Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV serial)

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Pride and Prejudice
Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet) and Colin Firth (Mr Darcy) (Australian DVD cover).
Format	Costume drama
Written by	Andrew Davies (from the novel by Jane Austen)
Directed by	Simon Langton
Starring	Jennifer Ehle Colin Firth
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producer(s)	Sue Birtwistle
Running time	55 minutes (each)
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One
Picture format	PAL (576i)
Original run	September 24, 1995 – October 29, 1995
External links
IMDb profile

Pride and Prejudice is a 1995 British television drama serial, adapted in six episodes by Andrew Davies from Jane Austen's novel of the same name, originally published in 1813. Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth starred as the story's protagonists, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. Sue Birtwistle produced the serial with funding from the BBC and the Arts & Entertainment Network. Simon Langton served as director. BBC One originally screened the fifty-five-minute episodes from 24 September to 29 October 1995. The A&E Network aired the serial as double episodes on three consecutive nights beginning 14 January 1996.

Set in the early 1800s, the serial tells the story of Mr and Mrs Bennet's five unmarried daughters when a rich, amiable young man named Mr Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr Darcy, move into the neighbourhood. After sabotaging a growing relationship between Bingley and the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Mr Darcy makes an unanticipated wedding proposal to Jane's younger sister, Elizabeth, who contemptuously turns him down. The New York Times called the plot to bring the various parties together "a witty mix of love stories and social conniving, cleverly wrapped in the ambitions and illusions of a provincial gentry".^[1]

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".^[2] The serial inspired author Helen Fielding to loosely rework its plot in her Bridget Jones novels, whose screen adaptations starred Firth as Bridget's love interest Mark Darcy.

Contents 1 Conception and adaptation 2 Plot 3 Cast 4 Production 4.1 Filming locations 4.2 Costumes and make-up 4.3 Music and choreography 5 Reception 5.1 Critical reception 5.2 Broadcast and merchandise 5.3 Awards and nominations 6 Influence and legacy 6.1 The pond scene 6.2 Bridget Jones 6.3 Other adaptations 7 References 7.1 Literature 7.2 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Conception and adaptation

Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice has been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations, including five BBC television versions in 1938, 1952, 1958, 1967 and 1980. A screening of an Austen work in the middle of the 1980s prompted producer Sue Birtwistle to approach screenwriter Andrew Davies. She felt that a television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice on real film would serve drama better than the last BBC adaptation, which had been filmed on videotape.^[3][4] When TV scheduling demanded the adaptation to be prolonged from five to six episodes,^[5] Birtwistle and Davies offered the first three scripts to ITV instead of the BBC to increase the potential viewership. The project was put on hold in 1986 because the last TV adaptation was too recent. When ITV announced its renewed interest in 1993, Michael Wearing of the BBC commissioned the final scripts and greenlit the project with co-funding from the American A&E Network.^[4]

Although Birtwistle and Davies wished to remain true to the tone and sprit of the novel,^[5] they wanted to produce "a fresh, lively story about real people",^[4] not an "old studio-bound BBC drama that was shown in the Sunday teatime slot".^[6] Davies emphasised sex and money as the driving motives of the plot and the characters,^[4] saying that "Darcy finds himself sexually attracted to Elizabeth before he even knows her. When he does get to know her, he doesn't like her, but he still can't keep away from her."^[7] He deliberately changed the story focus from Elizabeth (in the novel) to Elizabeth and Darcy, and hinted at Darcy's role in the story resolution much earlier. To convey the characters as real human beings, Davies loosened Jane Austen's story restrictions where females were present in all scenes. He added short backstage scenes showing men pursue their hobbies with their peers, and the Bennet girls dressing up to advertise their bodies in the marriage market.^[5]

The biggest technical difficulty in adapting the novel proved to be the characters communicating via long letters in the second half of the story. Davies employed techniques such as voiceovers, flashbacks, and characters reading the letters to themselves and to each other. Dialogue was added to clarify events from the novel to a modern audience, but Davies left the novel's dialogue mostly intact.^[5]

[edit] Plot

Episode 1 – Mr Charles Bingley, a rich man from the north of England, settles down at the Netherfield estate near Meryton village in Hertfordshire in the summer months. Unlike Mr Bennet, Mrs Bennet is excited at the prospect of marrying off one of her five daughters (Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, Lydia) to Bingley. Bingley takes an immediate liking to Jane at a local country-dance, while his best friend Mr Darcy, who is rumoured to be twice as rich as Bingley, refuses to stand up with anyone including Elizabeth. Elizabeth's low impression of Darcy's character is reiterated at a gathering at Lucas Lodge, and Elizabeth and Darcy verbally clash on her two nights at Netherfield where she cares for sick Jane.

