Here Davies and the cast reveal what happened when they filmed the 1995 series \u2014 including plenty of gossip.<\/p>\n
Andrew Davies, writer![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/c118befd-22b9-4fcb-bcf3-4321a7ea3aed.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Andrew Davies: \u201cI did put \u2018Darcy has an erection\u2019 in the notes for the pond scene\u201d<\/p>\n
JOE MAHER\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
Pride and Prejudice is my favourite novel. It\u2019s like a fairytale, but it\u2019s also very clever. It\u2019s funny and it has possibly the most appealing heroine in the whole of English literature. Elizabeth Bennet is the kind of person you\u2019d like to have for a friend. It has a plot like a Swiss clock: everything works, everything chimes into place. <\/p>\n
Sue Birtwistle [the producer] and I had talked about Pride and Prejudice and what a sexy novel it is, which is a paradox because there isn\u2019t any actual sex in it. The engine of the plot is Darcy\u2019s desire for Elizabeth. He fancies her before he even likes her. We were sitting in a screening of somebody else\u2019s adaptation of Northanger Abbey and Sue leant over to me and said, \u201cWhat you and I ought to do is a really sexy adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.\u201d And that\u2019s how it all started. <\/p>\n
I\u2019d started talking to journalists about it before I\u2019d even written it. [Then] The Daily Mail rang up a lot of bishops and Jane Austen society people and said, \u201cAndrew Davies wants to write a pornographic version of Pride and Prejudice, aren\u2019t you shocked?\u201d So it got quite a lot of bad publicity before it was even finished. But it made people interested so a lot of people watched it and they liked it, even though it wasn\u2019t explicitly sexy.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Andrew Davies: \u2018I write about the kind of sex we\u2019d all like\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n I was never tempted to make it explicit because there\u2019s something about the anticipation. The trouble with modern stuff is: what\u2019s to stop them getting into bed straight away? And then where\u2019s your story gone? Where\u2019s your suspense? I hate Bridgerton<\/a>. It\u2019s deeply silly. Good luck to it, I wouldn\u2019t harm it \u2014 as my mother-in-law would say about things she didn\u2019t like particularly. <\/p>\n I did put \u201cDarcy has an erection\u201d in the notes for the pond scene. It was intended to be helpful for the actor. I didn\u2019t mean the camera should cut to his breeches, I just meant he\u2019s suddenly struck by how much he fancies Elizabeth. It made me laugh to write it and I thought the actor could get a laugh out of it as well. We had a bit of an argument about whether Darcy should be wearing anything when he dives into the lake because when men went bathing in those days they would do it naked usually. Sue, and I think Colin, didn\u2019t want to do it that way and Sue won that argument. I think she thought it made the aftermath sexier. I suspect Colin wasn\u2019t altogether happy with how his body would look with nothing on because it was before the days when actors worked out three hours a day in the gym. <\/p>\n Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in the bathing scene<\/p>\n I think I\u2019ve been quite a big influence on modern adaptations. Pride and Prejudice still stands up now. Nobody wanted to do classic dramas then. It was terribly difficult to persuade people to even consider it. Sue tried to sell it to ITV \u2014 she told Nick Elliott, who was head of drama, she\u2019d got this terrific book about this man with five daughters and they\u2019re all brimming with hormones and he just wants to get them married before they all start having illegitimate kids. Nick, who had four daughters of his own, thought, \u201cThis is the sort of drama I\u2019d like to see,\u201d and asked, \u201cHave you got the rights, can we meet the author?\u201d \u2014 at which point Sue had to confess it was Jane Austen. But [Eliott] still commissioned three out of six episodes. But then his boss decided it wasn\u2019t an ITV sort of thing. So we took it to Michael Bearing at the BBC who said, \u201cIf you do Middlemarch first I\u2019ll let you do Pride and Prejudice.\u201d I did and then we did Pride and Prejudice which got ten million viewers and my whole career changed.