to think that the classic Pride and Prejudice costume drama with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is actually...um...CRAP?

[GetOrfMo1Land]

When it came out in 1995 I was addicted as anybody.

But - 16 years later it is very dated and a bit naffola, really.

Really dozy acting in some bits, and all typical twee BBC costume drama. Someone says something mildly shocking and you have the 5-way reaction shots of everyone in the room.

And the but where it goes all misty when Darcy is reading out his letter to Elizabeth is cringingly silly.

It's a bit rubbish really, or at best very of its time.

You leave it alone GetOrf.

I've just finished the book again for the umpteenth time. Yes, there was the odd thing wrong with the TV series but it's still excellent watchin'. I'm saving its next viewing for when DC2 arrives next May.

You can't beat a bit of P&P. Or S&S for that matter (the Ang Lee film version, in case there's been more than one).

How VERY dare you!!!

How VERY dare you OP!!!

I watch the BBC edition at leats once every 2 months - am addicted... naturally

least...

(you, see ... I cannot even write properly.. I am hyperventilating at the mere thought someone might have tired of P&P)

Getorf, I'm very disappointed in you. You've let yourself down, you've let mumsnet down. :(

It should really be one of the commandments: Thou shalt not speak ill of the 1995 adaption of Pride and Prejudice. Nor describe Colin Firth as a pudding. .

GetOrf surely with a thread title like that, you knew what you were getting into? The BBC version is pretty much sacred, didn't you know? At least, that's the impression I got when I first landed in the UK in 1998, it was recommended to me as essential viewing by a BLOKE!

Still, although there's lots to love about it, I thought Colin Firth was utter utter rubbish. Talk about wooden, he was as bad as Keanu Reeves, in, well, everything. Rubbish in Bridget Jones as well. So much so that I couldn't believe it at first when he got the award for The King's Speech. But then, I didn't see TKS so maybe he has improved with age.

Agree about Persuation. Best Austen IMO. I loved the Ciaran Hinds version. And although it's not like the book at all and I don't much like Sally Hawkins, I could watch Penry-Jones for hours

Lizzie is meant to be 20, she tells Lady C that she "is not yet one and twenty". Going on a rapid succession of births Jane can be no younger than 21, Mary 19-18, we know Kitty is 17 and Lydia turns 16 half way through the book (just before her marriage)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that CF is the only Darcy to have captured that mixture of reserve and pomposity with pent up passion. The scene where he makes his ill fated 1st proposal to E is wonderful.

Although Alison Steadman and Julia Sawalha both annoy me, overall it's the best ever adaptation and you criticise it at your peril.

Nobody has mentioned another one for those Austen underneath the duvet with a lemsip moments. Watch Lost in Austen with Amanda Root - was on TV a couple of years ago. Amanda Root plays a P & P addict who suddenly finds herself actually in the world of Elizabeth Bennet. It's bonkers and you need to suspend all logic, but a bit of fun for us Austen addicts.

CF wasn't wooden so much as totally repressed, stilted in conversation, conflicted because he's trying to stop himself getting an erection when he sees Jennifer Ehle's bozoom...

Not Amamda Root - Amanda Rooper. Amanda Root is 48 ish. .

I see my 'pudding' comment has struck a chord!

I stand by it, although I thought he had less of a Steamed Treacle Sponge aspect in The King's Speech. In B Jones, he is a jam roly poly.

I just can't find him sexy. Shudder.

Thanks SWMNBF - didn't check.

Persuasion and the special edition P&P are due to hit my doormat in the morning- squeee!

It's no good acting all repressed and conflicted about getting a hard-on if you don't let in the viewers though, for all you know he could just be suffering from constipation! This is the main reason why I quite like the KK film version, because the viewers get an actual glimpse of those repressed emotions through a clenched hand, etc from Matthew McFad...

Or Jemima Rooper even!

Just watched Lost in Austen last week, I loved it!

Remus, CF is not fat AT ALL!

He isn't my type, I just don't like size-ism. Anyway, Darcy is a rich landowner who would surely not be skinny?

Did Mr Bennett marry below himself socially? I had not thought that, although that could perhaps have been because their personal incompatibility was so stark.

I thought the idea was that he had married his social equal - attracted by her looks, but she was in good standing.
and they had an unhappy marriage.
whereas Darcy wants intelligent, although socially inferior Lizzie, and will be happy because he married for Love and not status.

I disagree that the Bennets were portrayed as overly formal in the 1995 version. Lizzie has plenty to wince about with her mother, for a start.

God, I hated it first time round (had to stop watching it because that woman who played Lizzie was so annoying). The bit I saw of it was utter trash. The old version of Persuasion was better.

LeQueen, agree up to a point, but Mrs Bennett greatly reduces her daughters' marriage chances through her behaviour, e.g. being too obvious and pushy, failing to chaperone Lydia. So she is a foolish realist.

Mr Bennett is foolish too, and perhaps even worse because he thinks of himself as superior to his wife but does nothing to help his daughters.

Age-wise I'd guess Mrs Bennett is supposed to be about mid-40s. If her eldest child is about 22 you'd assume she was married at about the same age and would have started having children quite soon after.

I find Mr Darcy's age difficult to figure out. I'm pretty sure that men in that period tended to marry younger women, so I'd have guessed at him being late 20s, early 30s. This reasoning would also explain why the ancient Col Forster has a teenage bride - isn't she Lydia's BFF, so presumably about the same age