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01-08-2025
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- The Advertiser
Who wore it best? Darcy's wet shirt in 1995 or Darcy's hand flex in 2005?
Like the nerves of his wife are to Pride and Prejudice's Mr Bennet, we have high respect for these screen versions of Jane Austen. We talk, of course, of the BBC's 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and the 2005 Keira Knightley movie version of the great novelist's most popular book. To misquote Mr Bennet, these adaptations are our old friends and we have heard them mentioned with consideration these past 30 years at least. Yes, this year marks three decades since Firth's Mr Darcy steamed up TV screens in his clinging wet shirt, thrusting Austen's novels back into popular culture. And it's 20 years since director Joe Wright's big-screen Pride & Prejudice - with its noteworthy ampersand in the title - gave us Matthew Macfadyen as Darcy and that meme-worthy "hand flex" moment of emotional intensity. Both screen treatments continue to give ardent Austen fans the vapours and both, fittingly, are marking milestones in the 250th year since the great novelist herself was born. Which is all the excuse you need to revisit them - which I heartily recommend after my own recent weekend binge. With the Pride & Prejudice movie getting a cinema re-release to mark its 20th anniversary, a new Netflix screen version currently in the works and an Audible audiobook production featuring the likes of Bill Nighy and Glenn Close dropping worldwide on September 9, let's look back at which screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice wore it best: Darcy's wet shirt of 1995 or Darcy's hand flex of 2005? The Firth series premiered on UK TV screens on September 25, 1995. The Brits had already swooned for dashing Mr Darcy and lively Lizzie Bennett (played by Jenifer Ehle) by the time Australians got to see the ravishing rendition an absurd six months later. Yes, kids, back in 1995, pay-TV had only just started in Australia and most of us were stuck with only five channels to watch. Pride and Prejudice premiered on ABC TV on Sunday, March 3, 1996, in the hotly contested 7.30pm timeslot against 60 Minutes (following Burke's Backyard!) on Nine, Tim Allen sitcom Home Improvement on Seven and US drama Party of Five on Ten. "Surprisingly erotic" is how we described the lavish costume drama back then, noting the bust-enhancing necklines of the ladies' frocks and Firth's splendid smouldering as Darcy, the aloof but handsomely wealthy romantic hero. Here's how we previewed Pride and Prejudice 30 years ago: Popping the question has rarely been as eloquent as it is in the BBC's exquisite new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. When novelist Jane Austen's well-bred, handsomely rich and most agreeably good-looking romantic hero, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, asks for the hand of outspoken country girl Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the restrained passion of the inscrutable dasher burns brightly on the screen. READ MORE: Says Darcy after exchanging one too many smouldering glances with Miss Bennet: "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you ... I beg you most fervently to relieve my suffering and consent to be my wife". Darcy puts his elegant proposition at the end of the third episode of the ravishing six-part drama as he reaches the half-way point on his rocky road to wedded bliss with the gorgeous Lizzie. Set to premiere on the ABC on Sunday, March 3, at 7.30pm and released last month on ABC Video*, Pride and Prejudice went to air in Britain late last year and had critics raving and set the hearts of male and female viewers racing. While some academies and purists from the Jane Austen Society labelled the show a "romantic counterfeit" of the book, which was first published in 1813, an average audience of 10 million Britons watched the TV version of the elaborate love story unfold over six weeks. More than 100,000 fans couldn't even wait for the episodes to roll around and raced out to buy the video*. Austen's novel has been given some narrative surgery (including a new-look happy ending) in the move to TV but the compelling refinement of the story and characters, the exchanges of verbal wit and the moral remain gloriously intact. Colin Firth (seen recently on the ABC in the British movie A Month in the Country) stars as Mr Darcy, Austen's tall, dark, handsome but mysteriously aloof leading man. Firth is fabulous as the character that set the standard for other famous romantic heroes like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. In Darcy's tight white trousers and brooding demeanour, Firth attained virtual pin-up status during Pride and Prejudice's run on the BBC and is bound to turn female heads Down Under. Jennifer Ehle (who played Calypso in The Camomile Lawn) is Firth's perfect match as Lizzie Bennet, Austen's bright and witty heroine, the