Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)

Episode 1 Mr. Charles Bingley, a wealthy gentleman from the north of England, settles down at the rented Netherfield estate near Meryton village in Hertfordshire for the autumn. Mrs. Bennet, unlike her husband, is excited at the prospect of marrying off one of her five daughters (Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia) to the newcomer. Mr. Bennet claims to have no intention of calling on Mr. Bingley; unless he does so, his wife and daughters will be unable to socialise with Mr. Bingley. Mrs. Bennet, perturbed by Mr. Bennet's refusal to make Bingley's acquaintance, declares that she wishes the girls would stop talking about Bingley all together, as they will never meet him anyway. Mr. Bennet replies that he wishes he had known that earlier, as he has already paid Mr. Bingley a visit. Mrs. Bennet and the younger girls are shocked and ecstatic. Bingley takes an immediate liking to Jane at the local country dance, while his best friend Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, rumoured to be twice as rich as Bingley, declines to dance with anyone, including Elizabeth. Elizabeth's poor impression of his character is confirmed at a later gathering at Lucas Lodge, and she and Darcy clash verbally on the two nights she spends at Netherfield caring for the sick Jane, who fell ill after riding there in the rain when invited by Bingley's sister. Episode 2 Mr. William Collins, a sycophantic and somewhat dimwitted clergyman, visits his cousins, the Bennets. As Mr. and Mrs. Bennet do not have a son, he is currently the entailed heir of their estate, Longbourn. He intends to marry a Bennet daughter as an act of benign goodwill, to reassure Mrs. Bennet that she and her unwed daughters would not be rendered homeless once Mr. Collins inherits the estate. He therefore invites himself for a week long visit to get to know the family better and select a daughter to marry. However, the Bennet girls judge Mr. Collins to be a rather ridiculous man, an "oddity" with many peculiarities of speech and deportment. They nevertheless treat him civilly and take him to balls and social events in Meryton. One day, while on a walk around Meryton, they meet members of a newly arrived militia regiment, including Mr. George Wickham. At a social event, Wickham befriends Elizabeth and says that his father was the steward for Darcy's late father, and that he originally planned to join the clergy. However, Darcy denied Wickham the church "living" that Darcy's father had promised him. At a ball at Netherfield, Darcy asks Elizabeth to dance, which she grudgingly but politely accepts. Mrs. Bennet tells Mr. Collins that she expects Jane to soon be engaged, so he instead proposes to Elizabeth. She firmly rejects him and is supported in this by Mr. Bennet. While Mrs. Bennet reacts angrily to this, Elizabeth's close friend Charlotte Lucas invites Mr. Collins to visit her family at Lucas Lodge. Episode 3 Elizabeth is stunned and appalled to learn that Charlotte Lucas has accepted Mr. Collins's marriage proposal. When the Netherfield party departs for London in the autumn, Jane goes to stay with her middle-class London relations, the Gardiners, but she soon notices that the Bingleys ignore her. Elizabeth departs for the Collins' home in Kent in the spring to visit Charlotte. They live near Rosings, the estate of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who is Darcy's aunt. Elizabeth meets Darcy several times there. Elizabeth learns of Darcy's direct responsibility for Bingley being separated from Jane's company. Soon after, Darcy unexpectedly tells her that he admires her and loves her, so much so that in spite of her inferior social standing, he proposes marriage. Elizabeth flatly rejects him, noting his arrogant, disagreeable, and proud character, and for his part in her sister's failed romance and Mr. Wickham's misfortune. Episode 4 Darcy justifies his previous actions in a long letter to Elizabeth: he misjudged Jane's affection for Bingley, but exposes Wickham as a gambler who once attempted to elope with Darcy's young sister, Georgiana, to obtain her inheritance. Back at Longbourn, Mr. Bennet allows Lydia to accompany the militia to Brighton as a personal friend of the militia colonel's wife. Elizabeth joins the Gardiners on a sightseeing trip to Derbyshire and visits Pemberley, Darcy's estate, during his absence. Greatly impressed by the immense scale and richness of the estate, Elizabeth listens to the housekeeper's earnest tales of her master's lifelong goodness, to the Gardiners' surprise. Meanwhile, Darcy refreshes from his unannounced journey home by taking a swim in a lake. After an unexpected and awkward encounter with Elizabeth, Darcy is able to prevent the party's premature departure with an unusual degree of friendliness and politeness. Episode 5 Elizabeth and the Gardiners receive an invitation to an evening at Pemberley, where she befriends Georgiana and Darcy and Elizabeth share significant glances. The next morning, Elizabeth