or a fireplace when his friends discuss Elizabeth. Many passages relating to appearance or characters' viewpoints were lifted directly from the novel.
The novel's wit shows irony with "unmistakable strains of cynicism, ... laughing at human nature without any real hope of changing it". Laughter in the story, which ranges from irresponsible laughter to laughter at people and laughter of amusement and relief, can also be linked to the sexual tensions among the different characters. Despite their appeal to modern audiences, laughter and wit were seen as vulgar and irreverent in Austen's time. The BBC drama made changes and additions "with a view to exposing a character, or adding humour or irony to a situation". The adaptation comically exaggerates the characters of Mrs. Bennet, Miss Bingley, and Mr. Collins, even showing Mrs. Bennet on the verge of hysteria in many of the early scenes.
In a departure from other television adaptations, the serial expands on Austen's metaphorical use of landscapes, reinforcing beauty and authenticity. Elizabeth takes every opportunity to enjoy nature and to escape exposure to Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine. The most significant use of nature in the novel is Elizabeth and the Gardiners' visit to Pemberley in Derbyshire, where Elizabeth becomes conscious of her love for Darcy. The BBC drama makes nature an integral part of the story in the form of Old England, and Elizabeth's appreciation of the beauties of Derbyshire elevates Darcy in her and her relatives' opinion. In contrast, Darcy's gaze through the window works as a movie screen, projecting Elizabeth's actions for him and the viewer. His participation in the English landscape is his redemption.
on Sunday evenings from 24 September to 29 October 1995. The episodes were repeated each week on BBC Two
. The final episode of Pride and Prejudice had a market share of about 40 percent in Britain, by which time eight foreign countries had bought the rights to the serial. 3.7 million Americans watched the first broadcast on the A&E Network
, which aired the serial in double episodes on three consecutive evenings beginning 14 January 1996.
in the UK in the week running up to the original transmission of the final episode. The entire first run of 12,000 copies of the double-video set sold out within two hours of release. 70,000 copies had been sold by the end of the first week of sales, increasing to 200,000 sold units within the first year of the original airing. A BBC spokeswoman called the initial sale results "a huge phenomenon", as "it is unheard of for a video to sell even half as well, especially when viewers are able to tape the episodes at home for free". The CD soundtrack was also popular, and 20,000 copies of an official making-of
book were sold within days. The serial was released on DVD four times, initially in 2000, as a digitally remastered "Tenth Anniversary Edition" in September 2005, and in April 2007 as part of a "Classic Drama DVD" magazine collection. A high-definition transfer was produced from the original negatives and released as a Blu-ray in October 2008. The HD version has not been broadcast on television, the BBC refuses to broadcast anything shot in 16mm in HD. The same restored version was released on DVD in March 2009. The Blu-ray was released on April 14, 2009.
recommended the opening episode of the serial one day before the British premiere, saying the television adaptation is "probably as good as it [can get for a literary classic]. The casting in particular deserves a tilt at a BAFTA
, Firth not being in the slightest bit soft and fluffy – and Jennifer Ehle showing the right brand of spirited intelligence as Elizabeth." He considered Benjamin Whitrow a "real scene-stealer with his Mr. Bennet", but was undecided about Alison Steadman's portrayal of Mrs. Bennet. Reviewing the first episode for the same newspaper on the day after transmission, Jim White
praised Andrew Davies for "injecting into the proceedings a pace and energy which at last provides a visual setting to do justice to the wit of the book. With everyone slinging themselves about at high speed (the dances, in a first for the genre, actually involve a bit of sweat), it looks like people are doing something you would never have suspected they did in Austen's time: having fun."
A few days before the American premiere, Howard Rosenberg
of the Los Angeles Times
considered the adaptation "decidedly agreeable" despite its incidental liberties with Austen's novel, and named Elizabeth's parents and Mr. Collins as the main source of humour. John O'Connor of The New York Times
lauded the serial as a "splendid adaptation, with a remarkably faithful and sensitively nuanced script". He commented on Jennifer Ehle's ability to make Elizabeth "strikingly intelligent and authoritative without being overbearing", and noted how Firth "brilliantly captures Mr. Darcy's snobbish pride while conveying, largely through intense stares, that he is falling in love despite himself". O'Connor praised Barbara Leigh-Hunt's portrayal of Lady Catherine as "a marvellously imperious witch" and considered her scenes with David Bamber (Mr. Collins) "hilarious".
However, O'Connor remarked that American audiences might find the "languorous walks across meadows" and "ornately choreographed dances" of the British production too slow. In one of the most negative reviews, People Magazine considered the adaptation "a good deal more thorough than necessary" and "not the best Austen on the suddenly crowded market". Although the reviewer thought Firth "magnificent", he rebuked the casting of Jennifer Ehle as her oval face made her "look like Anaïs Nin
in period clothes, and that ain't right". The official A&E Network
magazine summarised a year later that "critics praised the lavish production, audiences adored it, and women everywhere swooned over Darcy. So much, in fact, that newspapers began to joke about 'Darcy fever.'" Commendation for the serial continued in the years following its original transmission.
" to Robbie Coltrane
of Cracker
. Firth won the 1996 Broadcasting Press Guild
Award for "Best Actor", complemented by the same award for "Best Drama Series/Serial". The serial was recognised in the United States with an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special", and was Emmy-nominated for its achievements as an "Outstanding Miniseries" as well as for choreography and writing. Among other awards and nominations, Pride and Prejudice received a Peabody Award
, a Television Critics Association Award, and a Golden Satellite Award nomination for outstanding achievements as a serial.
, Sense and Sensibility and Emma
, the serial was part of an ensuing Jane Austen euphoria which caused the membership of the Jane Austen Society of North America to jump fifty percent over the course of 1996 and to over 4,000 members in the autumn of 1997. Some newspapers like The Wall Street Journal
explained this "Austen-mania" as a successful profit-driven move of the television and film industry, whereas others attributed Austen's enduring popularity and the escapist appeal of her conservative world.
While Jennifer Ehle refused to capitalise on the success of the serial and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company
at Stratford-upon-Avon
, the role of Mr. Darcy unexpectedly elevated Colin Firth
to stardom. Although Firth did not mind being recognised as "a romantic idol as a Darcy with smouldering sex appeal" in a role that "officially turned him into a heart-throb", he expressed the wish to not be associated with Pride and Prejudice forever and was reluctant to accept the same role again. He took on diverse roles and co-starred in high-profile productions such as The English Patient
(1996), Shakespeare in Love
(1998), Bridget Jones's Diary
(2001), Girl with a Pearl Earring
(2003), Love Actually
(2003), and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
(2004).
Pride and Prejudice continued to be honoured years after its original transmission. A 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute
ranked the serial at number 99 of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
of the 20th century, which the BFI attributed to the serial "managing to combine faithfulness to the novel with a freshness that appealed across the generations". Radio Times
included the serial in their list of "40 greatest TV programmes ever made" in 2003. In 2007, the UK Film Council
declared Pride and Prejudice one of the television dramas that have become "virtual brochures" for Britain's history and culture. Lyme Hall, Cheshire
, which had served as the exterior of Pemberley
, experienced a tripling in its visitor numbers after the series' broadcast and is still a popular travel destination. It was also named by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 20 best miniseries of all time.
The serial is often associated with a scene in its fourth episode where a fully dressed Darcy, having emerged from a swim in a lake, accidentally encounters Elizabeth. While many critics attributed the scene's appeal to Firth's sexual attractiveness and vice versa, Andrew Davies thought that it unwittingly "rerobed, not disrobed, Austen". When he originally wrote the scene (it was not part of Austen's novel), he did not intend to highlight a sexual connection between Elizabeth and Darcy but create "an amusing moment in which Darcy tries to maintain his dignity while improperly dressed and sopping wet". The BBC opposed Davies's initial plan of having Darcy naked, but the producers discarded the proposed alternative of using underpants as anachronistic and silly. Since (according to Davies) Firth also had "a bit of the usual tension about getting [his] kit off", the scene was filmed with Firth in his character's linen shirt, breeches and boots. A stuntman, who appears in midair in a very brief shot, was hired because of the risk of infection with Weil's disease at Lyme Park
. A short underwater segment was filmed separately with Firth in a tank at Ealing Studios
in west London
.
