High-Energy Period Drama: Pride and Prejudice

In 1986, the veteran producer Sue Birtwistle confided in screenwriter Andrew Davies that she would love to adapt Pride and Prejudice ‘and make it look like a fresh, lively story about real people. And make it clear that, though it’s about many things, it’s principally about sex and it’s about money: those are the driving motives of the plot.’ Davies achieved this goal in part by emphasizing Mr. Darcy’s point of view, most famously when he dives into a lake at Pemberley to cool his tumultuous feelings, only to unexpectedly encounter Elizabeth while still informally dressed.

Ardent fans of this adaptation are likely to cite, as its most memorable elements, Colin Firth’s indelible performance as Darcy and Jennifer Ehle’s as Elizabeth. Yet excellence infuses every aspect of the production. Viewers are drawn in by an appealing soundtrack composed by Carl Davis, featuring fortepianist Melvyn Tan. An unprecedented budget made possible production values never before available to a BBC Austen adaptation. Director Simon Langton shot on film rather than videotape and made extensive use of period locations. The generous six-episode format allowed Davies, he recalls, ‘to be really filmic with the letters, and show those events that Jane Austen alludes to as little flashback or invented scenes.’

Pride and Prejudice was a sensation from its initial broadcast, as Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, itself a loose adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, acknowledges. ‘Just nipped out for fags prior to getting changed ready for BBC Pride and Prejudice,’ writes Bridget on 15 October 1995. ‘Love the nation being so addicted.’