receives two letters from Jane, revealing that Lydia has eloped from Brighton with Wickham. As Elizabeth prepares to return to Longbourn, Darcy arrives and offers help, but upon hearing the news about Lydia, becomes disturbed and leaves in haste. Elizabeth supposes she will never see him again. The Bennets are dismayed by the scandal and unable to locate Lydia, until Mr. Gardiner writes that Lydia and Wickham have been found. They are not married, but soon will be under the Gardiners' care. The Bennets are relieved, but Mr. Bennet wonders what it cost Mr. Gardiner to get Wickham to marry a girl with no fortune. Elizabeth tells Jane of her last meeting with Darcy, including her ambivalent feelings for him. Episode 6 After Lydia carelessly mentions Darcy's involvement in her wedding, Mrs. Gardiner enlightens Elizabeth: Darcy found the errant couple and paid for everything needed to resolve the situation, including a large payment to Wickham. When Bingley and Darcy return to Netherfield in the autumn, Darcy apologises to Bingley for interfering in his relationship with Jane, and gives his blessing for the couple to wed. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who has long intended for Darcy to marry her sickly daughter Anne, has heard rumours of an engagement between Darcy and Elizabeth. She calls on Elizabeth, demanding that she deny the engagement and renounce Darcy forever. Elizabeth confirms that there is no engagement, but refuses any pledge for the future. When Elizabeth thanks Darcy for his role in Lydia's marriage, he says that Lady Catherine's story had encouraged him to reaffirm his feelings for Elizabeth. Elizabeth admits the complete transformation of her feelings, and agrees to their engagement, taking her family by surprise. The series ends with a double winter wedding: Jane to Bingley, and Elizabeth to Darcy. ==Cast==

• Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet • Colin Firth as Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy • Adrian Lukis as Mr. George Wickham • Alison Steadman as Mrs. Bennet • Benjamin Whitrow as Mr. Bennet • David Bamber as Mr. William Collins • Susannah Harker as Jane Bennet • Julia Sawalha as Lydia Bennet • Polly Maberly as Catherine "Kitty" Bennet • Lucy Briers as Mary Bennet • Crispin Bonham-Carter as Mr. Charles Bingley • Lucy Scott as Charlotte Lucas • Anna Chancellor as Caroline Bingley • Lucy Robinson as Mrs. Hurst • Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Lady Catherine de Bourgh • Anthony Calf as Colonel Fitzwilliam • Joanna David as Mrs. Gardiner • Tim Wylton as Mr. Gardiner • Emilia Fox as Georgiana Darcy • Bridget Turner as Mrs. Reynolds • David Bark-Jones as Lieutenant Denny • Lynn Farleigh as Mrs. Phillips • Lucy Davis as Maria Lucas • Christopher Benjamin as Sir William Lucas • Rupert Vansittart as Mr. Hurst • Marlene Sidaway as Hill • Roger Barclay as Captain Carter • Kate O'Malley as Sarah, the maid • Norma Streader as Lady Lucas • Paul Moriarty as Col Forster • Victoria Hamilton as Mrs. Forster • Nadia Chambers as Anne de Bourgh • Sarah Legg as Hannah • Christopher Staines as Lieutenant Sanderson • Tom Ward as Lieutenant Chamberlayne • Alexandra Howerd as Mary King • Peter Needham as Fencing Master • Sam Beazley as Vicar at Longbourne ==Casting==

When casting the many characters of Pride and Prejudice, the producer Sue Birtwistle and director Simon Langton were looking for actors with wit, charm and charisma, who could play the Regency period. Their choices for the protagonists, 20-year-old Elizabeth Bennet and 28-year-old Mr. Darcy, determined the other actors cast. Hundreds of actresses between 15 and 28 auditioned for the younger female characters, and those with the right presence were screen-tested, performing several prepared scenes in period costumes and makeup in a television studio. Straight offers were made to several established actors. Birtwistle had worked with him on the mid-1980s comedy film Dutch Girls, but he repeatedly turned down her offer as he neither felt attracted to Austen's feminine perspective nor believed himself to be right for the role. Birtwistle's persistent coaxing and his deeper examination of the Darcy character finally convinced him to accept the role. Firth and Ehle began a romantic relationship during the filming of the series, which received media attention only after the couple's separation. Benjamin Whitrow was cast to play Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth's distinguished but financially imprudent and occasionally indulgent gentry father. Alison Steadman was cast to play the parvenu Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth's mortifyingly affected social-climbing mother. Steadman was offered the role without auditions or screen tests. Elizabeth's four sisters, whose ages ranged between 15 and 22, were cast to look dissimilar from each other. Susannah Harker portrayed Elizabeth's beautiful older sister Jane, who desires to only see good in others. Lucy Briers, Polly Maberly, and Julia Sawalha played Elizabeth's