I think Alison Steadman and Julia Swahalia capture the comedy really well. Just superbly. That Lydia is amazing. The interplay between all the sisters at that time of crisis is magnificent in the Andrew Davies (?) Jennifer Ehle version.
In all fairness, there is something of the wild, free spirit in the Lizzy who walks for miles through muddy fields to reach Jane when she is unwell at Bingley's. She's a bit fiery standing up to Darcy's aunt. I can see where the KK production was going with the passion and hot-headedness, because tl she is s curious character, EB. She is quite sarcastic and unkind to people in her so-called cleverness, and I can't quite see why Mr Darcy would find the barbs about Bingley's family that enchanting, unless they emanated from a wild exuberance of personality. Scenes of KK running outdoors - she is outdoorsy, give it an almost Romantic movement Cathy and Heathcliff feel, when Darcy's emoting too. EB seems to capture his wild heart which tempestuously beats under social restraint. The KK version makes the romance believable. But Jane Austen hated all that Romanticism, hence Northanger Abbey pastiche of it. So, I don't think Austen intended her sort of feminist to be over-run with emotions. The Brontë sisters wondered to each other whether Austen even knew feelings.
KK's interpretation makes sense because Elizabeth Bennet is not that nice, really; unless you give her pronouncements a devil-may-care root. At the end, Lizzy tells her aunt that she first thought of Mr D as a mate when she viewed the grounds of Pemberley. Very shallow. And being more moral and restrained than Lydia is hardly indicative of inner dignity. She seems a vehicle for how JA herself would like to be, if fine eyes and cleverness really trumped class barriers - a sort of fantasy which probably was as unlikely as the plot of Pretty Woman - although not impossible and joyful when it happens.
Andrew Davies is a genius interpreting setting and manners and character ( not that it isn't all there in the book to be easily interpreted and dialogue lifted).
I think Mrs Bennet is an over-the-top character, so I think AS acting does justice to the huge shock it would have caused Mr Darcy and the Bingleys to hear talk of a marriage putting the other girls in the way of rich men. It would be pretty shocking if somebody said that in this day and age - if Carole Middleton were ever to have been heard saying something similar about going to St Andrews University, etc, etc - not that she ever would: far to dignified and discreet.
The humour is great in the Jennifer Ehle, BBC version. It seems as though subsequent films want to do something better, but you can't better it. The Andrew ? version of Emma was very true to the novel too, but, like a previous poster, I believe you can't better the old - is it 1970's? - BBC adaptation of Emma.