Colin Firth and the BBC class of '95 voted best Pride and Prejudice cast (RADIO TIMES)

RadioTimes.com poll names Firth and Jennifer Ehle, from the TV adaptation of Jane Austen's 200-year-old novel, the ultimate Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet

Ellie Walker-Arnott
1:05 PM, 28 January 2013

In honour of the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, we asked RadioTimes.com readers to take part in our poll to decide the ultimate cast from TV and film adaptations of the beloved literary romance.

We wondered if the votes might provide a new pairing of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, or perhaps match one Mr Bennet with another Mrs B. But as it turned out, you thought the BBC's 1995 TV series, adapted by Andrew Davies, had already ticked almost all the boxes!

Aside from the role of Jane Bennet – which saw Rosamund Pike from the 2005 movie version pip 1995's Susannah Harker to the post with an impressive 50% of the vote – readers opted for the 1995 cast members in all of the categories. So we think it's fair to pronounce the TV mini-series the best ever Pride and Prejudice adaptation.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hasKmDr1yrA

READ MORE: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-01-28/colin-firth-and-the-bbc-class-of-95-voted-best-pride-and-prejudice-cast

'Pride and Prejudice,' story that launched a thousand spinoffs, turns 200 By Bryony Jones, CNN

Are you a "Pride and Prejudice" fan? Which is your favorite adaptation of the book? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

London (CNN) -- It's a simple love story: Girl meets guy, it's hate at first sight, and then they fall in love. "Pride and Prejudice," the original rom-com, turns 200 today, with fans around the world celebrating the story that launched a whole industry.

The tale of feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet and her relationship with the haughty, brooding Darcy is the stuff of spinoffs aplenty: Even if you've never read the original, chances are you've seen one of its many remakes, from Bridget Jones to Bollywood, zombie thrillers to murder mysteries.

But Jane Austen's best-known and most-loved novel, first published on January 28, 1813, and viewed by the author as her "own darling child" wasn't an immediate hit.

"It was very well received, and it made money, but it wasn't a massive bestseller in her day," says Louise West, curator of the Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton, in Hampshire.

Instead it became a slow-burn success, turning its creator -- after her early death in 1817 -- into a literary star. In his recent book "What Matters in Jane Austen?" expert John Mullan claims that only Shakespeare and Dickens "can rival her continuing, international appeal."

Cambridge University English professor Janet Todd puts Austen's enduring appeal down to "the mixture of simplicity and complexity -- her work looks so simple, so ordinary, and yet underneath, the more you look, the more you see, and the more complicated it becomes.

"Austen is one of the very few real crossover writers, who are popular with the public and also feted by critics and academia -- it is very rare."

"It's not just any old love story," says West. "It is also brilliantly written. Austen was the first truly modern novelist, and 'Pride and Prejudice' is full of irony, craft, careful plotting -- you read it for the story, but you get all these other layers of richness too."

But she says the secret of the story's success is down to its protagonists, Elizabeth and Darcy, "two terribly attractive characters who spark off each other in a very dynamic and sexy way," and to its heroine, in particular.

"'Pride and Prejudice' is the book that brings more people here than any other," says West. "They come looking for Elizabeth Bennet -- she is the character women aspire to be, she got the fairy story, and they want it to be real."


READ MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/28/world/europe/pride-and-prejudice-200th-anniversary/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. DARCY!!!

Famous Actors Behind William Darcy of ‘Pride & Prejudice’ (ABC NEWS)

By Jennifer Abbey

Laurence Olivier

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of “Pride & Prejudice,” a story retold dozens of times in novels, films, TV shows and now a popular Internet video series.

Colin Firth has played Darcy three times

It’s often said that women like Jane Austen because they LOVE Mr. Darcy, the unlikely romantic hero of “Pride and Prejudice.”

Matthew Macfadyen

He’s the opposite of an action hero.  The anti-James Bond.

Brooding.  Aloof.  And socially awkward.  A rich, slightly finicky, older man, imprisoned by good manners.   But inside lurks a smoldering romantic flame others just don’t notice.