Episode 2 – A sycophantic clergyman named Mr William Collins visits his cousins, the Bennets, and sets eyes on Elizabeth for marriage. On a walk to Meryton village, they meet members of the newly-arrived militia, including a Mr George Wickham. After bearing witness to Darcy's resentment of Wickham, Elizabeth is appalled to learn from Wickham that Darcy denied Wickham the wealthy living that Darcy's father had promised him. Elizabeth sees herself forced to accept Darcy's offer to dance at a ball at Netherfield. Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth the next day, but she thoroughly rejects. While Mr and Mrs Bennet are at opposite ends about Elizabeth's decision, Elizabeth's best friend Charlotte Lucas invites Mr Collins to stay at Lucas Lodge.

Episode 3 – News reaches Elizabeth that Charlotte Lucas has accepted a wedding proposal from Mr Collins, but the friends soon make up. When the Netherfield party departs for London in autumn, Jane stays with her modest London relatives, the Gardiners, but she soon notices that she may have overestimated her friendship with the Bingleys. After befriending Mr Wickham, Elizabeth departs for the Collins's home near Rosings, the estate of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, in spring. As Lady Catherine is Mr Darcy's aunt, Elizabeth meets Darcy several times. Shortly after Elizabeth learns of Darcy's direct responsibility for Jane's 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; Wickham misrepresented the truth and concealed his failed attempt to elope with Darcy's young sister Georgiana for her money. Back at Longbourn, Mr Bennet allows Lydia to accompany the militia to Brighton as a personal friend. Elizabeth joins the Gardiners on a sightseeing trip to Derbyshire and visits Pemberley, Darcy's estate, during the Darcys' 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 arrives home and takes a swim in a lake to refresh from the journey. After an unexpected and awkward encounter with Elizabeth, 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, saying that Lydia has eloped with Wickham. As Elizabeth is about to return home 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. Back at Longbourn, 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 about the ease in which the issue has been resolved, Elizabeth informs Jane about her last meeting with Darcy, including her ambivalent feelings for Darcy.

Episode 6 – After a slip-up of newly-wed Lydia, Elizabeth requests Mrs Gardiner to explain Darcy's involvement in Lydia's wedding and learns how Darcy found the errant couple and paid for all the expenses. When the Bingleys return to Netherfield in autumn, Darcy apologises to Bingley for intervening in his relationship and gives his blessing for a wedding. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who intends Darcy to marry her sickly daughter Anne, demands Elizabeth to silence rumours concerning an engagement between her and Darcy, which Elizabeth reluctantly does while not ruling 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 is met with surprise at home. The series ends with two weddings in the winter months: Jane and Bingley, and Elizabeth and Darcy.

[edit] Cast

See also: Pride and Prejudice#Main characters

When casting the many characters of Pride and Prejudice, producer Sue Birtwistle and director Simon Langton were looking for actors who were able to play wit, charm and charisma, but could also play the period. Their casting choices for the story's protagonists, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, determined the other cast actors. The auditioning actors, numbering hundreds of actresses between 15 and 28 alone, performed several prepared scenes in period costumes and makeup in a television studio. Straight offers were made to several established actors.^[8]

American actress Jennifer Ehle was chosen out of half a dozen serious candidates to play twenty-year-old Elizabeth, the second Bennet daughter and as the brightest girl her father's favourite. In her mid-twenties, Ehle was the only actor to be present throughout the whole filming schedule.^[9][10] Sue Birtwistle particularly wanted Colin Firth to play the wealthy and aloof Mr Darcy (the novel gives his first name as Fitzwilliam).^[3] A relatively unknown British actor at the time, Firth repeatedly turned down the offer as he neither felt attracted to Austen's female story perspective nor thought he was right for the job. A personal eight-page letter from Sue Birtwistle finally convinced him to accept the role.^[6][11] Firth and Ehle would begin a romantic relationship during the filming of the series, which only received media attention after the couple's separation.^[12]

