to opine that the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is not very good?

[ScribblyGum]

Watching it with dd1 (15) as evidence of what constitutes a great romantic story after sitting through the utter shite that is the Harry Styles fan fiction movie After.

I know P&P is lots of other stuff but I wanted to show her something that I believed was excellent telly.

Four episodes in and I’ve come to the terrible realisation that actually it’s really dated, boring, badly acted and all in all a bit crap.

Far, far too much dull mimsy dancing.

Colin Firth is hot but doesn’t bring much to the part apart from posh snooty emotionally constipated hotness.

Alison Steadman's acting is just silly.

The music is too loud. Are the costumes a bit crap too? Not sure, there’s some bloody weird turbans going on on Caroline Bingley's head.

God it’s so BORING. Neither of us can be arsed to finish it.

I bet the Keira Knightly version is better

YABVU. I love P&P and have watched it many times!!
Remember it is 25 years old now! There is an even older version from the 80s I think. Now that is turgid!

Random that's true. There was plenty to make up for it though!

That version is fabulous.

I agree op. I haven't seen the KK version. Alison Steadman is ott. It's cringe. Far too broad.

Not really an Andrew Davies fan. Populist over style.

Colin Firth was perfect in the role.

The Keira Knightly one is actually not too bad.

I liked Colin Firth when he was a young actor but Eliot Cowan is hotter as Darcy in Lost in Austen.

I loved it when I came out but it definitely feels dated now, I agree. Benjamin Whitrow is perfect though.

I watched it recently. YABVVVVU. It's faithful to the novel, that's why it's so good.

The film version sucked. I think short stories can translate into great films, but novels are better suited to tv series.

Anyway, Lizzie is exactly Lizzie in the novel and Colin Firth is perfect and so are whoever played Mr Collins and Mr Bingley and Mrs Bennett and pretty much everyone else in it and ok it's not high definition or whatever but it's as good as adaptations get imo.

I love the KK version. It's a beautiful film.

I loved the BBC one as a kid, but the KK one is one of my favourite films

tobee - there's a bit in the extras for Lost in Austen where Jemima Rooper gets a bit flustered remembering the lake scene with Eliot!

On a slightly more serious note, it has some interesting things to say about self -determination.

YABU

I love it. It's very true to the book and a classic.

YABU about everything but especially the costumes. I was a massive Austen geek as a teenager and had the companion book to the tv series.

Pretty much all the major characters’ hairstyles and costumes were based on fashion plates and portraits of the time - to the point where the design team found ab old muslin print they really liked but could find a modern version of the fabric anywhere, so they reproduced it and screen printed it themselves by hand

yy Benjamin Whitrow is perfect.

The KK version was terrible- I almost got thrown out of the cinema for talking through it.

BBC version does look dated now but it's the definitive version for me.

I will give you Alison Steadman though, she was a bit much. I did actually prefer Brenda Blethyn’s take on Mrs Bennett.

MindatWork and your companion book.

OK so I'll happily accept I'm being unreasonable about the turbans.

YANBU. The film is better, cinematographically and historically. It gets the subtleties of the book. The BBC version might as well have been a Georgette Heyer adaptation.

YAallBVU
The 1980 version adapted by Fay Weldon was much better than all the mimsey ones that followed it.
Jennifer Thingy was awful with her silly face that was begging for a slap. Fine eyes my left arsecheek! Squinty smirky eyes more like.

I'm not going to sit on the fence with this one🤣

OMG. The reason it was so perfect at the time was we had to wait each week to see what happened.... and it’s paced to gradually increase the tension. It’s not designed to be watched in big chunks. I can assure you there was a great deal of fuss about it at the time and we all swooned when Mr Darcy came out the pond and saw Lizzie. Nowadays no one waits for anything.... it’s all on demand.

@ScribblyGum I was the coolest kid in school

I prob still have it somewhere. Maybe I’ll dig it out and entertain you all with P&P trivia instead of the admin I’m supposed to be doing tonight....

I’m sure it has dated, but the two leads are so utterly perfect in every way in those parts that it will always be a classic in my eyes.

If you think that Matthew is a better Darcy than Colin then I have no words for your taste and judgement . Sorry.

Haven’t seen the film but thought the bbc series was not good, overacting, long gaps, strange timing.

Some of the acting was great, especially Lizzie, but as a whole, not good.

I take it I’m the only one who prefers Laurence Olivier then...

Sacrilege OP!