younger sisters – the plain Mary, the good-natured but flighty and susceptible Kitty, and frivolous and headstrong Lydia. Being 10 years older than 15-year-old Lydia, Julia Sawalha, of Absolutely Fabulous fame, had enough acting experience to get the role without screen tests. Joanna David and Tim Wylton appeared as the Gardiners, Elizabeth's maternal aunt and uncle. David Bamber played the unctuous clergyman, Mr. Collins, a cousin of Mr. Bennet. Lucy Scott portrayed Elizabeth's best friend and Mr. Collins's wife, Charlotte Lucas, and David Bark-Jones portrayed Lieutenant Denny. The producers found Crispin Bonham-Carter to have the best physical contrast to Firth's Darcy and gave him his first major television role as the good-natured and wealthy Mr. Charles Bingley. a handsome militia lieutenant whose charm conceals his licentiousness and greed, but Adrian Lukis was cast instead. Anna Chancellor, of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame, played Mr. Bingley's sister Caroline Bingley. (Chancellor is also Jane Austen's six-times-great-niece.) Mr. Bingley's other sister and his brother-in-law were played by Lucy Robinson (Louisa Hurst) and Rupert Vansittart (Mr. Hurst). Casting the role of Darcy's young sister, Georgiana, proved hard as the producers were looking for a young actress who appeared innocent, proud and yet shy, had class and could also play the piano. After auditioning over 70 actresses, Simon Langton suggested Emilia Fox, the real-life daughter of Joanna David (Mrs. Gardiner), for the part. Barbara Leigh-Hunt was cast as Darcy's meddling aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, without auditions or screen tests. ==Production==

Conception and adaptation Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice had already been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations, including BBC television versions in 1938, 1952, 1958, 1967 and 1980. In the autumn of 1986, after watching a preview of Austen's Northanger Abbey, Sue Birtwistle and Andrew Davies agreed to adapt Pride and Prejudice, one of their favourite books, for television. Birtwistle in particular felt that a new adaptation on film would serve the drama better than the previous videotaped Pride and Prejudice television adaptations, which looked too "undernourished" and "unpoetic". Emphasising sex and money as the themes of the story, The biggest technical difficulty proved to be adapting the long letters in the second half of the story. Davies employed techniques such as voice-overs, flashbacks, and having the characters read the letters to themselves and to each other. Davies added some dialogue to clarify events from the novel to a modern audience but left much of the novel's dialogue intact. The budget of about £1 million per episode (totalling US$9.6 million) allowed 20 shooting weeks of five days to film six 55-minute episodes. Production aimed for 10.5-hour shooting days plus time for costume and make-up. Two weeks before filming began, about 70 of the cast and crew gathered for the script read-through, followed by rehearsals, lessons for dancing, horse-riding, fencing, and other skills that needed to be ready ahead of the actual filming. Reflecting the wealth differences between the main characters, the filming location for Longbourn showed the comfortable family house of the Bennet family, whereas Darcy's Pemberley needed to look like the "most beautiful place", showing good taste and the history of the aristocracy. The producers found Belton House in Grantham, Lincolnshire the best match for Rosings, Lady Catherine de Bourgh's estate, The producers imagined Darcy to be dark despite no such references in the novel and asked Firth to dye black his light-brown hair, eyebrows and lashes; they instructed all male actors to let their hair grow before filming and shave off their moustaches. Three brunette wigs were made to cover Ehle's short, blonde hair and one wig for Alison Steadman (Mrs. Bennet) because of her thick, heavy hair. Susannah Harker's (Jane) hair was slightly lightened to contrast with Elizabeth's and was arranged in a classic Greek style to highlight the character's beauty. Mary's plainness was achieved by painting spots on Lucy Briers's face; her hair was greased to suggest an unwashed appearance and was arranged to emphasise the actress's protruding ears. As Kitty and Lydia were too young and wild to have their hair done by the maids, the actresses' hair was not changed much. Makeup artist Caroline Noble had always considered Mr. Collins a sweaty character with a moist upper lip; she also greased David Bamber's hair and gave him a low parting to suggest baldness. Among the songs and movements that were played in the serial were Handel's "Air con Variazioni" from Suite No. 5 in E Major HWV 430 and "Slumber, Dear Maid" from his opera Xerxes (in 1813 these works by Handel would have been considered quite old-fashioned, adding to the perception that Mary's tastes are a bit out of fashion), Mozart's "Rondo alla turca", "Voi che sapete" and other