The Guardian
declared the lake scene "one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history". The sequence also appeared in Channel 4
's Top 100 TV Moments
in 1999, between the controversial programme Death on the Rock
and the Gulf War
. The New York Times
compared the scene's indelibility to Marlon Brando
's shouting "Stella!
" in his undershirt in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Firth's future projects began alluding to it – screenwriter/director Richard Curtis
added in-joke
moments of Firth's characters falling into the water to Love Actually and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and Firth's character from the 2007 film St Trinian's
emerges from a fountain in a soaking wet shirt before meeting up with an old love. The creators of the 2008 ITV production Lost in Austen
emulated the lake scene in their Pride and Prejudice reinterpretation through their modern-day heroine who cajoles Darcy into recreating the iconic moment for her.
Cheryl L. Nixon suggested in Jane Austen in Hollywood that Darcy's dive is a "revelation of his emotional capabilities", expressing a "Romantic
bond with nature, a celebration of his home where he can 'strip down' to his essential self, a cleansing of social prejudices from his mind, or ... a rebirth of his love for Elizabeth". Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield summarised in the same book that the scene "tells us more about our current decade's obsession with physical perfection and acceptance of gratuitous nudity than it does about Austen's Darcy, but the image carves a new facet into the text".
– in reality the British author Helen Fielding
of The Independent
– wrote of her love of the serial in the paper's Bridget Jones's Diary
column during the original British broadcast, mentioning her "simple human need for Darcy to get off with Elizabeth" and regarding the couple as her "chosen representatives in the field of shagging, or rather courtship". Fielding loosely reworked the plot of Pride And Prejudice in her 1996 novelisation of the column, naming Bridget's uptight love interest "Mark Darcy" and describing him exactly like Colin Firth. Following a first meeting with Firth during his filming of Fever Pitch
in 1996, Fielding asked Firth to collaborate in what would become a multi-page interview between Bridget Jones and Firth in her 1999 sequel novel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
. Conducting the real interview with Firth in Rome
, Fielding lapsed into Bridget Jones mode and obsessed over Darcy in his wet shirt for the fictional interview. Firth participated in the following editing process of what critics would consider "one of the funniest sequences in the diary's sequel". Both novels make various other references to the BBC serial.
Pride and Prejudice writer Andrew Davies collaborated on the screenplays for the 2001 and 2004 Bridget Jones films, in which Crispin Bonham-Carter
(Mr. Bingley) and Lucy Robinson
(Mrs. Hurst) appeared in minor roles. The self-referential in-joke between the projects convinced Colin Firth to accept the role of Mark Darcy, as it gave him an opportunity to ridicule and liberate himself from his Pride and Prejudice character. Film critic James Berardinelli
would later state that Firth "plays this part [of Mark Darcy] exactly as he played the earlier role, making it evident that the two Darcys are essentially the same". The producers never found a way to incorporate the Jones-Firth interview in the second film, but shot a spoof interview with Firth as himself and Renée Zellweger
staying in character as Bridget Jones after a day's wrap. The scene, which extended Bridget's Darcy obsession to cover Firth's lake scene in Love Actually, is available as a bonus feature on the DVD.
, leaving the other adaptations such as the 1940 film
behind with six or fewer points. The 2005 film was "obviously [not as] daring or revisionist" as the 1995 adaptation, but the young age of the film's leads, Keira Knightley
and Matthew Macfadyen
, was mentioned favourably over the 1995 cast, as Jennifer Ehle had formerly been "a little too 'heavy' for the role". However, the president of the Jane Austen Society of North America noted in an otherwise positive review that the casting of the 2005 leads was "arguably a little more callow than Firth and Ehle" and that "Knightley is better looking than Lizzy should strictly be". The critical reception of MacFadyen's Darcy, whose casting had proven difficult because of the character's iconic status and because "Colin Firth cast a very long shadow", ranged from praise to pleasant surprise and dislike. Several critics did not observe any significant impact of Macfadyen's Darcy in the following years. Garth Pearce of The Sunday Times
noted in 2007 that "Colin Firth will forever be remembered as the perfect Mr. Darcy", and Gene Seymour stated in a 2008 Newsday
article that Firth was "'universally acknowledged' as the definitive Mr. Darcy".
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television drama, adapted by Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies (writer)
Andrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 2002.-Education and early career:...
from Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...
. Jennifer Ehle
Jennifer Ehle
Jennifer Ehle is an American actress of stage and screen. She is known for her BAFTA winning role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice.-Early life:...
and Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
starred as Elizabeth Bennet
Elizabeth Bennet
Elizabeth Bennet, later Elizabeth Darcy, is the protagonist in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She is often referred to as Eliza or Lizzy by her friends and family...
and Mr. Darcy. Produced by Sue Birtwistle
Sue Birtwistle
Sue Birtwistle, Lady Eyre is a producer and writer of television drama. She was born in Northwich, Cheshire, England, and studied drama and English at Coventry College of Education...
and directed by Simon Langton, the serial was a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
production with additional funding from the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
. BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
originally broadcast the 55-minute episodes from 24 September to 29 October in 1995. The A&E Network aired the serial in double episodes on three consecutive nights beginning 14 January 1996.
Set in England in the early 19th century, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's (Benjamin Whitrow
Benjamin Whitrow
Benjamin "Ben" Whitrow is a British actor. He attended the Dragon School, Tonbridge School, and RADA. Whitrow was also part of the King's Dragoon Guards from 1956 to 1958. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981...
and Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman OBE is an English actress. She established her career with roles such as Beverley in Abigail's Party and Candice Marie in Nuts in May for the director Mike Leigh, to whom she was once married. In addition to her stage and radio work, she has had lead roles in The Singing Detective,...
) five unmarried daughters (Susannah Harker
Susannah Harker
Susannah Harker is an English film, television, and theatre actor. She is the daughter of English actress Polly Adams and actor Richard Owens, and the great-niece of Gordon Adams. She was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award in 1990 for her role as Mattie Storin in House of Cards...
, Jennifer Ehle, Lucy Briers
Lucy Briers
Lucy Briers is an English actress. She has received critical praise for her many film, television, and stage roles, including the premiere of Best Friends & Butterflies.-Personal life:...
, Polly Maberly
Polly Maberly
Polly Lucinda Maberly is an English actress who graduated from RADA in 1998. She is the older sister of the film and television actress Kate Maberly; she also has a two younger brothers, Jack and Thomas and one older brother Guy.Maberly is best known for her portrayal of the role of Kitty Bennet...
, Julia Sawalha
Julia Sawalha
Julia Sawalha is an English actress well known for her roles as Saffron Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous, Lynda Day, editor of The Junior Gazette in Press Gang and Lydia Bennet in the 1995 television miniseries of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She also played Dorcas Lane in the BBC's costume...
) after the rich and eligible Mr. Bingley (Crispin Bonham-Carter
Crispin Bonham-Carter
Crispin Bonham-Carter is an English actor and theatre director.Bonham-Carter is a distant cousin of Helena Bonham Carter. He is the son of Peter Bonham-Carter and Clodagh Greenwood. Educated at Glenalmond College, he graduated from the University of St Andrews, Scotland with a degree in classics...