Benjamin Whitrow and BAFTA-nominated Alison Steadman portrayed Mr and Mrs Bennet, Elizabeth's distinguished but financially troubled and occasionally self-indulgent parents. Steadman got the role without auditions or screen tests. Elizabeth's four sisters, whose age ranged between 15 and 22, were cast to not look too similar. Susannah Harker played Elizabeth's beautiful older sister Jane, who desires to see only 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 ten years older than fifteen-year-old Lydia, Julia Sawalha's acting experience earned her the role without a screen test. Joanna David, Tim Wylton, and Lynn Farleigh appeared in minor roles as the Gardiners and Mrs Phillips, relatives of Mrs Bennet. David Bamber played the sycophantic clergyman, Mr Collins, a cousin of Mr Bennet and the entailed heir of Longbourn. Lucy Scott portrayed Elizabeth's best friend and Mr Collins's future wife, Charlotte Lucas, while Christopher Benjamin and Lucy Davis played Charlotte's father and sister, Sir William and Maria Lucas.^[8]

Crispin Bonham-Carter was found to have the best physical contrast to Firth's Darcy and was cast as the handsome, good-natured and wealthy Mr Charles Bingley. Caroline Bingley and Mrs Hurst, Bingley's snobbish sisters, were played by Anna Chancellor of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame and Lucy Robinson; Rupert Vansittart played Mr Bingley's brother-in-law, Mr Hurst. Adrian Lukis was cast as Mr George Wickham, a seemingly charming and handsome militia regiment lieutenant with ill-favoured ties to Mr Darcy. 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 beautifully. After unsuccessfully auditioning over seventy actresses, director Simon Langton suggested Joanna David's (Mrs Gardiner) real-life daughter Emilia Fox for Georgiana. Barbara Leigh-Hunt was cast as Mr Darcy's meddling aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh, without auditions or screen tests. Lady Catherine's sickly daughter Anne was played by Nadia Chambers, and Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mr Darcy's cousin who gives Elizabeth important information about Darcy's and Wickham's past actions, was portrayed by Anthony Calf.^[8]

[edit] Production

With pre-production for Pride and Prejudice starting in December 1993, director Simon Langton and the art department joined in January and February 1994.^[10][13] The budget of approximately £1 million per episode allowed twenty shooting weeks of five days to complete filming of six fifty-five-minute episodes, with 10.5-hour shooting days plus time for costume and make-up.^[9] Two weeks before filming began, approximately seventy people of the cast and crew gathered for the script read-through, followed by rehearsing, lessons for dancing, horse-riding, fencing, and other skills that that needed to be ready ahead of the actual filming.^[14] Filming was set to begin in June 1994 and finished on 1 November 1994 to reflect the changing seasons of the plot.^[10] Scenes in the same geographical area were grouped together in the filming schedule.^[9] Post-production continued until mid-May 1995,^[10] allowing for a broadcast in autumn 1995.

[edit] Filming locations

Twenty-four locations, most of them owned by the National Trust, and eight studio sets were used for filming.^[13][14] Reflecting the wealth differences between the main characters, the filming location for Longbourn should show the comfortable family house of the Bennet family, whereas Mr Darcy's Pemberley needed to look like the "most beautiful place", showcasing good taste and history of the aristocracy of the time.^[3] The first location that the producers agreed on was Lacock in Wiltshire as the village of Meryton. Luckington Court, which was in close proximity, served as the interior and exterior of Longbourn during ten weeks of filming. Lyme Hall in Cheshire was chosen as Pemberley, but management problems forced production to film Pemberley's interiors in Sudbury Hall in Sudbury, Derbyshire.^[15]

The producers found Belton House in Grantham, Lincolnshire to best match Lady Catherine De Bourgh's estate, Rosings, which should look 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.^[15][3] 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.^[16]

[edit] Costumes and make-up

With Pride and Prejudice being a period drama, more research went into design than for contemporary works. The costumes should reflect the personality and wealth of the characters. As such, the Bingley sisters would avoid print dresses and wore big feathers in her hair.^[3] As BBC's available stock of costumes for the early 1800s was limited, costume designer Dinah Collin made most of the costumes herself, with inspiration from museums. The clothes also needed to look attractive to a modern audience. Elizabeth's clothes had earthy tones and needed to allow easy and natural movements to reflect Elizabeth's activity and liveliness. 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 the Bingley 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.^[17]