second of the five Bennet sisters, whose embarrassingly vulgar mother (played by Alison Steadman) has made it her mission in life to "secure" rich husbands for her variously accomplished daughters. Firth reportedly squired the delectable Ehle during the shooting of the $12 million series and production insiders fed the British press juicy stories of "bruised lips and sexual tension" during the couple's more intimate scenes together. There is certainly a seductive chemistry evident between the pair as the pent-up affections of their characters evolve into sensuality. Pride and Prejudice sexy? You bet. Thriller writer P.D. James once described Austen's work as "Mills and Boon written by a genius". The TV critic for The Guardian observed of Darcy's suppressed lust as portrayed by Firth: "He (Darcy) stares at Elizabeth like a ravenous mastiff that has been put on its honour not to touch that sausage". Andrew Davies, the ace screenwriter who adapted Middlemarch, House of Cards and To Play the King before turning his talent to Austen's classic, described the sexual attraction between Darcy and Lizzie as "the engine that drives the plot". Indeed, producer Sue Birtwistle originally sold the idea to Davies as a story about money and sex. "It's what those wonderful old films used to be about, all smouldering glances across the room," she said. "It's sexy the first time they touch hands when they dance. Those kinds of moments are exciting and much sexier than thrashing around in bed." British underwear retailers certainly recognised the power of the series' restrained sex appeal. The bosom-enhancing cut of the Bennet sisters' frocks inspired one company to offer customers the chance to recreate "Jane Austen's classic look" with a bustier designed to give the wearer "an authentic Pride and Prejudice cleavage". Where to watch it now: Pride and Prejudice (1995) is available now to stream in Australia on Stan, BritBox and Apple TV. It is a truth universally acknowledged that someone in possession of the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD* will never want for a melting moment. Jane Austen's stately story of strong-willed young Lizzie Bennet and her elegant dance of love with the aristocratic Mr Darcy was beautifully told over six compelling hours by the BBC. It's been 10 years since we first saw Firth's uptight Darcy swap bittersweet misunderstandings with Jennifer Ehle's forthright Miss Bennet. That intensely romantic series - TV's fifth adaptation of the Austen novel - remains the costume drama against which all other literary adaptations and period pieces are measured. This lively new Pride & Prejudice is the first feature film of the book since 1940, when Laurence Olivier matched wits with Greer Garson. It's a handsome, charming and warmly amusing comedy of manners particularly notable for its big-name supporting players and director Joe Wright's willingness to forgo pretty bonnets and sitting rooms for muddy hems and outdoor settings. But the Firth version is a hard act to follow. Keira Knightley (from Bend it Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean and King Arthur) pouts ever-so delicately as Lizzie, second and most sensible of the five Bennet sisters, whose insufferable, embarrassing mother (Brenda Blethyn) has made it her life's mission to marry them off. Spirited Lizzie resolves to follow her heart, never suspecting that it will lead her to Mr Darcy, a very rich and very handsome man who makes a very poor first impression. Knightley looks engagingly unglamorous as our heroine and Matthew MacFadyen (from TV spy show Spooks) is her telegenic match. But his aloof aristocrat Darcy comes on way too strong as an arrogant sourpuss and proves no competition (in wet shirt or dry) for Firth, though to be fair Firth had much more time on the telly to work his charms. More important, the chemistry between the leads lacks the exquisite tingle required to make us swoon when Wright rings down one of his stunning backdrops (their confrontation in a downpour, their reconciliation on a misty meadow in the golden glow of dawn). Making up for that somewhat are lovely performances by Blethyn as the cringefully improper Mrs Bennet, Donald Sutherland as her long-suffering but quietly rational husband, and Judi Dench as Mr Darcy's imperious aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Sutherland's Mr Bennet is probably the film's most engaging character, especially in the pivotal sequence in which he is touched by his favourite daughter's sense and sensibility. It's just a shame we're not as moved as he is. Where to watch it now: Pride & Prejudice (2005) is screening in selected cinemas and available now to stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel and Apple TV. Like the nerves of his wife are to Pride and Prejudice's Mr Bennet, we have high respect for these screen versions of Jane Austen. We talk, of course, of the BBC's 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and the 2005 Keira Knightley