

DramaBBC One

Pilot
S1, E1
Episode 1
88%
Tomatometer
96%
Popcornmeter
8.2
TMDB
Set in England in the early 19th century, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Mr and Mrs Bennet's five unmarried daughters after the rich and eligible Mr Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr Darcy, have moved into their neighbourhood. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Darcy has difficulty adapting to local society and repeatedly clashes with the second-eldest Bennet daughter, Elizabeth.

BritBox | Pride & Prejudice: Restored in 4K
3 reviews · 2 fans
2 fresh · 0 rotten
I decided to watch this mini-series again after seeing the later movie version, which caused me to realized that maybe I enjoyed that version more. In my memory, I originally had recalled I liked this movie version more. And watching this series confirmed that I do like the Keira Knightly movie adaptation more, but only slightly and not to take anything away from this, an excellent series in itself. I will leave it to that prior review to reveal what those small reasons were. The ensemble cast performs uniformly brilliantly with hardly a misstep. David Barber is an appropriately obsequious Mr. Collins, and Alison Steadman puts in an equally appropriate and cringeworthy performance as the shrill, hysterical and gauche Mrs. Benett. The writing is also mostly very good. There were a few oddities for me. For example, I am not sure how people drew the conclusion that Jane is demonstrably more beautiful than Elizabeth. I saw no such drop off in looks. For that matter, why on earth were people saying that the cute redhead Mary King was homely? Were redheads devil children or something? But never mind. I read somewhere that the director of the later movie version set his piece about 20 years before this series was set, to avoid the style of high-waisted dresses. I have to agree with him. These dresses look odd and homely too me, almost like shapeless tube socks rather than high fa…
**Look no further, in film or TV: this is, so far, the best adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice".** Whenever a film or television production decides to make a period production, it will always have two major challenges ahead. The first is, obviously, the result of any and all production. The second is the recreation of the historical period, not only in objects, clothes and environments, but mainly in the manners, mentality and habits of those people, of that time, of that culture. That's what historical consultancies are for, and it's an effort that should never be overlooked. This miniseries was very successful in all these efforts, and for me, it constitutes the best and most reliable audiovisual adaptation of Jane Austen's masterpiece, a narrative that even those who have never read the original book know perfectly, and which must be one of the most widespread novels in English literature. It is the adaptation where, in addition to having the correct settings and the correct costumes for the time and context, we also have the behaviors and mannerisms that those people, in fact, would have had if they had really existed. And besides, we have an enormous respect and consideration for the written work. There are several actors who deserve frankly positive attention here: despite being incredibly annoying with her high voice and her tantrums, Alison Steadman gave the Bennet f…
Title
Pride and Prejudice
Released
1995
Rated
TV-14
Region of Origin
Canada, United Kingdom
Original Audio
English
Show Type
Miniseries
Runtime
55 min
Network
BBC One