Before filming began, the male actors were asked to let their hair grow and were warned they would have to shave off their moustaches.^[17] The producers imagined Darcy to be dark despite no reference in the novel, and asked Firth to dye his naturally light-brown hair black.^[11] Three different wigs were made to cover Ehle's blonde and short hair,^[17] and Ehle dyed her eyebrows brown.^[8] Make-up artist Caroline Noble and her team of three assistants enhanced the personalities of the characters in the hairstyles and gave beautiful Jane a classic Greek hairdo that was popular at the time; Susannah Harker's hair was also lightened up a bit for contrast with Elizabeth. Nerdy Mary was meant to be ugly, so Lucy Briers was made to look as if she was going through a spot phase; her hair was greased up to make it look unwashed, and was arranged to highlight the actress's naturally sticking-out ears. The fuzzy hair of Julia Sawalha was left like it is for Lydia's lopsided personality. Alison Steadman (Mrs Bennet) had a wig because her real hair was too thick and heavy. David Bamber's (Mr Collins) hair was combed to the side to suggest baldness, although the actor was not balding at all.^[17]

[edit] Music and choreography

Carl Davis wrote the theme music and the soundtrack, which was released on CD in 1995. Davis had been involved in writing scores for BBC adaptations of classic novels since the mid-1970s and approached Sue Birtwistle during pre-production. Davis's score aimed to communicate the wit and vitality of the novel and its theme of marriage and love. The inspiration for the music were small-town music of the early 1800s, and contemporary music of the period, e.g. Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert. Choreographer Jane Gibson was also involved in selecting the music for dances. To allow for complete control over the sound, the music was pre-recorded in six hours by a set of up to eighteen musicians. The recorded music was than fed into tiny earpieces of the on-screen musicians, who mimed playing the instruments. The actresses who played the piano were offered teachers and given tapes of the pieces and sheet music to practice weeks ahead of filming, although Lucy Briers (Mary) and Emilia Fox (Georgiana) were already accomplished pianists.^[18] Among the songs and movements that played in the serial were Handel's "Air con Varizzioni" and "Slumber, Dear Maid" from his opera Xerxes, Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca" and "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 Barley Mow".

With dancing as an integral part of social life and courtship in Austen's time, many key scenes in the book were set at dances or balls. At the end of the eighteenth century, the most common type of dance was folk dance, and many dances were focused on triple minors. The advantage and popularity of three couples dancing was that two couples danced while the third couple would stand still and had time to talk in private. Some fifteen separate dances were chosen, choreographed and rehearsed before filming began. Jane Gibson used a late eighteenth century book called The Apted Book of Country Dancing by Charles and Samuel Thompson for instruction, which included "The Shrewsbury Lasses", "A Trip to Highgate", and "Mr Beveridge's Maggot". Since the characters of Lydia and Kitty dance all the time, the actresses had to learn all fifteen dances over a three-day period. Although the dances at Meryton and Netherfield were similar, there was a difference in pace and style. The ball at Netherfield was filmed in three days.^[19] Many of the shots of Elizabeth dancing with Darcy at the Netherfield Ball were unusable due to a hair being trapped in front of the camera lens, so the only usable film material came from a steadicam and close-ups of Elizabeth and Darcy.^[20] Like the musicians, the dancers had tiny earpieces with dance music playing to not affect dialogue recording.^[10]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critical reception

Gerald Gilbert of The Independent was enthusiastic in recommending the opening episode of the serial to his readers one day before the premiere. He considered the television adaptation "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. Benjamin Withrow is shaping up to be a real scene-stealer with his Mr Bennet, but my jury is still out on Alison Steadman's Mrs Bennet as part panto-dame".^[21]

Reviewing the first episode for the same newspaper on the day after transmission, Jim White believed that the adaptation was superior to the original novel itself. "If you'd never read one of her books, you'd think it was no wonder Jane took sick: it must have been a lot more interesting being in bed than hanging around in that environment. Andrew Davies's take on Pride and Prejudice has changed all that, 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."^[22]

