Pride and Prejudice

This version aired on UK TV fifteen years before the renowned Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle adaptation of Jane Austen's famous book. As such, it shows its age, being rather studio-bound and stiff in its construction.

However, Elizabeth Garvie does come across as closer to Austen's conception of Lizzy Bennet that either Jennifer Ehle or Greer Garson in the Hollywood film. Sabina Franklyn is particularly good as Jane, not a mouse but just a genuinely nice person, while Clare Higgins (Kitty), Tessa Peake-Jones (Mary), and Natalie Ogle (Lydia) are good as the remaining Bennet sisters.

Of particular interest though is David Rintoul's Darcy. Of a very different stamp to the brooding landowner of the 1995 version, he gives an extremely interesting portrayal, just as attractive in its way, and again, closer to the character depicted in the book. Others of note in the cast are Moray Watson as Mr Bennet, and Judy Parfitt as Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

I was surprised by some of the comments left about this adaptation. Elizabeth Garvie was fantastic as Elizabeth - so much more in the spirit of the novel than Jennifer Ehle or Greer Garson (the worst by far), both of whom just seemed petulant and, frankly, unintelligent. In fact, all of the actresses playing the Bennet girls were better cast than were those in the A&E version, although Susannah Harker as Jane Bennet was almost as good as Sabina Franklyn. Come to think of it, apart from Anna Chancellor (Miss Bingley in the A&E version - she was perfect), I think all of the actors in the BBC version were better cast. It's true that David Rintoul is very stiff. But that's really how, when reading the novel, I always envisioned him. I'm sorry to ever choose anyone over Colin Firth but I have to. His Mr. Darcy just lacks dignity. And subtlety. He's so very obvious. Really beautiful but, I'm sorry, really not Fitzwilliam Darcy.

It is also true that the production values in this version were low but really, it was the late 70s and made for the BBC! So, basically, that's too silly an argument against.

Overall, if you loved the book and want to see a version that's truly captured its spirit, see this version. If you just like looking at a lot of beautiful people standing about in beautiful clothes in beautiful surroundings, pretty much not getting the point, watch the A&E version.

By the by, the A&E version is also good for putting you to sleep.

"Pride & Prejudice" is easily the favourite of all of Jane Austen's six published novels. Many literary critics have tried to analyse why her books are still so popular in this day & age around 200 years after they were written. Probably the best reasons are that the themes of her novels, (love & marriage), are relevant at any time period & that she was just so darned good as a writer. Taken purely as a love story It is probably without equal which explains why it has been adapted for film & television so often. This 1980 version stars Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth Bennett who plays the sensible & spirited young lady really well but, for me David Rintoul as Fitzwilliam Darcy is even better. To my mind, he plays the proud, haughty & extremely handsome Darcy precisely as written & envisioned by Jane Austen. He is aloof, stiff & unemotional which makes it easy to see why Elizabeth dislikes him so much at first. Quite a number of reviewers of this adaptation of Pride & Prejudice have criticised Rintoul's performance. They claim he plays Darcy with too little emotion & in comparison with Colin Firth's 1995 performance is dull, uninteresting & unromantic. It is true that he isn't as outwardly romantic as played by Colin Firth but I disagree with that criticism. Rintoul nails him precisely as written by Jane Austen & what a shame we cannot get her opinion!. Another standout acting performance is given by Judy Parfitt as Darcy's aunt Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Ms Parfitt has a natural regal bearing combined with a beautifully intoned speaking voice & can just nail an upper-crust woman effortlessly. She also plays her with such a commanding air that you almost cannot help disliking her. That, too, is also true to the spirit of the book as written by Jane Austen. Malcolm Rennie is also excellent as the pompous, somewhat comical vicar Mr. Collins. The scene in which he proposes marriage to Elizabeth & is rejected by her is particularly well played by both of them. Both Priscilla Morgan & Moray Watson are also extremely good as Elizabeth Bennett's mother and father, respectively. Sabina Franklyn also does well playing Elizabeth's very pretty older sister Jane who will fall in love & marry Darcy's best friend Mr. Bingley (Osmund Bullock). Tessa Peake-Jones plays her bookish younger sister Mary who later got a more fames television role as Delboy's love interest Raquel in Only Fools & Horses. Natalie Ogle plays the youngest of the five Bennett sisters Lydia who is fatuous & will enter into a hasty, sham marriage with the handsome, (but deceitful & untrustworthy), Mr. Wickham (Peter Settelen). None of the sisters attend the marriage ceremony & when they return from their honeymoon Lydia is eager to tell her sisters all about it. Elizabeth does not want to know & delivers one of the books most memorable put-down lines. "I do not think there can be too little said on the subject!". There isn't a weak performance by anyone in the entire cast. The 1995 TV production with Colin Firth & Jennifer Ehle was pretty good, but this 1980 BBC production dramatised by Fay Weldon is closer to the book & definitely superior in my opinion.

Without doubt, this is the truest to the original novel by Jane Austen of all the versions made to date, and equally the quietest, the most stately and sedate. I won't worry about the story; anyone likely to watch this now will know already what it's about. It seems more and more likely to my sense that Elizabeth Garvie's Lizzie best represents the vision Jane Austen had of her brightest, most sparkling character: the sweetness is there, an interesting but not a perfect face (just as it should be); though perhaps just a little of the liveliness and archness that Austen wrote about is missing that you can find more easily in either Jennifer Ehle's excellent 90s TV Lizzie, or even Keira Knightley's more recent film outing. But in her bonnet and parasol, her curls wilfully asserting themselves, she's almost exactly what I imagined (apparently not everyone agrees).

David Rintoul's Darcy is on first watching, excessively stiff and not particularly entertaining to watch. There is so little mobility in his face, and on occasion even in his voice, that only careful repeated viewings reveal nuances in his performance. I do find myself liking his portrayal more now: it's very subtle, to be sure, no diving into pools or striding open-shirted through dawn meadows, but once you're used to the subtlety, the great formality provides a backdrop against which Darcy's own wit and growing interest in Lizzie stand out in the gentlest relief, like the pattern on a damask cloth.

So rich a text is bound to be full of favourite moments; and Weldon's script manages to include much of the wit – and some of the humour – of Austen's original, while also teasing out themes on marriage and happiness which suit her personal brief as a great feminist writer. I particularly love Lizzie's singing (I think it's dubbed but Garvie's acting of the singing is itself a pleasure to watch). The supporting cast is on the whole very good; I liked Uncle and Aunt Gardner and thought Mr Bingley and his sisters well cast. Mr Bennett was a little severe, and didn't seem to take the requisite pleasure in tormenting his wife.

I didn't find Mr Wickham very charming; but then I never do. It seems to me they never make him handsome enough – how else could he charm her so much as to blind her to real goodness and excellence? I guess the makers of these programmes are always afraid he'll steal the limelight from Darcy – but since that's exactly his function in the book, take the risk! Perhaps this version has receded into time and been superseded by later attempts that speak more directly to women now. But I'll be keeping it on my DVD shelves for a long time to come, to remind myself how well a little stately simplicity can work.

I enjoyed both this one when I first watched it on Masterpiece Theater and the A&E production. Colin Firth was certainly a more sexy Mr. Darcy but David Rintoul had his personality more down pat and was more true to the real Mr. Darcy in my estimation. Elizabeth Garvie was more the true Elizabeth as well, she wasn't considered to be a great beauty in the book but her character portrayal was true to the book. I thought all of the sisters and the parents were perfectly cast. Mr. Bennett, Moray Watson, gave a marvelous performance as the wise and witty father. This program may have been considered a bit slow moving to some but I enjoyed every minute of it.