Martin Henderson

For the past 200 years, Fitzwilliam Darcy has been the Thinking Woman’s Dream Guy, stealing the heart not just of  Austen’s heroine Elizabeth Bennet but generations of young women.

So…. who’s your favorite Mr. Darcy?

READ MORE; http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/01/famous-actors-behind-william-darcy-of-pride-prejudice/

Alan Rickman tends to his own garden, back in director’s chair By Marlee Walters JANUARY 21, 2013 (CRITICAL MOB)

Rival landscape gardeners, hear us out: Alan Rickman.

Rickman hasn't directed since 1997 and hasn't teamed up with Kate Winslet since 1995's Sense and Sensibility, but that doesn't mean he's lost his touch. He's directing a period piece about two rival landscape gardeners (Winslet and Rust and Bone's Matthias Schoenaerts) commissioned to create a fountain for Louis XIV.


READ MORE: http://www.criticalmob.com/news/tv-and-film/alan_rickman_tends_to_his_own_garden_back_in_directors_chair

Happy Birthday, Mr. Darcy!! (HEROLD SCOTLAND) Barry Didcock Senior features writer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0ArRWExbbM

One of English literature's most enduring characters – thanks in part to his embodiment on screen by that troika of male totty Colin Firth, Laurence Olivier and Matthew Macfadyen – Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy celebrates his 200th birthday this month.

He is, of course, the romantic lead in Jane Austen's novel Pride And Prejudice, first published in three hard cover volumes on January 28 1813. But you probably knew that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVChdOFevEo

You may not have known that Austen was paid only £110 for the copyright, miserly when you consider the effect her creation would have on generations of readers, particularly those on the distaff side. In a 2004 poll for the Orange Prize for Fiction, Darcy was voted the romantic icon women would most like to date and the fictional character most women would like to invite to a dinner party.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHv4eHp_gUM

Men tend to look a little less favorably on him, however. "I never met a man who likes Darcy, though most women seem to," wrote literary critic John Carey. Olivier himself was unmoved by Darcy too. "I was very unhappy with the picture," he wrote in his autobiography of his 1940 film portrayal. "It was difficult to make Darcy into anything more than an unattractive-looking prig."

Maybe that's the appeal of Darcy, however. He isn't obvious, or easy or even particularly likeable. But, in the words of Martin Amis, he exhibits the ability of men to be "chastened, deepened, and finally democratized by the force of love."

READ MORE: http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/in-praise-of/in-praise-of-mr-darcy.19779751

Review of my new book - SONS AND DAUGHTERS

Linda Banche and Her Historical Hilarity
Welcome to my World of Historical Hilarity! I write witty, sweet/sensual Regency romances with nary a rake or royal in sight. I'm a two-time EPICON finalist, and my reviews never have spoilers. Join me for a new post on the first Sunday of the month, and sometimes on other days.

Purchase here at Amazon.com

Karen V. Wasylowski has done it again with Sons and Daughters, an often hilarious, sometimes soul-wrenching, but always engaging tale as she continues the saga begun in the delicious Darcy and Fitzwilliam: A Tale of a Gentleman and an Officer.


True to the title, Darcy's and Fitzwilliam's children dominate the story. Darcy has three and Fitzwilliam nine. (Nine, you say? The man has worked overtime.) The book spans twenty years and we laugh and cry along with both clans as the parents age and their children grow and navigate the always difficult transition to adulthood.

Ms. Wasylowski’s flowing prose keeps you turning the pages to see what will happen next. With so many characters, something new, perhaps funny and perhaps heartbreaking, always happens. Like the time when the children, mostly preadolescent, find some erotic prints Fitzwilliam saved and aren’t sure what to make of them, although they’re certain they must be scandalous, to when Fitz’s wife, Amanda, has her ninth child in a very difficult birth.

Ms. Wasylowski’s is a master at writing the emotion of both adults and children, especially as she shows how the children’s feelings change as they mature. She also has a good ear for realistic dialog, whether the character is child or adult, male or female. At times, the boys are disgustingly boys, and the girls, while perhaps a little nicer, are the boys' matches in every way. And the parents, as parents do, yell and threaten as well as love their children to distraction.

