Pride and Prejudice

I have spent the better part of yesterday evening and this afternoon watching this. I am not talking about the new Keira Knightly film of the same name, but the BBC six-part dramatisation that is now ten years old.

The attention to period detail on this is impressive (not that I am an expert) and the love story is told delicately and is part of other stories that befall the Bennett family of Longbourne. The characters are portrayed realistically, although some are caricatures, but then we have to be sure about who are too like and who we are too dislike! The cast is well acted, and some of the minor cast members are now established actors (such as Emilia Fox and Lucy Davis) on British TV and, of course, Colin Firth has never needed to look back and is the eponymous Mr Darcy (inspiring Helen Fielding to recreate the character for the Bridget Jones books, who Firth ended up playing in the films).

I have not read the book, so cannot comment first hand as to how much justice this dramatisation has done it, but it was a very enjoyable way to spend six hours! The book certainly has inspired many other authors and screen writers to use the story as a basis for other books and films, but this is the original.