Pride and Prejudice

With Pride and Prejudice, the BBC and A&E Television Networks have joined forces to create a splendid and lavish adaptation of Jane Austen’s timeless novel. This fully realized rendering faithfully follows the unpredictable course laid out in the book’s opening manifesto: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife.” With those words, Austen began the story of the five Bennet daughters and their search for wealthy husbands. Executive producer for the BBC, Michael Wearing, A&E executive-in-charge, Delia Fine, producer Sue Birtwistle, director Simon Langton, and an outstanding cast bring Andrew Davies’ faithful adaptation of the Austen masterpiece to the small screen as a richly rewarding, visually opulent feast for all viewers. Among the actors especially deserving of mention are Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, who bring the aloof but well-heeled Mr. Darcy and the spunky and smart Elizabeth Bennet to life. For presenting a lively illumination of the enduring issues of social pressures and gender politics that make Pride and Prejudice a most modern 19th-century novel, a Peabody Award to the BBC and A&E for Pride and Prejudice.