music from his operas The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, Beethoven's Andante favori, the second movement from Muzio Clementi's Sonatina No.4 and the traditional folk song "The Barley Mow". A soundtrack with Davis's themes was released on CD in 1995. The text of Mozart's "Voi, che sapete" (sung in an English translation) is a particularly meaningful choice: the original Italian is a love song, including the words "You, who know what love is, tell me, is that what I feel in my heart?" Lizzie sings this, and soon after, she graciously "saves" Georgiana from embarrassment at the mention of Wickham, and Darcy further realizes her good heart. This musical theme is soon echoed, after that episode, as Darcy walks along the hall; tell me, is love what I feel in my heart? Many scenes in the book were set at dances or balls. Jane Gibson based her choreography on The Apted Book of Country Dances (1966) by W.S. Porter, which had several late-18th-century dances by Charles and Samuel Thompson such as "The Shrewsbury Lasses", "A Trip to Highgate" and "Mr. Beveridge's Maggot". Although these dances gave the story an impression of authenticity, they were anachronistic, being out of fashion by the time of the story. Some fifteen dances were choreographed and rehearsed before filming. Polly Maberly and Julia Sawalha, the dance-mad Kitty and Lydia, had three days to learn the dances. Three days were allotted for the filming of the ball at Netherfield, whose pace and style concentrated on elegance rather than the community enjoying themselves as at the dance at Meryton. The musicians and dancers had earpieces with music playing to allow dialogue recording. Many wide-shots of Elizabeth's and Darcy's dance at Netherfield later turned out to be unusable because of a hair in front of a lens so the editors resorted to close-up shots and material provided by a steadicam. == Themes and style ==

The adaptation received praise for its faithfulness to the novel, Describing the adaptation as "a witty mix of love stories and social conniving, cleverly wrapped in the ambitions and illusions of a provincial gentry", To avoid a narrator, the serial delegates the novel's ironic first sentence to Elizabeth in an early scene. The adaptation opens with a view of Darcy's and Bingley's horses as they race across a field toward the Netherfield estate, expressing vitality; Elizabeth watches them before breaking into a run. While the novel indicates Elizabeth's independence and energy in her three-mile trek to Netherfield, the adaptation of this scene also shows her rebelliousness and love of nature. In what is "perhaps the most radical revision of Austen's text", The novel leaves Elizabeth and the reader uncertain of Darcy's emotions and the adaptation uses additional scenes to hint at Darcy's inability to physically contain or verbally express his emotional turmoil. On the other hand, whereas the climax of the novel describes Darcy expressing his ardent love for Elizabeth at length (though Austen leaves his actual words to the reader's imagination), the adaptation elides this moment and passes directly to the next lines of dialogue. Scholars argue that activities such as billiards, bathing, fencing and swimming (see the lake scene) offer Darcy to a female gaze; he is often presented in profile by a window or a fireplace when his friends discuss Elizabeth. Many passages relating to appearance or characters' viewpoints were lifted from the novel. The novel shows irony with "unmistakable strains of cynicism, ... laughing at human nature without any real hope of changing it". Laughter in the story, which ranges from irresponsible laughter to laughter at people and laughter of amusement and relief, can also be linked to the sexual tensions among the different characters. Despite their appeal to modern audiences, laughter and wit were seen as vulgar and irreverent in Austen's time. The BBC drama made changes "with a view to exposing a character, or adding humour or irony to a situation". Elizabeth's appreciation of the beauties of Derbyshire elevates Darcy in her and her relatives' opinion. == Reception ==

Broadcast Between 10 and 11 million people watched the original six-episode broadcast on BBC One on Sunday evenings from 24 September to 29 October 1995. The episodes were repeated each week on BBC Two. Home media and merchandise The serial was released on VHS in the UK in the week running up to the original transmission of the final episode. The entire first run of 12,000 copies of the double-video set sold out within two hours of release. 