Ten million viewers were glued to it: Andrew Davies' Pride and Prejudice

September 24, 2015 5:24 PM

"'I was reading an article in the Radio Times the other day,' says Andrew Davies. 'The journalist was asking, "Why have all these classic serials got to be about the male lead getting his kit off?" And I thought, 'Hey! I started that!'" - Pride and Prejudice at 20: The scene that changed everything, by Nicholas Barber for BBC Culture.

And from the lighthearted and GIF-friendly piece at Book Bub: "5 Reasons the BBC 'Pride and Prejudice' Adaptation Is the Very Best" (Hannah Reynolds)

"The viewer gets to see more of Mr. Darcy in this adaptation than the reader did in the book. In fact, the first episode even opens with Darcy and Bingley galloping across the fields on their way to Netherfield.

"Producer Birtwistle and writer Davies played up the romance and shifted the focus from just Elizabeth to Elizabeth and Darcy. They gave him more airtime than his character got in the book — a wonderful choice that brings the love story to the front of Austen’s tale."

Previously: Tolerable, I suppose.

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (35 comments total)

Colin Firth is the very definition of PHWOAR in that.

I think the copy I rented from Videodrome in Atlanta might be a bit ruined because of the many times I rewatched that scene.
posted by Kitteh at 5:28 PM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

It's art, is what it is. A big fiberglass chunk of art out in a lake.
posted by rewil at 5:35 PM on September 24, 2015

Yeah I mean, maybe it's not Darcymania, maybe it's Colin Firth mania. My Colin Firth mania started with Another Country iirc and hasn't abated.
posted by janey47 at 5:39 PM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

ELIZABETH I AM HOME NOW AND I AM VERY HANDSOME AND ALSO MY SHIRT IS OPEN
posted by poffin boffin at 5:40 PM on September 24, 2015 [14 favorites]

poffin boffin, if I am not badly mistaken, according to the mores of the time that sentence would end AND THEREFORE I AM EFFECTIVELY STARK NAKED TO YOU

Also, that pond water is disgusting
posted by janey47 at 5:43 PM on September 24, 2015 [4 favorites]

*swoon* Untie my laces, Auntie!
posted by h00py at 5:44 PM on September 24, 2015

I only relatively recently saw this adaptation, and I've read the book probably half a dozen times in my life, but when I read it again after seeing the adaptation I was somehow surprised that the lake scene isn't in the book.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:45 PM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

Oh, THAT kit. I was thinking of another one entirely.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 5:48 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

AND THEREFORE I AM EFFECTIVELY STARK NAKED TO YOU


the canonical response is OOH MR DARCY OOH
posted by poffin boffin at 5:52 PM on September 24, 2015 [13 favorites]

So I wasn't the only one who forgot what kit meant in British slang.

Also this made me think of that MTV adaptation of Wuthering Heights from 2003 with the two of them as sexy teens making out.
posted by bleep at 6:00 PM on September 24, 2015

I will be brave enough to admit that Colin Firth actually does very little for me (though I do adore this adaptation!) but I will certainly give even more thanks if this series is the reason we had some swoonworthy Shirtless Poldark Scything on Poldark...
posted by TwoStride at 6:10 PM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

Colin Firth is very nice and all but Jennifer Ehle oh my god Jennifer Ehle is magic with those eyes of hers and that little not-quite-a-smile. Magic.
posted by rtha at 6:10 PM on September 24, 2015 [14 favorites]

This adaptation ruined Pride and Prejudice for anyone else wanting to make their own version. It's impossible to imagine how it could be surpassed.

Lost in Austen put a fun sci-fi twist on it. Seeing Darcy flipping out at 21st century London was priceless.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies could go either way. Comes out next year. Having Lena Headley is a good sign.
posted by adept256 at 6:10 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Oooh, Matt Smith as Mr. Collins!
posted by adept256 at 6:14 PM on September 24, 2015

Why have all these classic serials got to be about the male lead getting his kit off?

That's a Merchant Ivory thing, isn't it? Naked Edwardians.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:26 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yes, betweenthebars, I think "A room with a view" actually started it.
posted by acrasis at 6:31 PM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

From the article: “When women started pinning Colin’s picture on their walls, it was a puzzle and a surprise... 'I never thought it was supposed to be a sexy scene in any way.”

