Pride and Prejudice

Image: Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as Fitzwilliam Darcy

The BBC has adapted Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice for television five separate times, but it is the version that began on 24 September 1995 that is most firmly lodged in the national consciousness. The six part drama was written by Andrew Davies, who injected it with a sexiness that was only ever implied in the novel. It was such a phenomenal success that 100,000 video box sets were sold while it was still on air, while 10 million people watched the final episode.

Producer Sue Birtwistle worked to bring the romance alive for an audience more familiar with soap operas, while remaining true to the book. Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth played Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, at the heart of the story, but the whole ensemble was brilliantly cast, including Alison Steadman as Mrs Bennet. Costumes were designed by Dinah Collins, accurate for the period, but with care for how they would appear to the modern viewer.

Pride and Prejudice proved beyond doubt that costume dramas need not be stuffy and that large audiences would respond to them. Davies went on to successfully adapt many more novels for the BBC, including Moll Flanders, Tipping the Velvet and Sense and Sensibility. The swimming scene in the BBC Pride and Prejudice is so well known that some readers are surprised to discover it does not feature in Austen's novel at all!