) and his status-conscious friend, Mr. Darcy, have moved into their neighbourhood. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Darcy has difficulty adapting to local society and repeatedly clashes with the second-eldest Bennet daughter, Elizabeth. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the adaptation "a witty mix of love stories and social conniving, cleverly wrapped in the ambitions and illusions of a provincial gentry".
Critically acclaimed and a popular success, Pride and Prejudice was honoured with several awards, including a BAFTA Television Award for Jennifer Ehle for "Best Actress" and an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special". The role of Mr. Darcy elevated Colin Firth to stardom. A scene showing Firth in a wet shirt was recognised as "one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history". The serial inspired author Helen Fielding
Helen Fielding
Helen Fielding is an English novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones, a sequence of novels and films that chronicle the life of a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life and love.Her novels Bridget Jones's...
to write the popular Bridget Jones
Bridget Jones
Bridget Jones is a franchise based on the fictional character with the same name. English writer Helen Fielding started her Bridget Jones's Diary column in The Independent in 1995, chronicling the life of Bridget Jones as a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life...
novels; the screen adaptations featured Firth as Bridget's love interest Mark Darcy.
Plot
Episode 1 – Mr. Charles Bingley, a rich man from the north of England, settles down at Netherfield estate near Meryton village in HertfordshireHertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
for the summer. Mrs. Bennet, unlike her husband, is excited at the prospect of marrying off one of her five daughters (Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia) to the newcomer. Bingley takes an immediate liking to Jane at a local country-dance, while his best friend Mr. Darcy, rumoured to be twice as rich, refuses to stand up with anyone including Elizabeth. Elizabeth's poor impression of his character is confirmed at a later gathering at Lucas Lodge and she and Darcy verbally clash on the two nights she spends at Netherfield caring for the sick Jane.
Episode 2 – A sycophantic clergyman named Mr. William Collins visits his cousins, the Bennets. He is the entailed
Fee tail
At common law, fee tail or entail is an estate of inheritance in real property which cannot be sold, devised by will, or otherwise alienated by the owner, but which passes by operation of law to the owner's heirs upon his death...
heir of their home, Longbourn, and decides to marry Elizabeth to keep the property in the family. On a walk to Meryton village, they meet members of the newly arrived militia, including a Mr. George Wickham. When Elizabeth witnesses Darcy's resentment of Wickham, Wickham tells her how Darcy cheated him of his inheritance. Darcy surprises Elizabeth with a dance offer at a ball at Netherfield, which she grudgingly but politely accepts. Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth the next day, but she resoundingly rejects him. While Mr. and Mrs. Bennet disagree about Elizabeth's decision, her close friend Charlotte Lucas invites Mr. Collins to stay at Lucas Lodge.
Episode 3 – Elizabeth is stunned and appalled when she learns that Charlotte Lucas has accepted a proposal from Mr. Collins. When the Netherfield party departs for London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in autumn, Jane stays with her modest London relatives, the Gardiners, but she soon notices that the Bingleys ignore her. After befriending Mr. Wickham, Elizabeth departs for the Collinses' home in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
in the spring. They live near Rosings, the estate of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and as Lady Catherine is Darcy's aunt, Elizabeth meets Darcy several times. Shortly after Elizabeth learns of Darcy's direct responsibility for Jane and Bingley's separation, Darcy unexpectedly proposes to her, expressing his ardent admiration and love despite Elizabeth's inferior family connections. Elizabeth flatly rejects him, noting his arrogant, disagreeable, and proud character, and his involvement in her sister's failed romance and Mr. Wickham's misfortune.
Episode 4 – Darcy justifies his previous actions in a long letter to Elizabeth: he misjudged Jane's affection for Bingley and exposes Wickham as a gambler who once attempted to elope with his young sister, Georgiana, to obtain her inheritance. Back at Longbourn, Mr. Bennet allows Lydia to accompany the militia to Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
as a personal friend of the militia colonel's wife. Elizabeth joins the Gardiners on a sightseeing trip to Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
and visits Pemberley
Pemberley
Pemberley is the fictional country estate owned by Fitzwilliam Darcy, the male protagonist in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. It is located near the fictional town of Lambton, and believed by some to be based on Chatsworth House, near Bakewell in Derbyshire.In describing the estate, Austen...
, Darcy's estate, during his absence. Greatly impressed by the immense scale and richness of the estate, Elizabeth listens to the housekeeper's earnest tales of her master's lifelong goodness, while Darcy refreshes from his unannounced journey home by taking a swim in a lake. After an unexpected and awkward encounter with Elizabeth, a damp Darcy is able to prevent the party's premature departure with an unusual degree of friendliness and politeness.
Episode 5 – Elizabeth and the Gardiners receive an invitation to Pemberley, where Darcy and Elizabeth share significant glances. The next morning, Elizabeth receives two letters from Jane, discussing Lydia's elopement with Wickham. As Elizabeth is about to return to Longbourn, Darcy walks in and, upon gradually digesting the bad news, offers his help. When he leaves, Elizabeth supposes she will never see him again. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet try to deal with the possible scandal until they receive a letter from Mr. Gardiner, saying that Lydia and Wickham have been found and are not married, but will be soon under the Gardiners' care. After Mr. Bennet states his surprise at how easily the issue has been resolved, Elizabeth informs Jane about her last meeting with Darcy, including her ambivalent feelings for him.
Episode 6 – After Lydia carelessly mentions Darcy's involvement in her wedding, Mrs. Gardiner enlightens Elizabeth how Darcy found the errant couple and paid for all the expenses. When Bingley and Darcy return to Netherfield in the autumn, Darcy apologises to Bingley for intervening in his relationship with Jane and gives his blessing for the couple to wed. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who has heard rumours of an engagement between Darcy and Elizabeth but wants him to marry her sickly daughter Anne, pays Elizabeth an unannounced visit. She insists that Elizabeth renounce Darcy, but Elizabeth does not rule out a future engagement. When Elizabeth thanks Darcy for his role in Lydia's marriage, Lady Catherine's story encourages Darcy to reconfirm his feelings for Elizabeth. Elizabeth admits the complete transformation of her feelings and agrees to an engagement, which takes her family by surprise. The series ends with a double wedding in the winter months: Jane and Bingley, and Elizabeth and Darcy.
Cast
When castingCasting (performing arts)
In the performing arts, casting is a pre-production process for selecting a cast of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance.-Casting process:...
the many characters of Pride and Prejudice, producer Sue Birtwistle
Sue Birtwistle
Sue Birtwistle, Lady Eyre is a producer and writer of television drama. She was born in Northwich, Cheshire, England, and studied drama and English at Coventry College of Education...
and director Simon Langton were looking for actors with wit, charm and charisma, who could also play the Regency period. Their choices for the story's protagonists, 20-year-old Elizabeth Bennet
Elizabeth Bennet
Elizabeth Bennet, later Elizabeth Darcy, is the protagonist in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She is often referred to as Eliza or Lizzy by her friends and family...
and 28-year-old Mr. Darcy, determined the other actors cast. Hundreds of actresses between 15 and 28 auditioned, and those with the right presence were screen-tested
Screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
, performing several prepared scenes in period costumes and makeup in a television studio. Straight offers were made to several established actors.
British-American actress Jennifer Ehle
Jennifer Ehle
Jennifer Ehle is an American actress of stage and screen. She is known for her BAFTA winning role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice.-Early life:...
was chosen out of half a dozen serious candidates to play Elizabeth, the second Bennet daughter, the brightest girl, and her father's favourite. At the time in her mid-20s, Ehle had first read Pride and Prejudice at the age of 12 and was the only actor to be present throughout the whole filming schedule. Sue Birtwistle particularly wanted Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
, a relatively unknown British actor in his mid-30s at the time, to play the wealthy and aloof Mr. Darcy (the novel gives his first name as Fitzwilliam). Birtwistle had worked with him on the mid-1980s comedy film Dutch Girls
Dutch Girls
Dutch Girls is a 1985 film, released by the London Weekend Television Company, produced by Sue Birtwistle, directed by Giles Foster, and written by William Boyd. The film is about a group of young men who go to Holland to play hockey. Along the way they drink, smoke, and try to have sex...
, but he repeatedly turned down her offer as he neither felt attracted to Austen's feminine perspective nor believed himself to be right for the role. Birtwistle's persistent coaxing and his deeper looks into the Darcy character finally convinced him to accept the role. Firth and Ehle began a romantic relationship during the filming of the series, which only received media attention after the couple's separation.
Benjamin Whitrow
Benjamin Whitrow
Benjamin "Ben" Whitrow is a British actor. He attended the Dragon School, Tonbridge School, and RADA. Whitrow was also part of the King's Dragoon Guards from 1956 to 1958. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981...
and BAFTA-nominated Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman OBE is an English actress. She established her career with roles such as Beverley in Abigail's Party and Candice Marie in Nuts in May for the director Mike Leigh, to whom she was once married. In addition to her stage and radio work, she has had lead roles in The Singing Detective,...
were cast to play Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth's distinguished but financially imprudent and occasionally self-indulgent parents. Steadman was offered the role without auditions or screen tests. Elizabeth's four sisters, whose ages ranged between 15 and 22, were cast to look dissimilar from each other. Susannah Harker
Susannah Harker
Susannah Harker is an English film, television, and theatre actor. She is the daughter of English actress Polly Adams and actor Richard Owens, and the great-niece of Gordon Adams. She was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award in 1990 for her role as Mattie Storin in House of Cards...
portrayed Elizabeth's beautiful older sister Jane, who desires to only see good in others. Lucy Briers
Lucy Briers
Lucy Briers is an English actress. She has received critical praise for her many film, television, and stage roles, including the premiere of Best Friends & Butterflies.-Personal life:...
, Polly Maberly
Polly Maberly
Polly Lucinda Maberly is an English actress who graduated from RADA in 1998. She is the older sister of the film and television actress Kate Maberly; she also has a two younger brothers, Jack and Thomas and one older brother Guy.Maberly is best known for her portrayal of the role of Kitty Bennet...
, and Julia Sawalha
Julia Sawalha
Julia Sawalha is an English actress well known for her roles as Saffron Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous, Lynda Day, editor of The Junior Gazette in Press Gang and Lydia Bennet in the 1995 television miniseries of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She also played Dorcas Lane in the BBC's costume...
played Elizabeth's younger sisters – the plain Mary, the good-natured but flighty and susceptible Kitty, and frivolous and headstrong Lydia. Being 10 years older than 15-year-old Lydia, Julia Sawalha of Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...
fame had enough acting experience to get the role without screen tests. Joanna David
Joanna David
Joanna David is a British actress, best known for her television work.She was born in Lancaster, England. Her first major television role was as Elinor Dashwood in the BBC's 1971 dramatisation of Sense and Sensibility followed a year later in War and Peace, in which she played Sonya...
and Tim Wylton
Tim Wylton
Tim Wylton is a British television actor best known for his roles Stanley Dawkins in My Hero and Lol Ferris in As Time Goes By....
appeared as the Gardiners, Elizabeth's maternal aunt and uncle. David Bamber
David Bamber
David James Bamber is an English actor, known for his television and theatre work. He is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.-Early years:...
played the sycophantic clergyman, Mr. Collins, a cousin of Mr. Bennet. Lucy Scott
Lucy Scott
Lucy Scott is a British actress. She is best known for playing Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice.-Career:Lucy Scott has worked as an actress, in film and television since the early 1990s...
portrayed Elizabeth's best friend and Mr. Collins's wife, Charlotte Lucas.
The producers found Crispin Bonham-Carter
Crispin Bonham-Carter
Crispin Bonham-Carter is an English actor and theatre director.Bonham-Carter is a distant cousin of Helena Bonham Carter. He is the son of Peter Bonham-Carter and Clodagh Greenwood. Educated at Glenalmond College, he graduated from the University of St Andrews, Scotland with a degree in classics...
to have the best physical contrast to Firth's Darcy and gave him his first major television role as the good-natured and wealthy Mr. Charles Bingley. Bonham-Carter had originally auditioned for the part of Mr. George Wickham, a handsome militia lieutenant whose charm conceals his licentiousness and greed, but Adrian Lukis
Adrian Lukis
Adrian Lukis, born in 1958 in Birmingham, is an actor who has appeared regularly in British television drama since the late 1980s. He trained at Drama Studio London...
was cast instead. Anna Chancellor
Anna Chancellor
-Family:Chancellor was born in Richmond, London, England, the daughter of the Hon. Mary Alice Jolliffe and John Paget Chancellor. Through her mother's mother, Lady Perdita Rose Mary Asquith, Chancellor is the great-granddaughter of The Hon. Raymond Aquith and the great-great-granddaughter of Prime...
of Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...
fame played Mr. Bingley's sister Caroline Bingley (of interest to Austen fans Anna Chancellor
Anna Chancellor
-Family:Chancellor was born in Richmond, London, England, the daughter of the Hon. Mary Alice Jolliffe and John Paget Chancellor. Through her mother's mother, Lady Perdita Rose Mary Asquith, Chancellor is the great-granddaughter of The Hon. Raymond Aquith and the great-great-granddaughter of Prime...
is also Jane Austen's niece by eight generations ). Mr. Bingley's other sister and his brother-in-law were played by Lucy Robinson
Lucy Robinson (actress)
Lucy Robinson is a British actress working mostly in television. She has had roles as Robyn Duff in the fifth series of Cold Feet, Mayoress Christabel Wickham in season two of The Thin Blue Line and Pam Draper in Suburban Shootout....
(Louisa Hurst), and Rupert Vansittart
Rupert Vansittart
Rupert Vansittart is an English character actor. He has appeared in a variety of roles in film, television, radio and on stage, often playing comic or serio-comic characters....
(Mr. Hurst). Casting the role of Darcy's young sister, Georgiana, proved hard as the producers were looking for a young actress who appeared innocent, proud and yet shy, had class and could also play the piano. After auditioning over 70 actresses, Simon Langton suggested Joanna David's (Mrs. Gardiner) real-life daughter Emilia Fox
Emilia Fox
Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox is an award-winning English actress, known for her role as Dr. Nikki Alexander on BBC crime drama Silent Witness, having joined the cast in 2004 following the departure of Amanda Burton. She also appears as Morgause in the BBC's Merlin beginning in the programme's second...
for the part. Barbara Leigh-Hunt
Barbara Leigh-Hunt
Barbara Leigh-Hunt , Bath, England, is a British actress who has appeared on stage, film, television and radio.-Career:...
was cast as Darcy's meddling aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, without auditions or screen tests.
Conception and adaptation
Jane AustenJane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
's novel Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...
had already been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations, including five BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television versions in 1938, 1952, 1958, 1967 and 1980. In the autumn of 1986, after watching a preview of Austen's Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan was written approximately during 1798–99...
, Sue Birtwistle
Sue Birtwistle
Sue Birtwistle, Lady Eyre is a producer and writer of television drama. She was born in Northwich, Cheshire, England, and studied drama and English at Coventry College of Education...
and Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies (writer)
Andrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 2002.-Education and early career:...
agreed to adapt Pride and Prejudice, one of their favourite books, for television. Birtwistle in particular felt that a new adaptation on film
Film stock
Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...
would serve the drama better than the previous videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
d Pride and Prejudice television adaptations, which looked too "undernourished" and "unpoetic". The needs of TV scheduling forced Davies to change his original plan of a five-episode adaptation to six. Birtwistle and Davies then offered the first three scripts to ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in late 1986 to build on the guaranteed BBC audience, but the recency of the last TV adaptation put the project on hold. When ITV announced its renewed interest in 1993, Michael Wearing
Michael Wearing
Michael Wearing is a British television producer, who has spent much of his career working on various drama productions for the BBC. He is best known as the producer of the highly-acclaimed serials Boys from the Blackstuff and Edge of Darkness , which created for him a reputation as one of...
of the BBC commissioned the final scripts and green-lit the project with co-funding from the American A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
. Director Simon Langton and the art department joined pre-production in January and February 1994.
