Six episodes that converted a generation of new readers to Jane Austen and made Colin Firth, in a wet shirt at Pemberley, the universal screen Mr. Darcy.
Colin Firth as Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy
| Colin Firth | Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy |
| Jennifer Ehle | Elizabeth Bennet (BAFTA Best Actress) |
| Susannah Harker | Jane Bennet |
| Crispin Bonham-Carter | Charles Bingley |
| Alison Steadman | Mrs. Bennet |
| Benjamin Whitrow | Mr. Bennet |
| David Bamber | Mr. Collins |
| Anna Chancellor | Caroline Bingley |
| Adrian Lukis | George Wickham |
| Julia Sawalha | Lydia Bennet |
Episode 4. Andrew Davies invented a moment not in the novel: Darcy returns to Pemberley unexpectedly, has just dived into the pond to cool down, and meets Elizabeth in his soaked white shirt. The shot was filmed at Lyme Park in Cheshire. Whatever was supposed to be the meaning of the scene, it became the most-watched moment of any Austen adaptation. The shirt itself sold at auction in 2003 for £3,500.
The novel barely lets the reader inside Darcy’s head; Davies’s screenplay opens that interior up. Cuts to Darcy alone — reading, fencing, struggling — let Firth play interiority that the page does not name. It is one of the great translations of Austen for the screen.
The production used 24 National Trust properties and 8 studio sets. Lyme Park (Cheshire) provided Pemberley’s exterior; Sudbury Hall (Derbyshire) the interiors. Lacock village (Wiltshire) became Meryton. Luckington Court served as Longbourn.
Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, published 1996, is explicitly a response to Firth’s performance. Fielding deliberately named her romantic hero ‘Mark Darcy’ to invoke him — and when the film of Bridget Jones was made in 2001, Firth was cast as Mark Darcy in a winking continuation of the joke. He went on to play the role in three sequels.
Most Austen scholars consider the 1995 miniseries the most faithful screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Six hours of running time gives Davies the room to keep the novel’s pacing, its letter-reading, and even its minor characters in a way no two-hour film can. Many readers still meet Austen here first.
For a deep guide to the novel itself — plot, characters, themes, publication history, every adaptation — visit austen.com/pride/ · sister site to firth.com.
Five more deep guides to the most-watched Colin Firth films: