Pride & Prejudice


RUN TIME: UK - 327 Minutes US - 300 Minutes	AKA: Buszkeseg es balitelet - Hungary Stolthed og fordom - Denmark Stolthet och fordom - Sweden Stolz und Vorurteil - Germany Ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo - Finland

FILMING LOCATIONS: Belton House, Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, UK (Rosings) Brocket Hall, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, UK (Netherfield ball room) Chapel Street, Longnor, Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK (Lambton Inn exterior) Edgcote Hall, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, UK (Netherfield interior and exterior) Lacock, Wiltshire, England, UK (the village Meryton, exterior) Lord Leycester Hospital, Warwick, Warwickshire, England, UK (London streets and coaching inn, exteriors) Luckington Court, Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, UK (Longbourn interior and exterior) Lyme Park, Disley, Stockport, Cheshire, England, UK (Pemberley exterior) Old Rectory, Teigh Oakham, Leicestershire, England, UK (Hunsford Parsonage) Oxfordshire, England, UK Sudbury Hall, Sudbury, Derbyshire, England, UK (Pemberley interior) The Roaches, Leek, Staffordshire, England, UK Wiltshire, England, UK near, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, UK (Ramsgate exterior)

DIRECTOR: Simon Langton	WRITER: Andrew Davies
PRODUCER: Sue Birtwistle, Julie Scott, Michael Wearing	CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Kenway

Cast - in credits order Colin Firth ... Fitzwilliam Darcy Jennifer Ehle ... Elizabeth Bennet David Bamber ... Mr. Collins Crispin Bonham-Carter ... Mr. (Charles) Bingley Anna Chancellor ... Miss (Caroline) Bingley Susannah Harker ... Jane Bennet Barbara Leigh-Hunt ... Lady Catherine de Bourgh Adrian Lukis ... Wickham Julia Sawalha ... Lydia Bennet Alison Steadman ... Mrs. (Mary Gardiner) Bennet Benjamin Whitrow ... Mr. Bennet Roger Barclay ... Capt. Carter David Bark-Jones ... Lt. Denny Sam Beazley ... Vicar Christopher Benjamin ... Sir William Lucas Lucy Briers ... Mary Bennet Anthony Calf ... Col. Fitzwilliam Jacob Casselden ... Robert Gardiner Nadia Chambers ... Miss Anne de Bourgh Joanna David ... Mrs. Gardiner Lucy Davis ... Maria Lucas Harriet Eastcott ... Mrs. Jenkinson Julian Erleigh ... William Gardiner Lynn Farleigh ... Mrs. Phillips Marie-Louise Flamank ... Kate Gardiner Emilia Fox ... Georgiana Darcy Andrew Grainger ... Ostler Victoria Hamilton ... Mrs. Forster Roy Holder ... Hodge (the gardener) Alexandra Howerd ... Mary King Natasha Isaacs ... Alice Gardiner Sarah Legg ... Hannah (serving girl) Polly Maberly ... Kitty Bennet Paul Moriarty ... Col. Forster Peter Needham ... Fencing master Kate O'Malley ... Sarah (maid) Neville Phillips ... Fossett (footman) Lucy Robinson ... Mrs. Hurst Lucy Scott ... Charlotte Lucas Marlene Sidaway ... Hill (housekeeper) Christopher Staines ... Lt. Sanderson Norma Streader ... Lady Lucas Annabel Taylor ... Maggie (maid) Bridget Turner ... Mrs. Reynolds Rupert Vansittart ... Mr. Hurst Lee Walters ... Waiter Tom Ward ... Lt. Chamberlayne Tim Wylton ... Mr. Gardiner Sam Bloom ... Young Wickham (uncredited)	Production Companies A&E Television Networks Inc. BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Distributors A&E Television Networks Inc. (USA) BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) (original airing) Technical Specifications Color info: Color Sound mix: Stereo

MUSIC: 1. Pride and Prejudice 2. Dance Montage 3. Elizabeth Observed 4. Piano Summary [Episode 1] 5. Canon Collins 6. Piano Summary [Episode 2] 7. The Gardiners 8. Winter into Spring 9. Parting 10. Rosings 11. Piano Summary [Episode 3] 12. Telling the Truth 13. Farewell to the Regiment 14. Pemberley 15. Darcy Returns 16. Piano Summary [Episode 4] 17. Thinking About Lizzy 18. Lydia's Elopement 19. Piano Summary [Episode 5] 20. Lydia's Wedding 21. Return of Bingley 22. Darcy's Second Proposal 23. Double Wedding 24. Finale

I don't know how to improve on perfection, do you? The perfect cast, the perfect locales, the perfection of the costuming, cinematography, score and adaptation of a classic. This novel has been filmed repeatedly over the decades and all fell short. They got the characters wrong, or they were either too stiff or too informal in the presentation. The costuming was always horrible and excuse me, but they always got Darcy wrong, wrong, wrong. Okay, so maybe I'm biased, but I do believe the gentleman was described as handsome. This was strike one in every other production until Colin Firth took it on. Well, maybe Laurence Olivier wasn't so bad looking in his turn, but the movie was a dud. Too much left out and the script otherwise was too short. This is not a novel to be adapted for the big screen unless you want to do the whole thing. You can't water it down, it loses too much. This leaves me to want to ask Working Title Films what the hell they are doing. Even in two or three hours, it isn't going to work. (Casting aside, which is basically appalling anyway.)

I first read this novel at the age of fourteen (back before the earth's crust cooled) and was taken in by the character of Darcy. I seemed to see the storyline from his point of view, never Elizabeth's; even if she was telling the story. That is to say, it's her story. I always felt Darcy was out-of-place, or felt so in social situations. To this end he put on this 'proud' facade. Well, I never saw a production done so, nor any actor take the role on from that point of view. I would have to go back and re-read the novel, though I always came away with the same feelings for the character. I always saw complete arrogance in the film interpretations...until this one. Here was an actor that had gotten it right. Or perhaps we can credit the screenwriters. In any case, Colin Firth played it the only way it ever should have been.

I do lean towards a miscast for Wickham. He was supposed to be as handsome or more so? than Darcy. I'm not criticizing Adrian Lukis, he did a superb job in the role, the looks just weren't there. From the creepy Mr. Collins to the pathetic Caroline Bingley to the overbearing Lady Catherine I could never have imagined such a wonderful recitation of this masterpiece. The characters were true to their inventor and to the tome itself. The story unfolded and flowed elegantly across my television screen for all six parts, it left you wanting more. My one criticism here was that they cut the ending all too short. The revelations about Darcy to the Bennet's; the dinners where Lizzy and Darcy first, don't know what is going on with each other then have to hide how they feel about one another (for a time) after the second proposal, but you can't have everything.

So much has been said; so much has been written on this series I hardly have to go into more detail, so I will leave it here with these final words - Perfection Personified.