Each episode opens with a watercolor tableau rendered in the style of Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827), a famous caricaturist and a contemporary of Jane Austen.
Regarding her screenplay for the serial, Fay Weldon said, "I hope it makes Pride and Prejudice accessible to those who might never have read the book and pleasurable for those who know it well."
Elizabeth Garvie was asked to read for the role of Elizabeth Bennet after producer Jonathan Powell saw her photo on her agent's wall. She auditioned the next day and won the part.
Screenwriter Fay Weldon refers to Elizabeth Bennet's method of winning Mr. Darcy as "unconventional means - audacity rather than compliance."
The beige dress with paisley bodice Sabina Franklyn (Jane Bennet) wears at Longbourn is the same gown Rachel Fielding (Mrs. Benson) wears in Princesa Caraboo (1994), Julie Cox (Annabella Milbanke) wears to read Childe Harold in Byron (2003), and Freema Agyeman (Tattycoram) wears on the Marseilles wharf in Little Dorrit (2008). The gown is also worn by an extra on the Marseilles wharf at the beginning of O Conde de Monte Cristo (2002), and by a guest at Fanny's wedding in Srta. Austen Lamenta (2007).