<\/p>\n The only reservation I had about Colin Firth was the colour of his hair, which was fair to ginger when he was in the Circle of Friends adaptation I wrote [in 1995]. I thought Darcy had to be dark and brooding. Sue said, \u201cwe\u2019ll make him dye his hair\u201d and he liked it and he kept it that colour. He always thought of himself as a character actor rather than a leading man and he got a bit stuck with Darcy. Then when Bridget Jones<\/a> came out he was cast as Mark Darcy, so it was his own fault if he\u2019s left with that. <\/p>\n Everybody seems to know now that Colin was helping Jennifer Ehle [who played Elizabeth Bennet] with her lines on a daily basis. I think they were in love. Sue told me that when she found out she summoned Colin and said, \u201cI know this has started and I want you to make sure that you keep it going, keep that girl happy because I don\u2019t want floods of tears on the set.\u201d And he said, \u201cAbsolutely, of course.\u201d In fact, Jennifer dumped him when the show was over. So everything worked out fine. <\/p>\n I was a bit scared of what people in the Jane Austen Society would say, but they know the novel so well that even if they didn\u2019t agree with what I\u2019d done, they\u2019d see why I did it. In fact most people were very complimentary. They might pick on tiny details like \u201cDarcy wouldn\u2019t have used that sort of pen because it wasn\u2019t invented for another ten years.\u201d Of course I will watch the new Netflix version and no doubt enjoy it, but to my mind nothing will eclipse the 1995 one.<\/p>\n I\u2019m just starting an adaptation of a fragment of Jane Austen called The Watsons, a bit like Sanditon \u2014 there\u2019s only enough for a first episode, but we can make up the rest. I\u2019ve reached the age now [88] when I\u2019m old enough to appreciate Mansfield Park so I\u2019m going to do a wonderful, radical adaptation. It\u2019s going to take on board the implications that all the Mansfield Park wealth is based on a slave plantation in Antigua and Sir Thomas has to go there. And there\u2019s another Mansfield Park in Antigua where Sir Thomas has another family that is mixed race and a whole different life and he never speaks of it when he comes back. I\u2019m amazed nobody\u2019s thought of it before. It will definitely be the boldest adaptation I\u2019ve ever done. <\/p>\n \u2022 Jane Austen at 250 \u2014 and the truth about that Pride and Prejudice lake scene<\/a><\/p>\n Crispin Bonham-Carter, Mr Bingley Crispin Bonham-Carter, right, as Mr Bingley, with Colin Firth<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n I was 24. I was doing Pygmalion at Nottingham Playhouse and the director wasn\u2019t that keen on me going to auditions, but they let me in the end. I decided I\u2019d wear my corduroy jacket because I felt that had an element of Regency about it. <\/p>\n I think they gave me the part because I was very like Mr Bingley. I really wanted to get into radical theatre, but I was immediately snatched up by the costume drama machine and I fitted quite well into it. I\u2019d been to balls in real life. I was hoping I\u2019d be able to break free from all that, but they took one look at me and thought: \u201cMr Bingley\u201d. I actually didn\u2019t know how to ride a horse, despite being posh. I\u2019d been bitten by one when I was quite young and shied away from it. There\u2019s a scene where I ride away and you can see me struggling to control this horse. I can remember Alison Steadman saying something like, \u201cMr Bingley is such a lovely man, it\u2019s such a shame he can\u2019t ride.\u201d <\/p>\n Colin and I stayed in touch for quite a while. We were good friends on set and there were all these lovely girls around playing their parts. We were discussing the girls we liked the look of, as I know they were about us: it mirrored the text. There is a very elite group of women who see Mr Bingley as the real sex symbol in Pride and Prejudice. There was a German fan site set up, which was flattering. <\/p>\n I got lots of roles afterwards in that vein. Either I was a delightful young man or an evil person pretending to be a delightful young man. I had a tiny part in Bridget Jones. I don\u2019t want to sound ungrateful, but the roles I was getting didn\u2019t feel enough to justify the insecurity and the waiting. When I was 30 I became a theatre director and did pretty well \u2014 I won the Jerwood Young Director Award and was assisting in the West End. I helped Nick Hytner at the National. But I had four kids and a mortgage. At 37 I decided I\u2019d quite like to have a life that involved me being around. I\u2019m now an assistant head teacher and I teach English at Queen Elizabeth\u2019s School in Barnet, north London. <\/p>\n My students quite often tell me that their mothers watch Pride and Prejudice. Occasionally I\u2019ll be asked at parent-teacher meetings for a photo. I feel lucky that the thing I\u2019m recognised for is really lovely. I don\u2019t use the series as a teaching tool, I slightly cringe when I see my performance \u2014 I see a very young actor who\u2019s standing around smiling a lot. But I persuaded Alison Steadman<\/a> [Mrs Bennet] to do the leavers\u2019 talk at our school this term: she was fantastic. <\/p>\n \u2022 Jane Austen would be astonished by her fame. Does she really deserve it?<\/a><\/p>\n Adrian Lukis, Mr Wickham Adrian Lukis as Mr Wickham<\/p>\n BBC<\/p>\n I originally got the Fitzwilliam Darcy part, but then the actor who had been cast as Wickham dropped out \u2014 I think it was Rupert Graves \u2014 so suddenly that part became free. <\/p>\n I\u2019d read the book at school. I hadn\u2019t been particularly interested in the romantic entanglements of a group of girls in Hertfordshire. I was more into Henry Miller and Arthur Miller. Then when I was cast I read it very thoroughly \u2014 the one thing I was keen to do was to not make Wickham too obviously a seducer and a rogue. Elizabeth Bennet is obviously a highly intelligent, perceptive heroine and if she has the wool pulled over her eyes by a man who\u2019s clearly a wrong\u2019un, then that\u2019s not any good. So I decided to play him as plausibly as I possibly could: pleasant and sweet. <\/p>\n Since then I\u2019ve written a whole play about Mr Wickham which I\u2019ve been performing all over the world \u2014 it\u2019s about why he turned out the way he did and asks if he\u2019s quite the rogue Jane Austen and Mr Darcy suggest. I suggest he isn\u2019t. <\/p>\n I was introduced to Susannah Harker who played Jane and she said, \u201cI was thinking about keeping the sides as they are and ruching it up.\u201d And I said, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not your wig man, I\u2019m Wickham.\u201d She\u2019d misheard. I asked Colin how he was doing and he said, \u201cAbsolutely petrified\u201d: he was playing the biggest character in English literature. He played guitar. I remember him banging out some Neil Young numbers. <\/p>\n Once I arrived at a hotel where Colin was and we ended up playing pool and getting a bit drunk. People used to drink more in those days. He said, \u201cI bet your room doesn\u2019t have a Jacuzzi \u2026 mine has because I\u2019m playing the lead.\u201d We ended up taking all our clothes off and piling into his Jacuzzi, probably with more booze. Joanna David [who played Mrs Gardiner] came into the room and took photographs. The director Simon Langton popped in and said, \u201cOh no, no, what are you doing? You can\u2019t get drunk and sit in the Jacuzzi.\u201d The next day Colin said we had to get the photographs back. Jo David said, \u201cIt\u2019s fine, boys, don\u2019t worry, I destroyed the film already.\u201d It\u2019s a shame because those photographs would be worth a fortune now.<\/p>\n [When it came out] I remember getting in touch with Colin and saying, \u201cIt\u2019s Darcy fever \u2026 why don\u2019t you and I go out? Mr Darcy and Mr Wickham in the West End.\u201d It sounds very self-centered now. We met in a pub and sat there for two hours and not a single person came up. In those days Colin used to dress in tie-dye T-shirts and baggy jeans. We were unrecognisable once we were out of our ruffs and beautiful sideburns. <\/p>\n \u2022 The truth about Jane Austen\u2019s extraordinary final years<\/a><\/p>\n Lucy Briers, Mary Bennet Lucy Briers as Mary Bennet<\/p>\n BBC<\/p>\n I was 26, I\u2019d left drama school two years before and had done a lot of touring theatre and I was broke. I got this job and was suddenly being paid a lot of money \u2014 four times what I\u2019d been earning. I paid off all my student debt. We had so much fun making it \u2014 maybe that translated onto the screen and is part of the reason it\u2019s so loved. <\/p>\n So much of me is Mary. I also think she is kind of Jane Austen. She wasn\u2019t \u201cconventionally pretty\u201d. She didn\u2019t marry. Her family would only allow her to practise the piano when they were all out of the house. I\u2019m not conventionally pretty, which is obviously why I got the job in the first place. Now I look back on photos of myself and think I was actually really attractive when I was younger. We\u2019re so hard on ourselves. I\u2019ve never been a girly-girl, I didn\u2019t want to get married \u2014 I just wanted to be an actor. So I really understood Mary\u2019s thing of rolling her eyes at her sisters. I have been married twice now and am still happily married to my second husband, but it was never something I was planning to do. <\/p>\n I learnt the piano at school. I was probably up to grade five or six level. But by the time I\u2019d auditioned I hadn\u2019t played for eight years. I told a white lie and said I was really good, thinking I wouldn\u2019t get the job. My agent then rang and said Carl Davis, the composer, wanted me to go to his house and play the piano for him. I bashed my way through Moonlight Sonata, then I left, went to the phone box, rang my agent and burst into tears. I was sure I was going to be fired. Two hours later she called me and apparently Carl Davis had said, \u201cOh my God it\u2019s so fantastic that the actor playing Mary Bennet is already playing the piano [badly] like her character.