In a review one day before the American premiere, John O'Connor of The New York Times called the serial a "splendid adaptation, with a remarkably faithful and sensitively nuanced script". According to O'Connor, Jennifer Ehle "manages to make Lizzy strikingly intelligent and authoritative without being overbearing. And Mr 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". He however pointed out that the American audience might occasionally find the British production with its many "languorous walks across meadows" and "ornately choreographed dances" too slow.^[1]

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.'"^[11] In a review for the British Film Institute's screenonline, Louise Watson said that the serial confirmed Andrew Davies' status as "king of the TV adaptation" for "breathing new life into classic novels by introducing or exaggerating their sexual content." She praised director Simon Langton for "blend[ing] non-dialogue physical 'action' scenes with rich, evocative period detail to inject the adaptation with energy and vitality missing from earlier adaptations."^[23]

[edit] Broadcast and merchandise

Between 10 and 13 million people watched the original British six-episode broadcast on BBC One on Sunday evenings from 24 September to 29 October 1995.^[12][24] The episodes were repeated each week on BBC Two.^[9] About 40 percent of the nation's television sets were set on the finale episode of Pride and Prejudice,^[6] by which time eight foreign countries had already bought the rights to the serial.^[24] The A&E Network premiered the serial in the United States in double episodes on three consecutive evenings beginning 14 January 1996.^[25]

The serial was released on VHS in the UK in the week running up to the original transmission of the final episode, leading to a huge boost in sales due to many viewers wanting to find out the ending early, despite it already having been available for nearly two hundred years in book form. The entire initial run of 12,000 copies of the double-video set sold out within two hours of release, and 70,000 had been sold by the end of the first week of sales.^[26] The soundtrack on CD was popular, and 20,000 copies of an official Making-of book were sold within days.^[24] The serial has been released on DVD three times, initially in 2000, as a digitally remastered 'Tenth Anniversary Edition' in September 2005, and finally in April 2007 as part of a "Classic Drama DVD" magazine collection.

[edit] 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 (Darcy) and Benjamin Whitrow (Mr Bennet) lost their BAFTA nominations for "Best Actor" to Nigel Hawthorne of The Fragile Heart.^[27] Firth won the 1996 Broadcasting Press Guild Award for "Best Actor", complemented by the same award for "Best Drama Series/Serial".^[28] 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 nominated in the Emmy categories "Outstanding Miniseries" as well as for outstanding achievements in choreography, and writing.^[29] Among other awards and nominations, Pride and Prejudice received a Peabody Award,^[30] a Television Critics Association Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials",^[31] and a Golden Satellite Award nomination for "Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television".^[32]

[edit] Influence and legacy

As one of the BBC's and A&E's most popular presentations ever,^[33][24] the serial is widely considered to have kicked off the ensuing Jane Austen on-screen euphoria, which includes the successful 1995 and 1996 films Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility and Emma.^[34] A 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute ranked Pride and Prejudice at number 99 of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century. The BFI described the serial as "managing to combine faithfulness to the novel with a freshness that appealed across the generations".^[35] 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 served as the location for the external shots of Pemberley, experienced a tripling in its visitor numbers after the series' broadcast.^[36]

While Jennifer Ehle refused to capitalise on the success of the serial and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon,^[37] the role of Mr Darcy unexpectedly elevated Colin Firth to stardom.^[12] The New York Times noted that Pride and Prejudice turned Colin Firth into "a romantic idol as a Darcy with smouldering sex appeal".^[7] Although Firth enjoyed the recognition, he expressed the wish to not be associated with Pride and Prejudice forever^[11] and would be reluctant to accept the same role again.^[12]

[edit] The pond scene

The serial is often associated with a scene of its fourth episode that shows a fully-dressed Darcy emerging from a lake and encountering Elizabeth.^[38] The Guardian called the pond scene, which was not part of Austen's novel, "one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history".^[2] The sequence also made it into Channel 4's Top 100 TV Moments, between the controversial programme Death on the Rock and the Gulf War.^[39] The New York Times compared the scene's indelibility to Marlon Brando's shouting "Stella!" in his undershirt in A Streetcar Named Desire.^[40] In his projects with Firth, screenwriter and director Richard Curtis strives to have Firth fall into the water as an in-joke; this has happened in Love Actually and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.^[41] Firth's 2007 film St Trinian's made several Pride and Prejudice references, showing Firth's character getting tossed into a fountain and emerging in a soaking wet shirt; a dog with the name Darcy also humps Firth's character.^[42]