Although Birtwistle and Davies wished to remain true to the tone and spirit of the novel, they wanted to produce "a fresh, lively story about real people", not an "old studio-bound BBC drama that was shown in the Sunday teatime slot". Emphasising sex and money as the driving themes of the story, Davies deliberately shifted the focus from Elizabeth to both Elizabeth and Darcy and hinted at Darcy's role in the narrative resolution much earlier. To portray the characters as real human beings, Davies added short backstage scenes such as the Bennet girls dressing up to advertise themselves in the marriage market. New scenes where men pursue their hobbies with their peers departed from Jane Austen's focus on women. The biggest technical difficulty proved to be adapting the long letters in the second half of the story. Davies employed techniques such as voice-over
Voice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
s, flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
s, and having the characters read the letters to themselves and to each other. Davies added some dialogue to clarify events from the novel to a modern audience, but left the novel's dialogue mostly intact.
Filming
The budget of about £1 million per episode (totalling US$9.6 million) allowed 20 shooting weeks of five days to complete the filming of six 55-minute episodes. Production aimed for 10.5-hour shooting days plus time for costume and make-up. Two weeks before filming began, about 70 of the cast and crew gathered for the script read-through, followed by rehearsing, lessons for dancing, horse-riding, fencing, and other skills that needed to be ready ahead of the actual filming. Filming took place between June 1994 and 1 November 1994 to reflect the changing seasons in the plot, followed by post-production until mid-May 1995. Scenes in the same geographical area were grouped together in the filming schedule.National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
, and eight studio sets were used for filming. Reflecting the wealth differences between the main characters, the filming location for Longbourn showed the comfortable family house of the Bennet family, whereas Darcy's Pemberley
Pemberley
Pemberley is the fictional country estate owned by Fitzwilliam Darcy, the male protagonist in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. It is located near the fictional town of Lambton, and believed by some to be based on Chatsworth House, near Bakewell in Derbyshire.In describing the estate, Austen...
needed to look like the "most beautiful place", showcasing good taste and the history of the aristocracy. The first location that the producers agreed on was Lacock
Lacock
Lacock is a village in Wiltshire, England, 3 miles from the town of Chippenham. The village is owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust, and attracts many visitors by virtue of its unspoiled appearance.-History:...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
to represent the village of Meryton. Luckington
Luckington
Luckington is a village in north-west Wiltshire, England, on the road linking Old Sodbury and Malmesbury — the B4040. Its name means a settlement connected with Luca.- People :...
Court, which was nearby, served as the interior and exterior of Longbourn during 10 weeks of filming. Lyme Hall in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
was chosen as Pemberley, but management problems forced production to film Pemberley's interiors at Sudbury Hall in Sudbury, Derbyshire
Sudbury, Derbyshire
Sudbury is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, located approximately to the south of Ashbourne. It is part of the Derbyshire Dales district. The £0.5m A50 bypass opened in 1972...
.
The producers found Belton House
Belton House
Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in Belton near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. The mansion is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading to follies within a larger wooded park...
in Grantham, Lincolnshire the best match to Lady Catherine de Bourgh's estate, Rosings, which needed to appear "over-the-top" to reflect the disagreeableness of its fictional owner. Old Rectory at Teigh
Teigh
Teigh is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is notable for its parish church, almost unaltered since a 1782 rebuild, that features pews that face one another rather than the altar....
in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
was chosen as Hunsford parsonage, Mr. Collins's modest home. Edgcote Hall in Banbury, Oxfordshire served as the interior and exterior of Netherfield, Bingley's estate, along with Brocket Hall
Brocket Hall
Brocket Hall is a country house in Hertfordshire, England, from London by road. It was built for Sir Matthew Lamb, 1st Baronet, in around 1760 to designs by the architect James Paine. It stands on the site of two predecessors, the first of which was built in 1239 and the second in about 1430. It...
in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire as the Netherfield ballroom. The London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
streets and coaching inn were filmed in Lord Leycester Hospital
Lord Leycester hospital
The Lord Leycester Hospital is a retirement home for ex-Servicemen in Warwick, England, that is located next to the West Gate, on High Street.-Buildings and composition:...
in Warwick, Warwickshire. Wickham's and Georgiana's planned elopement in Ramsgate
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...
was filmed in the English seaside resort Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...
in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
.
Costumes and make-up
Because Pride and Prejudice was a period drama, the design required more research than contemporary films. The personality and wealth of the characters were reflected in their costumes; for example, the wealthy Bingley sisters were never shown in print dresses and they wore big feathers in their hair. As the BBC's available stock of early 19th century costumes was limited, costume designer Dinah Collin designed most of the costumes herself, visiting museums for inspiration while trying to make the clothes attractive to a modern audience (although some costumes, mostly worn by extras, were re-used from earlier BBC productions or hired from Cosprop). Elizabeth's clothes had earthy tones and were fitted to allow easy and natural movements in line with the character's activity and liveliness. In contrast, Collin chose pale or creamy white colours for the clothes of the other Bennet girls to highlight their innocence and simplicity, and richer colours for Bingley's sisters and Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Colin Firth participated in the wardrobe decisions and wanted his character to wear darker colours, leaving the warmer colours for Bingley.The producers imagined Darcy to be dark despite no such references in the novel, and asked Firth to dye his naturally light-brown hair, his eyebrows and lashes, black. They additionally instructed all male actors to let their hair grow before filming began and warned them to shave off their moustaches. Three brunette wigs were made to cover Ehle's short, blonde hair, and one wig for Alison Steadman (Mrs. Bennet) because of her thick, heavy hair. Susannah Harker's (Jane) hair was slightly lightened to contrast with Elizabeth's, and was arranged in a classic Greek style to highlight the character's beauty. Mary's plainness was achieved by painting spots on Lucy Briers's face; her hair was greased to suggest an unwashed appearance and was arranged to emphasise the actress's protruding ears. As Kitty and Lydia were too young and wild to have their hair done by the maids, the actresses' hair was not changed much. Makeup artist Caroline Noble had always considered Mr. Collins a sweaty character with a moist upper lip; she also greased up David Bamber's hair and gave him a low part to suggest baldness, although the actor was not balding at all.
Music and choreography
Carl Davis
Carl Davis CBE is an American born conductor and composer who has made his home in the UK since 1961. In 1970 he married the English actress Jean Boht....
had been writing scores for BBC adaptations of classic novels since the mid-1970s and approached Sue Birtwistle during pre-production. Aiming to communicate the wit and vitality of the novel and its theme of marriage and love in a small town in the early 19th century, he used contemporary classical music as inspiration, in particular a popular Beethoven septet
Septet
A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry....
of the period. For complete control over the sound, the music was pre-recorded in six hours by a group of up to 18 musicians and was then fed into tiny earpieces of the on-screen musicians, who mimed playing the instruments. The actresses whose characters played the piano were given the opportunity to practice weeks ahead of filming, although Lucy Briers (Mary) and Emilia Fox (Georgiana) were already accomplished pianists. Among the songs and movements that were played in the serial were Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's "Air con Variazioni" from Suite No. 5 in E Major HWV 430, and "Slumber, Dear Maid
Ombra mai fu
"Ombra mai fu" is the opening aria from the 1738 opera Serse by George Frideric Handel.-Context:The opera was a commercial failure, lasting only five performances in London after its premiere. In the 19th century, however, the aria was rediscovered and became one of Handel's best-known pieces...
" from his opera Xerxes, Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca", "Voi Che Sapete", and other music from his operas The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
and Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Beethoven's Andante Favori
Andante Favori
The Andante favori is a work for piano solo by Ludwig van Beethoven. In catalogues of Beethoven's works, it is designated as WoO 57.-Composition and reception:...
, the second movement from Muzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi was a celebrated composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer. Born in Italy, he spent most of his life in England. He is best known for his piano sonatas, and his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum...
's Sonatina No.4, and the traditional folk song "The Barley Mow
The Barley Mow
The Barley Mow is a cumulative song celebrated in the traditions of the folk music of Ireland, England, and Scotland. William Chappell transcribed the lyrics in his two-volume work The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time ."The Barley Mow" has become a drinking song sung while...
". A soundtrack with Davis's themes was released on CD in 1995.
As dancing was an integral part of social life and courtship in Austen's time, many key scenes in the book were set at dances or balls. Choreographer Jane Gibson used a 1966 book named The Apted Book of Country Dances by W.S. Porter for instruction, which included several late-18th-century dances by Charles and Samuel Thompson such as "The Shrewsbury Lasses", "A Trip to Highgate", and "Mr. Beveridge's Maggot". Although these dances gave the mini series an impression of authenticity, they were not correct for the period being depicted, as they would have already been out-dated by the time the story takes place. Some fifteen dances were choreographed and rehearsed before filming began. Polly Maberly and Julia Sawalha, who played the dance-enthusiastic Kitty and Lydia, had three days to learn all of the dances. Three days were allotted for the filming of the ball at Netherfield, whose pace and style designedly focused on elegance rather than the community enjoying themselves as at the dance at Meryton. Like the musicians, the dancers had tiny earpieces with music playing to not affect dialogue recording. Many wide-shots of Elizabeth's and Darcy's dance at Netherfield later turned out to be unusable because of a hair trapped in front of a camera lens, and the editors resorted to close-up
Close-up
In filmmaking, television production, still photography and the comic strip medium a close-up tightly frames a person or an object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots . Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene...
shots and material provided by a steadicam
Steadicam
A Steadicam is a stabilizing mount for a motion picture camera that mechanically isolates it from the operator's movement, allowing a smooth shot even when moving quickly over an uneven surface...
.
Themes and style
Adaptations of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice have been analysed in numerous scholarly studies. The BBC drama received praise for its faithfulness to the original novel, which highlights the importance of environment and upbringing on the development of young people's character and morality, although high social standing and wealth are not necessarily advantageous. Describing the adaptation as "a witty mix of love stories and social conniving, cleverly wrapped in the ambitions and illusions of a provincial gentry", critics noted that Davies's focus on sex and money, combined with Austen's wry, incisive humour and the "deft" characterisation, prevented the television adaptation from "descending into the realm of a nicely-costumed, brilliantly-photographed melodrama".To translate Austen's emphasis on the heroines' subjective experiences onto film without a witty and intrusive narrator, the serial delegates the novel's first ironic sentence to Elizabeth in an early scene. The adaptation instead opens with a view of Darcy's and Bingley's horses as they race across a field toward the Netherfield estate, expressing vitality; Elizabeth watches them before breaking into a run herself. While the novel indicates Elizabeth's independence and energy in her three-mile trek to Netherfield, the adaptation of this scene also shows her rebelliousness and love of nature.
In what is "perhaps the most radical revision of Austen's text", the BBC drama departs from the late 18th-century vision of emotional restraint and instead visualises emotions as a modern interpretation of the story. While the novel leaves both Elizabeth and the reader uncertain of Darcy's emotions, the adaptation uses additional scenes to hint at Darcy's inability to physically contain or verbally express his emotional turmoil. Scholars argue that activities such as billiards, bathing, fencing, and swimming (see the lake scene) offer Darcy to a female gaze; he is often presented in profile by a window or a fireplace when his friends discuss Elizabeth. Many passages relating to appearance or characters' viewpoints were lifted directly from the novel.
The novel's wit shows irony with "unmistakable strains of cynicism, ... laughing at human nature without any real hope of changing it". Laughter in the story, which ranges from irresponsible laughter to laughter at people and laughter of amusement and relief, can also be linked to the sexual tensions among the different characters. Despite their appeal to modern audiences, laughter and wit were seen as vulgar and irreverent in Austen's time. The BBC drama made changes and additions "with a view to exposing a character, or adding humour or irony to a situation". The adaptation comically exaggerates the characters of Mrs. Bennet, Miss Bingley, and Mr. Collins, even showing Mrs. Bennet on the verge of hysteria in many of the early scenes.
In a departure from other television adaptations, the serial expands on Austen's metaphorical use of landscapes, reinforcing beauty and authenticity. Elizabeth takes every opportunity to enjoy nature and to escape exposure to Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine. The most significant use of nature in the novel is Elizabeth and the Gardiners' visit to Pemberley in Derbyshire, where Elizabeth becomes conscious of her love for Darcy. The BBC drama makes nature an integral part of the story in the form of Old England, and Elizabeth's appreciation of the beauties of Derbyshire elevates Darcy in her and her relatives' opinion. In contrast, Darcy's gaze through the window works as a movie screen, projecting Elizabeth's actions for him and the viewer. His participation in the English landscape is his redemption.
Broadcast
Between 10 and 11 million people watched the original six-episode broadcast on BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on Sunday evenings from 24 September to 29 October 1995. The episodes were repeated each week on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
. The final episode of Pride and Prejudice had a market share of about 40 percent in Britain, by which time eight foreign countries had bought the rights to the serial. 3.7 million Americans watched the first broadcast on the A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
, which aired the serial in double episodes on three consecutive evenings beginning 14 January 1996.
Home release and merchandise
The serial was released on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in the UK in the week running up to the original transmission of the final episode. The entire first run of 12,000 copies of the double-video set sold out within two hours of release. 70,000 copies had been sold by the end of the first week of sales, increasing to 200,000 sold units within the first year of the original airing. A BBC spokeswoman called the initial sale results "a huge phenomenon", as "it is unheard of for a video to sell even half as well, especially when viewers are able to tape the episodes at home for free". The CD soundtrack was also popular, and 20,000 copies of an official making-of
Making-of
In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...
book were sold within days. The serial was released on DVD four times, initially in 2000, as a digitally remastered "Tenth Anniversary Edition" in September 2005, and in April 2007 as part of a "Classic Drama DVD" magazine collection. A high-definition transfer was produced from the original negatives and released as a Blu-ray in October 2008. The HD version has not been broadcast on television, the BBC refuses to broadcast anything shot in 16mm in HD. The same restored version was released on DVD in March 2009. The Blu-ray was released on April 14, 2009.
Critical reception
The critical response to Pride and Prejudice was overwhelmingly positive. Gerard Gilbert of The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
recommended the opening episode of the serial one day before the British premiere, saying the television adaptation is "probably as good as it [can get for a literary classic]. The casting in particular deserves a tilt at a BAFTA
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
, Firth not being in the slightest bit soft and fluffy – and Jennifer Ehle showing the right brand of spirited intelligence as Elizabeth." He considered Benjamin Whitrow a "real scene-stealer with his Mr. Bennet", but was undecided about Alison Steadman's portrayal of Mrs. Bennet. Reviewing the first episode for the same newspaper on the day after transmission, Jim White
Jim White (journalist)
Jim White is a British journalist and presenter who has fronted STV's coverage of the UEFA Champions League for the 2006/07 season by accident. He attended Manchester Grammar School and went on to read English at Bristol University.-Writing:White has covered major sporting events for the Daily...
praised Andrew Davies for "injecting into the proceedings a pace and energy which at last provides a visual setting to do justice to the wit of the book. With everyone slinging themselves about at high speed (the dances, in a first for the genre, actually involve a bit of sweat), it looks like people are doing something you would never have suspected they did in Austen's time: having fun."