I only wish the book was longer. With so many characters, Ms. Wasylowski by necessity had to skim over some stories. I’d like to know more about George and Kathy, and Anne Marie and Mr. Wentworth. Maybe a few novellas?


READ MORE: http://lindabanche.blogspot.com/2012/11/review-sons-and-daughters-by-karen-v.html

Rosamund Pike - BIFA 09, Best Supporting Actress Nominee

I don't understand why she isn't in more films.  She's a wonderful actress, she's beautiful - maybe she just hasn't found her role yet.  Nominated for my favorite role of hers (besides Jane Bennet of course) AN EDUCATION.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_y1v8kwGOI

Rupert Penry-Jones: Deleted scenes from "Persuasion' and a fan video from the set

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZgImzEF3Rz0#!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3qLS0BbE1E&feature=related

Matthew Macfadyen: Darcy´s letter, a secret homage to Colin Firth.(PEMBERLY STATE OF MIND)

(Deborah Moggach, Screenwriter)

“Colin Firth I think was a bit daunting. I never talked to Matthew Macfadyen about it. I mean was a hard act to follow, he set a million, billion female bosoms heaving!! I know people watch that video again and again and again. Ours is just a different Mr. Darcy and he´s absolutely extraordinary. A lot of the people involved in the film hadn´t seen the TV adaptation so I don´t think they were inhibited or daunted as much as I was, because I´d seen it.

I gave a homage to Colin Firth secretly. When I have to write a letter, the letter that Darcy´s painting is saying that `being unable to sleep, I got up early and went out to the lake and I was just about to tear off my shirt and dive into the water when the arrival of a gamekeeper puts an end to such foolishness´. I had Matthew writing that as a little homage.

I think the two things can co-exit, that was eight years ago. There´s a whole new generation and our Darcy is MY Darcy. So he´s wonderful.”

http://pemberley-state-of-mind.tumblr.com/

Pride and Prejudice in TWO MINUTES!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkm5XsUPbvg&feature=player_embedded

Dan Stevens in Sense and Sensibility

I've never seen this version but just from this clip I can see Dan Stevens was remarkable.  Have to find this somewhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6RNYRnwkfI&feature=fvwrel

Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOIsfsgyNJg&feature=related

The best version of Persuasion, in my opinion, and it was overshadowed in 1995 by the wonderful "Pride and Prejudice" movie.  But this is equally beautiful and Ciaran Hinds is wonderful.

Hugh Laurie as Mr. Palmer in "Sense and Sensibility"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B8T53_req48

Remember Pride And Prejudice? It’s back, in vlog form! By Genevieve Koski May 3, 2012 (AV CLUB)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KisuGP2lcPs&feature=player_embedded

The world needs another Pride And Prejudice adaptation like it needs… nope, there’s no way to finish that sentence, because there is nothing the world needs less than another Pride And Prejudice adaptation. And yet here’s another one! However, “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” earns points for originality as probably the first attempt to adapt a novel to the piecemeal, short-form, overly-jump-cut “vlog” format.

A present-day retelling conceived in part by YouTube VIP Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers, the series consists mainly of brainy grad student “Lizzie Bennet” (played by actress Ashley Clements) sitting in her bedroom talking about her brood of sisters (who occasionally burst into her bedroom to join in), her obnoxious mother (played by Lizzie in costume), her best friend/camerawoman Charlotte, the rich medical student named “Bing Lee” who just moved in next door, and his mysterious friend Darcy. (“Isn’t that Colin Firth’s name in that Chubby Zellweger movie?”)


READ MORE:  http://www.avclub.com/articles/remember-pride-and-prejudice-its-back-in-vlog-form,73484/

Downton Abbey’ a lavish costume drama with strong cast (The Kansan.com)

By Ashley Bergner

Entertainment industry insiders probably weren’t predicting a British costume drama set in the early 1900s about a wealthy family and their household of servants would become one of the most buzzed-about TVs shows last year.

Yet “Downton Abbey” achieved the difficult task of becoming a favorite with both critics and viewers. The show’s lavish sets and costumes, and its depiction of scandals, heartbreaks and class struggles during one of England’s most dramatic eras of change, make this one of the most fascinating period dramas produced in recent times.

The show takes some cues from the works of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, and another famous British drama, “Upstairs, Downstairs,” but it presents a vision and tone all its own. The series (the second season currently is airing on PBS in the United States) follows the rich Earl and Countess of Grantham, Robert and Cora Crawley, and their daughters, Mary, Edith and Sybil, who occupy an elaborate estate in England called Downton Abbey. Yet despite a veneer of splendor and wealth, all is not well at Downton. The Earl’s daughters will not be able to inherit their family’s money or estate (it must pass to a male heir), a fact that creates a certain amount of resentment. The Earl’s oldest daughter, Mary, is pushed to marry the heir, the Earl’s young cousin Matthew Crawley, who works in the law profession. Mary snobbishly turns him down, only later realizing she actually does love him.

However, only about half of the show’s air time is devoted to the aristocratic Earl and his family, and the other portion — which is just as fascinating, if not more so — is devoted to the family’s staff of servants, who must deal with their own set of scandals and struggles. Though most of the servants are content with their social class, others are not, and they envy the Crawleys' wealth and position.

I’m a big fan of British shows and period dramas in general, and if you like “Pride and Prejudice” and other BBC dramas, you’ll probably like “Downton Abbey,” as well. Yet even if these aren’t the type of shows you normally watch, consider giving it a try.

My friends and I good-naturedly joke about “Downton Abbey” being our “historical British soap opera” ;) but it’s actually more than that. Yes, there’s plenty of romantic drama — will Lady Mary and Matthew still end up together, even though he’s currently engaged to someone else?; will the family’s young Irish chauffeur confess his feelings for Lady Sybil, even though they’re not from the same social class?; and will head housemaid Anna Smith and Lord Grantham’s valet John Bates finally tie the knot? — but that’s not all the show is about.

Despite their differences in social classes, the aristocratic Crawleys and their servants really aren’t that different: They all have hopes and dreams that don’t always come true, and both groups are, in a way, limited by their social classes. Although the servants sometimes regret they aren’t able to have their own lives and families because they’ve given their lives to serving the Crawleys, the Crawleys’ daughters also feel pressured by their social status: i.e. to always behave like proper ladies, to marry well, etc. Both classes sometimes wish they could trade places.

There’s a lot of strong performances in this show, so it’s difficult to narrow it down to the best characters. The sweet-natured housemaid Anna Smith (played by Joanne Froggatt) and the self-sacrificing Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle) have emerged as fan favorites, as has the Dowager Countess, played with razor-sharp wit by the great Maggie Smith, who supplies many of the show’s best lines.

The show has already aired in the United Kingdom, so if you research the series online, be warned you may run across a few spoilers. A few reviews seem to indicate critics thought the second season was a little too fast-paced, but I’ve only seen the first two episodes of season two so far. There were a few plot details that seemed a little rushed in the first episode, but I didn’t find any pacing problems in episode two.

The third episode of season two is airing Sunday on PBS, but if you’ve missed the first season, you can catch it on Netflix. The first episodes of season two also are available for instant streaming on http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/index.html for a limited time

http://www.thekansan.com/community/blogs/x255287598/-Downton-Abbey-a-lavish-costume-drama-with-strong-cast

I am not alone - other new authors are going nuts with twitter, FB, google - thank heavens for DOWNTON ABBEY, JANE AUSTEN, AND CHOCOLATE

(I so understand this woman, Suzanne Morrison, author of Yoga Bitch - a new author, flapping around, trying to promote her book.  Her only relaxation is good friends and Downton Abbey!  So true. - Karen)


For the Exhausted Author, Wellness Is on the T.V.

Posted: 10/13/11 10:35 AM ET

 

 

But let me tell you: it's pretty freaking hard to relax when twitter, facebook, goodreads, and google beckon the new author to obsess over her sales, her status, her rank and reviews. I felt like I needed to remove my head and put it in cold storage for a day or two. But I was at my dear friend Kate's apartment in Williamsburg, and her refrigerator really wasn't big enough for my head. So we debated how best to structure a day of recovery from the travel, the endless self-promotion, the micromania of having a book out. Here's what I would normally do:

1. Yoga. Let me just say that the very last thing I wanted to do after spending weeks promoting a book called Yoga Bitch was yoga. I needed a prescription for Xanax just to think of the word yoga.
2. Read. The second-to-last thing I wanted to do after spending weeks promoting a book of any kind was read. I had tried, and the book I was reading, Patti Smith's Just Kids, prompted such a powerful spasm of self-loathing I had to either put the book down or jump out of the airplane I was traveling in at the time. I hadn't dared touch a book since.

Kate suggested we take a walk. I figured that was probably a good start. Sounded healthy. But she had something in mind for me, something that would truly help me get well. She took me to one of those artisanal-everything shops in Williamsburg and ordered two organic pepperoni sticks. She bought popcorn coated in caramel and sprinkled with bacon bits. "We're going to watch TV," she said, adding an enormous bag of fancy beef jerky to her basket. At the thought of eating beef jerky, I cried a little, because when I'm this tired, happiness feels a little like sadness. I hid for a moment behind a wall of fleur de sel, and wept. Within half an hour we were each settled on our own couch, and Kate had put the first of seven episodes of Downton Abbey on the television. During the opening Masterpiece Theatre promo, Colin Firth's face flashed across the screen. Colin Firth isn't actually in Downton Abbey, but I knew, at once, that I was going to love it. I more than loved it. Downton Abbey is the greatest thing to happen to me since the BBC's 6-hour Pride & Prejudice, which I also watched with Kate back when I lived in New York and still knew how to watch television all day. It's an upstairs-downstairs British saga that starts the day after the sinking of the Titanic and ends at the onset of World War I. Whenever I'm full of worry and prone to complain, my mother admonishes me to think about others for a change, that there will be relief from my own problems if I dwell, instead, on the problems of others. My mother is a very good person, and I'm pretty sure she means that I should go volunteer somewhere, or maybe pray for those who have less than I. Well. Spending an entire day thinking about the inhabitants of Downton Abbey, both the aristos upstairs and the servants down below, may not qualify as charity, but holy God, did it relieve me of myself. The troubling vicissitudes of my own frail and trembling ego, the endless worry and strategizing that had deprived me of sleep and rest for months, were assuaged as I worried, wholeheartedly, for the Crawley girls, whose estate had been entailed away. *** "But it's the twentieth century!" I cried. (Literally. I was crying.) *** "I KNOW," Kate replied from her couch. "It's SHOCKING." *** "It's so Jane Austen." *** "SO Jane Austen." *** I worried, fiercely, for the crippled-yet-proud Mr. Bates, that the pernicious a-holes O'Brien & Thomas would have their way and see him fired. What would he do then? He was a cripple, for god's sake, and the world is cold and cruel! And the eldest sister, Lady Mary? Would she succumb to her grandmother Violet's wishes and marry the lower-class cousin on whom the estate had been entailed? Would she whore herself out for the sake of her family fortune? And what about the hot Turk she KILLS with SEX? Television. It's the greatest invention ever. By episode three I was a new person, wholly energized and as well as a yogini after her 108th sun salutation. Who needs Omega fats and deep breathing and flowing linen when you can wear the leggings & ripped t-shirt you slept in while gnawing on fancy beef jerky like a starlet's puggle? "This is the happiest day of my life," I said to Kate. We were on episode 7. Night was falling. I could actually feel my entire backside growing into the couch. "Seriously," Kate said. "The greatest." She caught a bit of drool with the back of her hand. "My wedding was nice, though." "Mine, too," I said. "It's a tie." "Yeah," she said. "Let's watch Harry Potter after this." And she passed me another slice of jerky.