Writer Andrew Davies did not originally intend to highlight the scene as a sexual connection between Elizabeth and Darcy but as "an amusing moment in which Darcy tries to maintain his dignity while improperly dressed and sopping wet".^[7] The BBC opposed Davies's plan to have Darcy naked, but the producers discarded underpants as unhistorical and silly.^[43] Out of necessity and party because (according to Davies) Firth had "a bit of the usual tension about getting [his] kit off", the scene was filmed with Firth in a linen shirt, breeches and boots.^[44] A stuntman, who appears in midair in a very brief shot, was hired because of possible Weil's disease at Lyme Park.^[43] A short underwater segment was filmed separately with Firth in a tank at Ealing Studios in West London.^[3]

[edit] Bridget Jones

Author Helen Fielding wrote of her love of the serial in her popular The Independent newspaper column, Bridget Jones's Diary, during the British airing of the serial.^[12] Fielding's alter ego, the fictional journalist Bridget Jones, mentioned her "simple human need for Darcy to get off with Elizabeth" and regarded the couple as her "chosen representatives in the field of shagging, or rather courtship".^[45] 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.^[12][46] Following a first meeting with Firth during his filming of Fever Pitch in 1996, Fielding arranged an interview with Firth for her second novel called Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (1999), in which Bridget Jones interviews (a fictional) Firth and obsesses over Darcy in his wet shirt. Firth participated in the editing process of the interview.^[47][48]

When the novels were made into films in 2001 and 2004, Firth found the self-referential in-joke between the two projects intriguing and accepted the role of Mark Darcy.^[12] Although he did not know whether the films would be successful, he hoped to ridicule and liberate himself from Pride and Prejudice by playing a character that was inspired by his old role.^[49] 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".^[50] The producers never found a solution 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 is available as a deleted scene on DVD.^[51] Pride and Prejudice writer Andrew Davies collaborated on both Bridget Jones screenplays, while Crispin Bonham-Carter (Mr Bingley) and Lucy Robinson (Mrs Hurst) appeared in minor roles.

[edit] Other adaptations

Until the 2005 adaptation of the novel by Working Title Films, The Times considered the 1995 BBC series "so dominant, so universally adored, [that] it has lingered in the public consciousness as a cinematic standard".^[52] Despite looser film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice after 1995, most notably Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and the Bollywood film Bride and Prejudice (2004), the 2005 adaptation was only the second faithful film version of Pride and Prejudice after "the famed, but oddly flawed, black-and-white 1940 adaptation, starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier".^[52] Comparing six of the major adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, the Daily Mirror considered the 1995 serial version "what may be the ultimate adaptation" and gave the only other top mark of 9/10 to the 2005 film, leaving the other adaptations behind with six and less points.^[38]

Critics noted the 2005 film's time constraints to not capture the depth and complexity of the television serials,^[53] and called the film "obviously [not as] daring or revisionist" as the 1995 serial.^[54] Joan Klingel Ray, president of Jane Austen Society of North America, preferred the young age of the film's leads, Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, saying that Jennifer Ehle had formerly been "a little too 'heavy' for the role",^[55] while Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian considered the 2005 leads "arguably a little more callow than Firth and Ehle".^[54] Paul Webster, co-producer of the 2005 film, had found the casting of Darcy difficult because of the iconic status of the character and because "Colin Firth cast a very long shadow".^[56] Critics were divided about Matthew Macfadyen's portrayal of Darcy, expressing pleasant surprise, dislike for his lack of gradual shift in his emotions as in the novel,^[55] and praise for his matching the insecure and sensitive personality of the book character better than Firth.^[53] In 2007, Garth Pearce of The Sunday Times stated that "Colin Firth will forever be remembered as the perfect Mr Darcy".^[57]

[edit] References

[edit] Literature

• Birtwistle, Sue and Conklin, Susie (1995). The Making of Pride and Prejudice. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-025157-X. 
• Troost, Linda and Greenfield, Sayre (1998). Jane Austen in Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813190061. 

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Pride and Prejudice at the Internet Movie Database
• Pride and Prejudice at bbc.co.uk
• Pride and Prejudice at TV.com