We treated this five-hour Arts and Entertainment Network and BBC made-for-television miniseries as a dinner theatre, watching the first half before dining, and then returning to the movie (it was on DVD).

Our first clear impression of Mr Darcy (Colin Firth) as severely condescending is reflected in Mrs Bennet's saying "such a proud, disagreeable man" after having earlier remarked to her five daughters on how handsome and rich (at £10,000 a year) he appeared to be. To this witty, 20-year-old Elizabeth (Jennifer Ehle) responds: "Perhaps he's not so handsome after all." Oh, but Mr Darcy is dark, tall, and handsome, though dour of demeanor - Byronic of features and hair. Had he behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner we'd not have a memorable story.

At the Red Lion in Hartfordshire during the assembly ball of country dancing, Elizabeth overhears Mr Darcy comment, in reference to herself, to his close friend, the amiable and considerate Mr Bingley (Crispin Bonham-Carter): "She is tolerable, I suppose, but not handsome enough for me." Later she repeats to her older sister Jane (Susannah Harker) Mr Darcy's further explanation for not showing more interest in "young ladies that are slighted by other men."

Andrew Davies's inspired adaptation of Jane Austen's romantic comedy receives meticulous attention to details in Simon Langton's direction, accompanied by Carl Davis's charming score.

When flighty Mrs Bennet (Allison Steadman, speaking in a shrill voice perhaps borrowed from Monty Python) hears of a new neighbor having purchased Netherfield, Mr Bingley from northern England, a bachelor with £5,000 a year, she is beside herself to introduce her daughters in great hopes of a match. The ever sensible Mr Bennet (Benjamin Whitrow), who affectionately refers to his daughters as "the silliest girls in England," points out that Mr Bingley "may prefer a stupid wife."

The Bennet estate of Longbourn, which cannot be passed along to any of his daughters, will be inherited by his nearest male relation, cousin and clergyman William Collins (David Bamber), who upon his arrival takes an immediate interest in Elizabeth. Lizzie refers to Mr Collins, a sycophant and flatterer of his patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh of Rosings Park, as "One of the stupidest men in England," though her older sister Jane (Susannah Harker - the only miscast actor in that she is not the beauty the script calls for) speaks for his being respectable.

After the adorable and vivacious but headstrong Elizabeth rejects his proposal to join him in happiness and matrimony, her father says in response to her mother's demand, in acute distress (putting the family's inheritance beyond the reach of any of the girls), that he require Elizabeth's obedience: "Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr Collins, and I will never see you if you do."

More disagreeable people enter the picture: Mr Bingley's two sisters, Caroline (Anna Chancellor) and Mrs Louisa Hurst - the latter's husband often indisposed - with their supercilious airs and sophisticated Ottoman fashions. Mr Darcy dissuades Bingley from his ardor for Jane, pointing out, though she is beautiful, the many faults of her "unfortunate family" with "low connections." In addition to the mother's inane prattling, the two youngest girls - Lydia (Julia Sawalha) and Kitty, (16 and 18, respectively) - behave without decorum, especially in the company of two officers, Lt Denny and Capt Carter; the bookish middle daughter Mary, other than able to play the piano, lacks appeal or talent.

In the meantime, Mr Darcy's estimation of Elizabeth, taking note of her eyes and legs, undergoes a sea change; but when he offers her the opportunity to dance with him - following his having said to the host that "Every savage can dance" - he receives her rebuff.

At Netherfield, where Jane had gone on horseback in the rain (at her mother's insistence) and caught cold, Elizabeth traipses three miles through mud to be with Jane. There she hears Mr Darcy exclaim, "There are not half a dozen" females who would meet his expectation of accomplishment. Blinded by prejudice toward "a man without fault," Elizabeth's hatred for Mr Darcy is in his opinion all a misunderstanding, confusing vanity (high self-opinion) with pride (high standards) - not unlike distinguishing between being elite and an elitist.

Entanglements and their complications ensue: Elizabeth's heart is captured by Lt George Wickham's seemingly "open and artless" personality, which he employs to relate to her a personal account of Mr Darcy as a malicious and disreputable character, generating sympathy for himself; Caroline, lacking credibility in Elizabeth's eyes, cautions that Wickham is unreliable in what he says; while Mr Collins takes Elizabeth's friend Charlotte Lucas (Lucy Scott), a practical woman without romantic pretensions, for his wife, Lt Wickham gets engaged to Mary King and her comfortable fortune; Lady Catherine expects her daughter Anne to become a bride to her nephew, Mr Darcy; a determined flirt, Lydia, "unguarded and imprudent," makes a rash elopement ("poor, stupid girl"), threatening the reputations of her sisters - "our whole family must partake of her ruin and disgrace."

As if to escape from the turmoil surrounding her family, Elizabeth first journeys to Huntsford with Sir William Lucas and his daughter Maria, affording her opportunity to visit with Charlotte; with them and the excessively solicitous Mr Collins she's admitted into the home of Lady Catherine, where Mr Darcy and his friend Col Fitzwilliam also pay a visit. When Mr Darcy says of himself that he is "ill qualified to recommend myself to strangers," Liz answers that like performing well on a piano in public, social manners require considerable practice.

Twice Mr Darcy calls upon Elizabeth while she's alone at the Collinses', declaring "how ardently I admire and love you" against his better judgment and that of others, having previously concealed the struggle within from her. "Like me against your will," she retorts, aghast at his selfish disdain of the feelings of others; his arrogance, conceit, and incivility; his having ruined the happiness of her sister Jane; his unpardonable part in Lt Wickham's reduced circumstances, Elizabeth dismisses both his appeals.

Later she accepts an offer from her aunt and uncle, Mr and Mrs Edward Gardiner, on a trip to Darbyshire where they make a tour of Pemberly, Mr Darcy's grounds and great estate, who makes an unexpected return.

In a letter to Elizabeth, which he delivers in person, Mr Darcy explains - "acquit me of cruelty toward him" - his association since childhood with Wickham, who abused the generosity afforded him, turning to "idleness and dissipation" but then worse with Mr Darcy's 15-year-old sister Georgiana. Speaking to Jane of Mr Darcy and Lt Wickham, Liz says: "One has all the goodness and the other the appearance." Lady Catherine, however, leaving her hall to come to Longbourn, addresses Elizabeth face-to-face, denigrating her for employing her "arts and allurements" on her nephew: "Your alliance would be a disgrace."

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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