A few days before the American premiere, Howard Rosenberg
Howard Rosenberg
Howard Rosenberg is a retired TV critic for the Los Angeles Times. He worked there for 25 years and won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In recent years he has written the book No Time to Think: The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-Hour News Cycle with Charles S. Feldman and compiled an anthology of...
of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
considered the adaptation "decidedly agreeable" despite its incidental liberties with Austen's novel, and named Elizabeth's parents and Mr. Collins as the main source of humour. John O'Connor of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
lauded the serial as a "splendid adaptation, with a remarkably faithful and sensitively nuanced script". He commented on Jennifer Ehle's ability to make Elizabeth "strikingly intelligent and authoritative without being overbearing", and noted how Firth "brilliantly captures Mr. Darcy's snobbish pride while conveying, largely through intense stares, that he is falling in love despite himself". O'Connor praised Barbara Leigh-Hunt's portrayal of Lady Catherine as "a marvellously imperious witch" and considered her scenes with David Bamber (Mr. Collins) "hilarious".
However, O'Connor remarked that American audiences might find the "languorous walks across meadows" and "ornately choreographed dances" of the British production too slow. In one of the most negative reviews, People Magazine considered the adaptation "a good deal more thorough than necessary" and "not the best Austen on the suddenly crowded market". Although the reviewer thought Firth "magnificent", he rebuked the casting of Jennifer Ehle as her oval face made her "look like Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories...
in period clothes, and that ain't right". The official A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
magazine summarised a year later that "critics praised the lavish production, audiences adored it, and women everywhere swooned over Darcy. So much, in fact, that newspapers began to joke about 'Darcy fever.'" Commendation for the serial continued in the years following its original transmission.
Awards and nominations
Pride and Prejudice received BAFTA Television Award nominations for "Best Drama Serial", "Best Costume Design", and "Best Make Up/Hair" in 1996. Jennifer Ehle was honoured with a BAFTA for "Best Actress", while Colin Firth and Benjamin Whitrow lost their BAFTA nominations for "Best ActorBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actor
- 1950s :*1955 Paul Rogers — *1956 Peter Cushing — *1957 Michael Gough — *1958 Michael Hordern — *1959 Donald Pleasence — - 1960s :*1960 Patrick McGoohan — *1961 Lee Montague —...
" to Robbie Coltrane
Robbie Coltrane
Robbie Coltrane, OBE is a Scottish actor, comedian and author. He is known both for his role as Dr...
of Cracker
Cracker (UK TV series)
Cracker is a British crime drama series produced by Granada Television for ITV and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The series is centered on a criminal psychologist , Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane. Set in Manchester, it consists of three series which were...
. Firth won the 1996 Broadcasting Press Guild
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....
Award for "Best Actor", complemented by the same award for "Best Drama Series/Serial". The serial was recognised in the United States with an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special", and was Emmy-nominated for its achievements as an "Outstanding Miniseries" as well as for choreography and writing. Among other awards and nominations, Pride and Prejudice received a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
, a Television Critics Association Award, and a Golden Satellite Award nomination for outstanding achievements as a serial.
Influence and legacy
As one of the BBC's and A&E's most popular presentations ever, the serial was "a cultural phenomenon, inspiring hundreds of newspaper articles and making the novel a commuter favourite". Together with the 1995 and 1996 films PersuasionPersuasion (1995 film)
Producer Fiona Finlay had for several years been interested in making a film based on the novel Persuasion, and approached screenwriter Nick Dear about adapting it for television...
, Sense and Sensibility and Emma
Emma (1996 film)
Emma is a 1996 period film based on the novel of the same name by Jane Austen. Directed by Douglas McGrath, it stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Northam, Toni Collette, and Ewan McGregor.- Synopsis :...
, the serial was part of an ensuing Jane Austen euphoria which caused the membership of the Jane Austen Society of North America to jump fifty percent over the course of 1996 and to over 4,000 members in the autumn of 1997. Some newspapers like The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
explained this "Austen-mania" as a successful profit-driven move of the television and film industry, whereas others attributed Austen's enduring popularity and the escapist appeal of her conservative world.
While Jennifer Ehle refused to capitalise on the success of the serial and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
at Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
, the role of Mr. Darcy unexpectedly elevated Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
to stardom. Although Firth did not mind being recognised as "a romantic idol as a Darcy with smouldering sex appeal" in a role that "officially turned him into a heart-throb", he expressed the wish to not be associated with Pride and Prejudice forever and was reluctant to accept the same role again. He took on diverse roles and co-starred in high-profile productions such as The English Patient
The English Patient (film)
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
(1996), Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 British-American comedy film directed by John Madden and written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard....
(1998), Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones's Diary (film)
Bridget Jones's Diary is a 2001 British romantic comedy film based on Helen Fielding's novel of the same name. The adaptation stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget, Hugh Grant as the caddish Daniel Cleaver, and Colin Firth as Bridget's "true love", Mark Darcy...
(2001), Girl with a Pearl Earring
Girl with a Pearl Earring (film)
Girl with a Pearl Earring is a 2003 drama film directed by Peter Webber. The screenplay was adapted by screenwriter Olivia Hetreed based on the novel by Tracy Chevalier. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, and Cillian Murphy. The film is named after a painting of the same...
(2003), Love Actually
Love Actually
Love Actually is a 2003 British romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress...
(2003), and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (film)
# Will Young - "Your Love Is King"# Jamelia - "Stop"# Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get You Out of My Head"# Joss Stone - "Super Duper Love Pt. 1"# Mary J...
(2004).
Pride and Prejudice continued to be honoured years after its original transmission. A 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
ranked the serial at number 99 of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
100 Greatest British Television Programmes
The BFI TV 100 is a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened....
of the 20th century, which the BFI attributed to the serial "managing to combine faithfulness to the novel with a freshness that appealed across the generations". Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
included the serial in their list of "40 greatest TV programmes ever made" in 2003. In 2007, the UK Film Council
UK Film Council
The UK Film Council was set up in 2000 by the Labour Government as a non-departmental public body to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee governed by a board of 15 directors and was funded through sources including the...
declared Pride and Prejudice one of the television dramas that have become "virtual brochures" for Britain's history and culture. Lyme Hall, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, which had served as the exterior of Pemberley
Pemberley
Pemberley is the fictional country estate owned by Fitzwilliam Darcy, the male protagonist in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. It is located near the fictional town of Lambton, and believed by some to be based on Chatsworth House, near Bakewell in Derbyshire.In describing the estate, Austen...
, experienced a tripling in its visitor numbers after the series' broadcast and is still a popular travel destination. It was also named by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 20 best miniseries of all time.
Lake scene
Lyme Park
Lyme Park is a large estate located south of Disley, Cheshire, England. It consists of a mansion house surrounded by formal gardens, in a deer park in the Peak District National Park...
. A short underwater segment was filmed separately with Firth in a tank at Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
in west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
declared the lake scene "one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history". The sequence also appeared in Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's Top 100 TV Moments
100 Greatest / 100 Worst
100 Greatest is a long-running TV strand on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom that has been broadcasting since 1999. The "list show" programmes are generally public polls, and reflect the votes of visitors to the Channel 4 website. However, the results of some of the polls are determined by experts...
in 1999, between the controversial programme Death on the Rock
Death on the Rock
Death on the Rock is a British Academy Television Award-winning episode of Thames Television's current affairs series This Week, first aired by the British television network ITV on 28 April 1988. On 6 March 1988, three Irish Republican Army members, Danny McCann, Sean Savage and Mairéad Farrell,...
and the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
compared the scene's indelibility to Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
's shouting "Stella!
