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.

CF story please.

Mary / Mr Collins is not in the book.
And he as the heir would only consider an eldest daughter

1980 version does not have Derbyshire in it

the Lady Katherine / Elizabeth refusal scene is a BELTER in the 1996

Come on bibs!

I've never watched it,but then I hated the book. I'll have to give it a try.

The score for the BBC version sets it apart from anything before or since. It's still my favourite. The reason we all loved it at time was because the previous 2 versions were appalling! The film with Greer Garson, and the original BBC wooden version (70s I think) with Elizabeth Garvie. KK version shite as well IMO.

Talkin Peace the Lady Katherine/Elizabeth refusal scene always makes me as Lady K reminds me of my MIL.

Not in a bad way, MIL is mostly lovely, but in the way that she speaks. MIL often asks me to "send my regards to your mother"!

"[Mr Collins] as the heir would only consider an eldest daughter"

but he proposed to Elizabeth.

Has anyone seen David Bamber (Mr Collins) as Cicero in "Rome"? He played it in exactly the same pursed-mouth, prissy, twee sort of way, and it was perfect. I was delighted when I recognised it was the same actor!

And he redeemed it, by getting Cicero to die with a dignity Mr Collins would never have achieved.

Incidentally, Charlotte Lucas/Collins gets her redemption of pathos in the mashup "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" (although the rest of that "adaptation" was rubbish, so I didn't even bother with "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters").

I love this version.
I've watched it again recently, and it is still brilliant.
al the better for being slightly dated, because I think it shows off the period better.

the film version with Knightley in it was bloody dreadful.

he only propsed to ELizabeth because he knew that Jane was out of the picture.
(well, shewas at the time)

he even said somethign to that effect - that he was settling for second best.

But, but, what about Colin Firth. Where's bibs? :(

YABVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVU.

The only thing is Wickham and Jane should both be more attractive. Lady Catherine is ace, as is Mr Collins.

Colin Firth is a lardy and has that weird hair thing going on that Helen Fielding so wonderfully describes in BJ (the bushy hair springing from a side parting or something)

Alison Steadman was appallingly bad in it, she sounded like she was reading from an idiot board, and a bit like ladies of a certain age speak when they are speaking to foreigners. "If I SHOUT it makes me FUNNY!" Dreadful woman.

I liked it at the time, but haven't seen it since so I might be disappointed if I re-watched it...like re-reading the books you loved as a child and finding out they're actually a bit rubbish :(

Yes, Lady Catherine is wonderful.

There has never been a decent film version of P&P has there? That Laurence Olivier version was dreadful.

I suppose a lot goes on to fit in a normal duration film, that's why they have to cut stuff out.

Anything with Keira (you could slice cheese with that chin) is awful. She makes it awful with her quivering.

I normally love Alison Steadman but she was useless.

Yes Mrs B is vulgar, but she isn't a washerwoman, and I think it would be better to portray her not just as a stupid grasping woman, but with a bit of pathos, in that she was so desperate to marry off her daughters well because that was their only option to escape genteel poverty.

A bit like how Gemma Jones plays the Dashwood mother in S&S, silly, brainless but desperate for her daughters to avoid a life of hardship.

It's that godforsaken pout.

It's not much better when she smiles, she looks like Jack Nicholson in the Shining (just before he runs amok with an axe)

She does.

And she needs a good dinner.

You do realise it won't be long before she's playing Kevin Whately's lurrrrve interest in an ITV1 premiere drama?

"A bit like how Gemma Jones plays the Dashwood mother in S&S, silly, brainless but desperate for her daughters to avoid a life of hardship."

Yes, yes, Jane Austen was lucky to escape that sad fate herself, but didn't lose sight of it!

YAB not only unreasonable but unforgivable.

It's bliss. I sit and watch it whilst mainlining garibaldi and inhaling earl grey.

I like you Gerrof, but for the love of God woman, you're wrong.

Do you inhale dry Earl Grey, or its fumes, SoH? If the former, do you use a tea strainer?

Austen pedant alert: the Mary/Mr Collins bit is in the book. After Lizzy turns him down it says 'Mary might have been prevailed upon to accept him'.

I take it any way I can get it.

YABU, OP, tis a classic. However, I thought the Carian Hinds/Amanda Root Persuasion was utterly perfect, and much better than P&P.

I once shared a long, lingering glance with Colin Firth. Well, mine was longing and lingering, his was more along the lines of, "Stop staring at me, Mad Woman...."