70,000 copies had been sold by the end of the first week of sales, increasing to 200,000 sold units within the first year of the original airing. The Blu-ray was released on 14 April 2009. A 2010 Remastered Edition and a 2014 Keepsake Edition have the same footage, time lengths, and format. The 2014 Keepsake Edition has improved colors. The 2010 Remastered Edition begins with piracy warnings and then movie begins playing. The 2014 Keepsake Edition begins with five compulsory previews which can only be bypassed by skipping forward through each individual preview. The second disc of the Keepsake set also begins with the same five compulsory previews. The 2014 Keepsake Edition has 50" of new bonus materials plus the 1'45" of bonus materials that was presented in the 2010 Remastered Edition. These bonus materials include interviews with the producer, screenwriter, director, musical composer, and cast members. The cast interviews in both editions do not include interviews with the two main characters, Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy) and Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet). Critical reception The critical response to Pride and Prejudice was overwhelmingly positive. Gerard Gilbert of The Independent recommended the opening episode of the serial one day before the British premiere, saying the television adaptation is "probably as good as it [can get for a literary classic]. The casting in particular deserves a tilt at a BAFTA, Firth not being in the slightest bit soft and fluffy – and Jennifer Ehle showing the right brand of spirited intelligence as Elizabeth." He considered Benjamin Whitrow a "real scene-stealer with his Mr. Bennet", but was undecided about Alison Steadman's portrayal of Mrs. Bennet. Reviewing the first episode for the same newspaper on the day after transmission, Jim White praised Andrew Davies for "injecting into the proceedings a pace and energy which at last provides a visual setting to do justice to the wit of the book. With everyone slinging themselves about at high speed (the dances, in a first for the genre, actually involve a bit of sweat), it looks like people are doing something you would never have suspected they did in Austen's time: having fun." A few days before the American premiere, Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times considered the adaptation "decidedly agreeable" despite its incidental liberties with Austen's novel, and named Elizabeth's parents and Mr. Collins as the main source of humour. John O'Connor of The New York Times lauded the serial as a "splendid adaptation, with a remarkably faithful and sensitively nuanced script". He commented on Jennifer Ehle's ability to make Elizabeth "strikingly intelligent and authoritative without being overbearing", and noted how Firth "brilliantly captures Mr. Darcy's snobbish pride while conveying, largely through intense stares, that he is falling in love despite himself". O'Connor praised Barbara Leigh-Hunt's portrayal of Lady Catherine as "a marvellously imperious witch" and considered her scenes with David Bamber (Mr. Collins) "hilarious". However, O'Connor remarked that American audiences might find the "languorous walks across meadows" and "ornately choreographed dances" of the British production too slow. The official A&E Network magazine summarised a year later that "critics praised the lavish production, audiences adored it, and women everywhere swooned over Darcy. So much, in fact, that newspapers began to joke about 'Darcy fever.'" Firth won the 1996 Broadcasting Press Guild Award for "Best Actor", complemented by the same award for "Best Drama Series/Serial". The serial was recognised in the United States with an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special", and was Emmy-nominated for its achievements as an "Outstanding Miniseries" as well as for choreography and writing. Among other awards and nominations, Pride and Prejudice received a Peabody Award, a Television Critics Association Award, and a Golden Satellite Award nomination for outstanding achievements as a serial. ==Influence and legacy==

As one of the BBC's and A&E's most popular presentations ever, the serial was "a cultural phenomenon, inspiring hundreds of newspaper articles and making the novel a commuter favourite". With the 1995 and 1996 films Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility and Emma, the serial was part of a wave of Jane Austen enthusiasm which caused the membership of the Jane Austen Society of North America to jump fifty per cent in 1996 and to over 4,000 members in the autumn of 1997. Some newspapers like The Wall Street Journal explained this "Austen-mania" as a commercial move of the television and film industry, whereas others attributed Austen's popularity to escapism. While Jennifer Ehle refused to capitalise on the success of the serial and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, the role of Mr. Darcy unexpectedly elevated Colin Firth to stardom. in a role that "officially turned him into a heart-throb", Radio Times included the serial in their list of "40 greatest TV programmes ever made" in 2003. It was also named by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 20 best miniseries of all time. In 2007, the UK Film Council declared Pride and Prejudice one of the television dramas that have become "virtual brochures" for British history and society. Lyme Hall, Cheshire, which had served as the exterior of Pemberley, experienced a tripling in its visitor numbers after