Stella Kowalski
Stella Kowalski is one of the main characters in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. She is the younger sister of central character Blanche DuBois.-In the play:...
" in his undershirt in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Firth's future projects began alluding to it – screenwriter/director Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
added in-joke
In-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
moments of Firth's characters falling into the water to Love Actually and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and Firth's character from the 2007 film St Trinian's
St Trinian's (2007 film)
St Trinian's is the sixth in a long-running series of films based on the works of cartoonist Ronald Searle. The first five films form a series, starting with The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954, with sequels in 1957, 1960, 1966 and 1980....
emerges from a fountain in a soaking wet shirt before meeting up with an old love. The creators of the 2008 ITV production Lost in Austen
Lost in Austen
Lost in Austen is a four-part 2008 British television series for the ITV network, written by Guy Andrews as a fantasy adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen...
emulated the lake scene in their Pride and Prejudice reinterpretation through their modern-day heroine who cajoles Darcy into recreating the iconic moment for her.
Cheryl L. Nixon suggested in Jane Austen in Hollywood that Darcy's dive is a "revelation of his emotional capabilities", expressing a "Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
bond with nature, a celebration of his home where he can 'strip down' to his essential self, a cleansing of social prejudices from his mind, or ... a rebirth of his love for Elizabeth". Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield summarised in the same book that the scene "tells us more about our current decade's obsession with physical perfection and acceptance of gratuitous nudity than it does about Austen's Darcy, but the image carves a new facet into the text".
Bridget Jones
The fictional journalist Bridget JonesBridget Jones
Bridget Jones is a franchise based on the fictional character with the same name. English writer Helen Fielding started her Bridget Jones's Diary column in The Independent in 1995, chronicling the life of Bridget Jones as a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life...
– in reality the British author Helen Fielding
Helen Fielding
Helen Fielding is an English novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones, a sequence of novels and films that chronicle the life of a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life and love.Her novels Bridget Jones's...
of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
– wrote of her love of the serial in the paper's Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones's Diary is a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. Written in the form of a personal diary, the novel chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London. She writes about her career, self-image, vices, family, friends, and romantic...
column during the original British broadcast, mentioning her "simple human need for Darcy to get off with Elizabeth" and regarding the couple as her "chosen representatives in the field of shagging, or rather courtship". Fielding loosely reworked the plot of Pride And Prejudice in her 1996 novelisation of the column, naming Bridget's uptight love interest "Mark Darcy" and describing him exactly like Colin Firth. Following a first meeting with Firth during his filming of Fever Pitch
Fever Pitch (1997 film)
Fever Pitch is a 1997 film starring Colin Firth based loosely on the book of the same name by Nick Hornby.-Synopsis:Hornby adapted the book for the screen and fictionalized the story, concentrating on Arsenal's First Division championship-winning season in 1988-89 and its effect on the...
in 1996, Fielding asked Firth to collaborate in what would become a multi-page interview between Bridget Jones and Firth in her 1999 sequel novel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a 1999 novel by Helen Fielding, a sequel to her popular Bridget Jones's Diary. It chronicles Bridget Jones's adventures after she begins to suspect that her boyfriend, Mark Darcy, is falling for a rich young solicitor who works in the same firm as him, a woman...
. Conducting the real interview with Firth in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Fielding lapsed into Bridget Jones mode and obsessed over Darcy in his wet shirt for the fictional interview. Firth participated in the following editing process of what critics would consider "one of the funniest sequences in the diary's sequel". Both novels make various other references to the BBC serial.
Pride and Prejudice writer Andrew Davies collaborated on the screenplays for the 2001 and 2004 Bridget Jones films, in which Crispin Bonham-Carter
Crispin Bonham-Carter
Crispin Bonham-Carter is an English actor and theatre director.Bonham-Carter is a distant cousin of Helena Bonham Carter. He is the son of Peter Bonham-Carter and Clodagh Greenwood. Educated at Glenalmond College, he graduated from the University of St Andrews, Scotland with a degree in classics...
(Mr. Bingley) and Lucy Robinson
Lucy Robinson (actress)
Lucy Robinson is a British actress working mostly in television. She has had roles as Robyn Duff in the fifth series of Cold Feet, Mayoress Christabel Wickham in season two of The Thin Blue Line and Pam Draper in Suburban Shootout....
(Mrs. Hurst) appeared in minor roles. The self-referential in-joke between the projects convinced Colin Firth to accept the role of Mark Darcy, as it gave him an opportunity to ridicule and liberate himself from his Pride and Prejudice character. Film critic James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
would later state that Firth "plays this part [of Mark Darcy] exactly as he played the earlier role, making it evident that the two Darcys are essentially the same". The producers never found a way to incorporate the Jones-Firth interview in the second film, but shot a spoof interview with Firth as himself and Renée Zellweger
Renée Zellweger
Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress and producer. Zellweger first gained widespread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire , and subsequently received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles as Bridget Jones in the comedy Bridget Jones's Diary ...
staying in character as Bridget Jones after a day's wrap. The scene, which extended Bridget's Darcy obsession to cover Firth's lake scene in Love Actually, is available as a bonus feature on the DVD.
Other adaptations
For almost a decade, the 1995 TV serial was considered "so dominant, so universally adored, [that] it has lingered in the public consciousness as a cinematic standard". Comparing six major Pride and Prejudice adaptations in 2005, the Daily Mirror gave the only top marks of 9/10 to the 1995 serial ("what may be the ultimate adaptation") and the then-new 2005 film adaptationPride & Prejudice (2005 film)
Pride & Prejudice is a 2005 British romance film directed by Joe Wright. It is a film adaptation of the 1813 novel of the same name by Jane Austen and the second adaption produced by Working Title Films. It was released on September 16, 2005, in the UK and on November 11, 2005, in the...
, leaving the other adaptations such as the 1940 film
Pride and Prejudice (1940 film)
Pride and Prejudice is a 1940 film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel of the same name. Robert Z. Leonard directed, and Aldous Huxley served as one of the screenwriters of the film. It is adapted specifically from the stage adaptation by Helen Jerome in addition to Jane Austen's novel...
behind with six or fewer points. The 2005 film was "obviously [not as] daring or revisionist" as the 1995 adaptation, but the young age of the film's leads, Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley
Keira Christina Knightley born 26 March 1985) is an English actress and model. She began acting as a child and came to international notice in 2002 after co-starring in the film Bend It Like Beckham...
and Matthew Macfadyen
Matthew Macfadyen
David Matthew Macfadyen is an English actor, known for his role as MI5 intelligence officer Tom Quinn in the BBC television drama series Spooks and for starring as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.In June, 2010 Macfadyen won a British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting...
, was mentioned favourably over the 1995 cast, as Jennifer Ehle had formerly been "a little too 'heavy' for the role". However, the president of the Jane Austen Society of North America noted in an otherwise positive review that the casting of the 2005 leads was "arguably a little more callow than Firth and Ehle" and that "Knightley is better looking than Lizzy should strictly be". The critical reception of MacFadyen's Darcy, whose casting had proven difficult because of the character's iconic status and because "Colin Firth cast a very long shadow", ranged from praise to pleasant surprise and dislike. Several critics did not observe any significant impact of Macfadyen's Darcy in the following years. Garth Pearce of The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
noted in 2007 that "Colin Firth will forever be remembered as the perfect Mr. Darcy", and Gene Seymour stated in a 2008 Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
article that Firth was "'universally acknowledged' as the definitive Mr. Darcy".
External links
- Pride and Prejudice at bbc.co.ukBbc.co.ukBBC Online is the brand name and home for the BBC's UK online service. It is a large network of websites including such high profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services co-branded BBC iPlayer, the pre-school site Cbeebies, and learning services such as Bitesize...
- Pride and Prejudice video playlist at BBC WorldwideBBC WorldwideBBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
's YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel