Pride and Prejudice Mini-Series

Pride and Prejudice with the “real” Mr. Darcy – Colin Firth

How many times did you watch the Pride and Prejudice mini-series when it aired on the A&E television network back in the 1990s? I mean… it was some of the best BBC TV ever imported into the U.S.

And if you’re of the female gender, can you still see Colin Firth emerging from his swim in the lake, with that clingy wet shirt sticking to his well-muscled chest? (See the video below.)

Amazing how some scenes stay with us like that.

Did you run out and buy the DVD as soon as it was available so you could watch all 6 episodes again and again… and again, whenever the fancy struck you?

What! Well, neither did I.

I just figured I could watch it again on television. Except in 2005, another version of Pride and Prejudice came out with Keira Knightley… and that’s the version that keeps playing over and over on TV.

All I could do after that was wonder, “What did they do with the real Mr. Darcy?”

So, in 2011, my Blockbuster video store announced they were closing and started selling off all their stock. I immediately grabbed up Rocky Horror Picture Show and (ta-da) the A&E 2-DVD set of the original BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice. Now I can watch all 6 episodes whenever I want to be uplifted by excellence in… oh, heck… whenever I need a Colin Firth fix.

The “real” Darcy and Elizabeth

I was pleased to see that Amazon is offering the restored edition of Pride and Prejudice with almost 6 hours of high quality television… ah, heck, who am I kidding… hours and hours of Colin Firth. Though, Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet is pretty special, too. For me, it’s tough to imagine Lizzie and Darcy portrayed by anyone other than Ehle and Firth.

Just click on the graphic above if you’d like to read more about the remastered version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD. I’ve got what’s called “The Special Edition” as it was shown originally on TV. From the reviews, it sounds like the restored edition gives a better sound and picture quality than the version I have.