I find that difficult to believe. I did love learning that Bridget Jones Diary was originally syndicated. v interesting.
posted by Measured Out my Life in Coffeespoons at 6:34 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Relevant perhaps to your interests: Pride and Recreation
posted by padraigin at 6:43 PM on September 24, 2015

My daughter was about 5 when I recorded this on VHS and played it endlessly, and she would sit and watch it for great lengths with me. Which I did not understand, because I thought it must seem dry and boring to a child. So I asked.
--Because it has girls, she said, and that was quite an eye-opener for me.
posted by SLC Mom at 6:49 PM on September 24, 2015 [29 favorites]

I own it on VHS and DVD; it's what I watch while grading stacks of +100 aural skills exams
posted by daisystomper at 6:54 PM on September 24, 2015

I actually quite love the 2005 movie adaptation, which was exquisitely abridged.
posted by peripathetic at 7:14 PM on September 24, 2015 [4 favorites]

"I never thought it was supposed to be a sexy scene in any way."

Suuuuure.
Riiiiight.
Uuuuuh-huh.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:54 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

I actually quite love the 2005 movie adaptation, which was exquisitely abridged.

This. Very much this.

But the BBC version will always be the best for us. It has become over the years the house favorite of both myself and Mrs. Mosley to watch when either of us are feeling ill. Very soothing. And for this reason, we always skip past the Netherfield Ball. Too painful.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:14 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

My parents and I are obsessed with Jane Austen and have collected every version of P&P that exists except the zombie stuff because that feels overly apocryphal to us nerds. One year we made it our family goal to watch all the versions sequentially. Then my dad and I spent a lot of time doing genealogical charts of all the characters (and Jane herself), mostly because he couldn't keep track of who was who and I wanted to chart the social network that the story established more deeply. I love the 2005 edition most, but the BBC miniseries is still deeply treasures by my parents and I count watching it with them over and over among my happiest and most precious memories.
posted by Hermione Granger at 10:24 PM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

Colin Firth is very nice and all but Jennifer Ehle....

Thinking back it was a very strong cast generally. Alison Steadman was an excellent Mrs Bennett, but then I really liked Ben Whitrow too, and Julia Sawalha... hard to think of anyone who wasn't really good.
posted by Segundus at 10:39 PM on September 24, 2015

The hilarious thing about this post is that, for a lot of reasons (namely my daily habit of trawling youtube), it's coinciding with my current creepin' on Colin Firth and watching interview after interview where he's effectively ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ at the big deal it's become because he's all like, ... it wasn't.... see-through.... at all...?!??
posted by cendawanita at 10:56 PM on September 24, 2015

We went to the house it was filmed at and swam in the pond. In Regency dress, of course. Don't think it was the same pond as the show.
posted by alasdair at 1:33 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

My Colin Firth mania started with Another Country iirc and hasn't abated.

OH MAN ANOTHER COUNTRY. Colin Firth all young and fluffy! Rupert Everett and Cary Elwes cuddling in a punt and passing lovenotes! A lovely film.

But, I confess: I only watched it after P&P, which is my heart show. My friend and I used to do the creepy Mr. Collins love-wave at each other and then we'd both be mutually disgusted with ourselves.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 5:45 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

The Room with a View scene is actually in the book, though. Davies might be able to rightly claim the first instance of *adding* a sexy bathing scene to a story that didn't feature one originally.

Another Country sounds amazing and I can't believe I have never heard of it.
posted by chaiminda at 6:24 AM on September 25, 2015

Ah, A Room with A View. It is playing at my local indie movie theater in December and I AM SO ON IT.

(there was a not insignificant chunk of sexual awakening when i happened to see that movie at a young age.)
posted by Kitteh at 6:33 AM on September 25, 2015

god bless everyone who mentioned Another Country. I just gave it a watch. I feel like I've achieved enlightenment. Thank you.
posted by cendawanita at 9:41 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I finally watched the 2005 adaptation after reading the Toast's Let's Be Real take on it. The comments on there are great too.
posted by travertina at 10:24 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

One of the comments on that Toast piece describes the 2005 film as "Pride and Prejudice as told by Charlotte Bronte", which is exactly how I have always thought of it, except, in contrast to the commenter, I am much in love with it for that reason. The miniseries is very good, but the film makes me cry.
posted by Errant at 4:01 PM on September 25, 2015

Another Country sounds amazing and I can't believe I have never heard of it.

It is beautiful and heartbreaking. "There's this hollow in his throat..."
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:36 PM on September 25, 2015

I suspect a link to this may well be mandatory in any thread that touches on Netherfield Ball.
posted by Sonny Jim at 1:01 AM on September 26, 2015 [2 favorites]