the series' broadcast and is still a popular travel destination. When Davies wrote the scene (it was not part of Austen's novel), he did not intend a sexual connection between Elizabeth and Darcy but to create "an amusing moment in which Darcy tries to maintain his dignity while improperly dressed and sopping wet". A short underwater segment was filmed separately with Firth in a tank at Ealing Studios in west London. The sequence also appeared in Channel 4's Top 100 TV Moments in 1999, between the controversial programme Death on the Rock and the Gulf War. The New York Times compared the scene to Marlon Brando shouting "Stella!" in his undershirt in A Streetcar Named Desire and Firth's projects began alluding to it – screenwriter-director Richard Curtis added in-joke moments of Firth's characters falling into the water to Love Actually and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and Firth's character from the 2007 film ''St Trinian's emerges from a fountain in a soaking wet shirt before meeting up with an old love. The creators of the 2008 ITV production Lost in Austen emulated the lake scene in their Pride and Prejudice'' through their contemporary heroine who cajoles Darcy into recreating the moment. Cheryl L. Nixon suggested in Jane Austen in Hollywood that Darcy's dive is a "revelation of his emotional capabilities", expressing a "Romantic bond with nature, a celebration of his home where he can 'strip down' to his essential self, a cleansing of social prejudices from his mind, or ... a rebirth of his love for Elizabeth". Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield wrote that the scene "tells us more about our current decade's obsession with physical perfection and acceptance of gratuitous nudity than it does about Austen's Darcy, but the image carves a new facet into the text". Bridget Jones The fictional journalist Bridget Jones (in reality Helen Fielding of The Independent) wrote of her love of the serial in the paper's ''Bridget Jones's Diary column during the original British broadcast, Fielding loosely reworked the plot of Pride and Prejudice'' in her 1996 novel of the column, naming Bridget's uptight love interest "Mark Darcy" and describing him exactly like Colin Firth. Following a first meeting with Firth during his filming of Fever Pitch in 1996, Fielding asked Firth to collaborate in what would become a multi-page interview between Bridget Jones and Firth in her 1999 sequel novel, The Edge of Reason. Conducting the real interview with Firth in Rome, Fielding lapsed into Bridget Jones mode and obsessed over Darcy in his wet shirt for the fictional interview. Firth participated in the editing of what critics called "one of the funniest sequences in the diary's sequel". Both novels make various other references to the BBC serial. Andrew Davies collaborated on the screenplays for the 2001 and 2004 Bridget Jones films, in which Crispin Bonham-Carter (Mr. Bingley) and Lucy Robinson (Mrs. Hurst) appeared in minor roles. The self-referential in-joke between the projects convinced Colin Firth to accept the role of Mark Darcy, Film critic James Berardinelli would later state that Firth "plays this part [of Mark Darcy] exactly as he played the earlier role, making it evident that the two Darcys are essentially the same". The producers never found a way to incorporate the Jones-Firth interview in the second film but shot a spoof interview with Firth as himself and Renée Zellweger staying in character as Bridget Jones after a day's wrap. The scene, which extended Bridget's Darcy obsession to cover Firth's lake scene in Love Actually, is available as a bonus feature on the DVD. Other adaptations For almost a decade, the 1995 TV serial was considered "so dominant, so universally adored, [that] it has lingered in the public consciousness as a cinematic standard". Comparing six Pride and Prejudice adaptations in 2005, the Daily Mirror gave 9/10 to the 1995 serial ("what may be the ultimate adaptation") and the 2005 film adaptation, leaving the other adaptations such as the 1940 film behind with six or fewer points. The 2005 film was "obviously [not as] daring or revisionist" as the 1995 adaptation but the youth of the film's leads, Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, was mentioned favourably over the 1995 cast, as Jennifer Ehle had formerly been "a little too 'heavy' for the role". The president of the Jane Austen Society of North America noted in an otherwise positive review that the casting of the 2005 leads was "arguably a little more callow than Firth and Ehle" and that "Knightley is better looking than Lizzy should strictly be". ranged from praise through pleasant surprise to dislike. Several critics did not observe any significant impact of Macfadyen's Darcy in the following years. Garth Pearce of The Sunday Times noted in 2007 that "Colin Firth will forever be remembered as the perfect Mr. Darcy", and Gene Seymour stated in a 2008 Newsday article that Firth was "'universally acknowledged' as the definitive Mr. Darcy". ==References==