\u201d<\/p>\n The only thing that frustrated me was from that point on for five years after, all I went up for was women who were plain or who had never had sex or who weren\u2019t going to marry. I thought, \u201cYou know, I can do other things.\u201d That then shifted. But on a practical level, it paid the mortgage. I felt quite relieved that I didn\u2019t have to be constantly worrying about my appearance. I could go to an audition with very little make-up on because that was the point of the role. I settled into it after my initial frustration. <\/p>\n \u2022 Read more TV reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n Susannah Harker, Jane Bennet Susannah Harker as Jane Bennet, with Crispin Bonham-Carter<\/p>\n BBC<\/p>\n I was pregnant so that was fairly uncomfortable. They had to re-costume me because I was going to change shape. I was really tired and had my hair basket weaved into place: I didn\u2019t have a wig, so I had to get in at five o\u2019clock in the morning feeling quite sick and was not allowed to lie down because it would ruin the hair. But there was fantastic camaraderie because it was a bunch of girls together out in the most incredible countryside in the most wonderful costumes. <\/p>\n My mother [Polly Adams] had played Jane Bennet in the 1976 BBC version so it was a bit of a mantle I was inheriting. There isn\u2019t much sexiness and life in Jane. But I enjoyed playing the sweeter than sweet \u2014 it was quite difficult to do: maintain an interesting quality while being so pure. Jane was based on Cassandra, Jane Austen\u2019s sister. I\u2019d done a lot of research on her and serenity was the No 1 quality. Being pregnant kind of suited that part. She wasn\u2019t full of life and fire, which Lizzy is. <\/p>\n My son, who I was pregnant with at the time, recently assisted on a theatre production called Pride and Prejudice (Sort Of), a comedy spoof thing which has been running for ages, and I went to see someone giving their interpretation of Jane. It still lives. And I\u2019ve just written something called Jane Bennet\u2019s Second Spring about my experience of playing Jane Bennet when I was young. It\u2019s a film, addressing how you can be very visible in something and then as you get older as a female actor it changes and shifts. The parts fall away or the parts you\u2019re given when you become 50-plus don\u2019t truly reflect who we are as women. The dial needs to shift. <\/p>\n I hadn\u2019t seen it for a long time until recently when my mum was watching a re-run and I was caught up, kind of spellbound by how beautiful I had been. I didn\u2019t see myself as being at all beautiful \u2014 I just thought I was an actor playing a beautiful role.<\/p>\n Pride and Predjudice is on iPlayer<\/p>\n Love TV? Discover the best shows on Netflix<\/a>, the best Prime Video TV shows<\/a>, the best Disney+ shows<\/a> , the best Apple TV+ shows<\/a>, the best shows on BBC iPlayer<\/a> , the best shows on Sky and Now<\/a>, the best shows on ITVX<\/a>, the best shows on Channel 4<\/a> streaming, the best shows on Paramount+<\/a> and our favourite hidden gem TV shows<\/a>. Don\u2019t forget to check our critics\u2019 choices to what to watch this week<\/a> and browse our comprehensive TV guide<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It should be a truth universally acknowledged that BBC1\u2019s six-part Pride and Prejudice, which premiered on September 24,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":["post-140517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Still](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/9091e0fa-83ca-4c11-ae2d-45e59c6af43a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Colin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/efd69c1d-fced-4f06-8d0e-631bdcbc2395.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Adrian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/6df12f08-66f6-4e02-a241-d3b49e455a40.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Lucy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/879916e4-322e-4379-8e43-ce7c9048e47f.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Susannah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/87a4a1ca-c6c8-4ab1-a935-cfb2b11a951e.jpg\")
<\/p>\n