movie version of the great novelist's most popular book. To misquote Mr Bennet, these adaptations are our old friends and we have heard them mentioned with consideration these past 30 years at least. Yes, this year marks three decades since Firth's Mr Darcy steamed up TV screens in his clinging wet shirt, thrusting Austen's novels back into popular culture. And it's 20 years since director Joe Wright's big-screen Pride & Prejudice - with its noteworthy ampersand in the title - gave us Matthew Macfadyen as Darcy and that meme-worthy "hand flex" moment of emotional intensity. Both screen treatments continue to give ardent Austen fans the vapours and both, fittingly, are marking milestones in the 250th year since the great novelist herself was born. Which is all the excuse you need to revisit them - which I heartily recommend after my own recent weekend binge. With the Pride & Prejudice movie getting a cinema re-release to mark its 20th anniversary, a new Netflix screen version currently in the works and an Audible audiobook production featuring the likes of Bill Nighy and Glenn Close dropping worldwide on September 9, let's look back at which screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice wore it best: Darcy's wet shirt of 1995 or Darcy's hand flex of 2005? The Firth series premiered on UK TV screens on September 25, 1995. The Brits had already swooned for dashing Mr Darcy and lively Lizzie Bennett (played by Jenifer Ehle) by the time Australians got to see the ravishing rendition an absurd six months later. Yes, kids, back in 1995, pay-TV had only just started in Australia and most of us were stuck with only five channels to watch. Pride and Prejudice premiered on ABC TV on Sunday, March 3, 1996, in the hotly contested 7.30pm timeslot against 60 Minutes (following Burke's Backyard!) on Nine, Tim Allen sitcom Home Improvement on Seven and US drama Party of Five on Ten. "Surprisingly erotic" is how we described the lavish costume drama back then, noting the bust-enhancing necklines of the ladies' frocks and Firth's splendid smouldering as Darcy, the aloof but handsomely wealthy romantic hero. Here's how we previewed Pride and Prejudice 30 years ago: Popping the question has rarely been as eloquent as it is in the BBC's exquisite new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. When novelist Jane Austen's well-bred, handsomely rich and most agreeably good-looking romantic hero, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, asks for the hand of outspoken country girl Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the restrained passion of the inscrutable dasher burns brightly on the screen. READ MORE: Says Darcy after exchanging one too many smouldering glances with Miss Bennet: "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you ... I beg you most fervently to relieve my suffering and consent to be my wife". Darcy puts his elegant proposition at the end of the third episode of the ravishing six-part drama as he reaches the half-way point on his rocky road to wedded bliss with the gorgeous Lizzie. Set to premiere on the ABC on Sunday, March 3, at 7.30pm and released last month on ABC Video*, Pride and Prejudice went to air in Britain late last year and had critics raving and set the hearts of male and female viewers racing. While some academies and purists from the Jane Austen Society labelled the show a "romantic counterfeit" of the book, which was first published in 1813, an average audience of 10 million Britons watched the TV version of the elaborate love story unfold over six weeks. More than 100,000 fans couldn't even wait for the episodes to roll around and raced out to buy the video*. Austen's novel has been given some narrative surgery (including a new-look happy ending) in the move to TV but the compelling refinement of the story and characters, the exchanges of verbal wit and the moral remain gloriously intact. Colin Firth (seen recently on the ABC in the British movie A Month in the Country) stars as Mr Darcy, Austen's tall, dark, handsome but mysteriously aloof leading man. Firth is fabulous as the character that set the standard for other famous romantic heroes like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. In Darcy's tight white trousers and brooding demeanour, Firth attained virtual pin-up status during Pride and Prejudice's run on the BBC and is bound to turn female heads Down Under. Jennifer Ehle (who played Calypso in The Camomile Lawn) is Firth's perfect match as Lizzie Bennet, Austen's bright and witty heroine, the second of the five Bennet sisters, whose embarrassingly vulgar mother (played by Alison Steadman) has made it her mission in life to "secure" rich husbands for her variously accomplished daughters. Firth reportedly squired the delectable Ehle during the shooting of the $12 million series and production insiders fed the British press juicy stories of "bruised lips and sexual tension" during the couple's more intimate scenes together. There is certainly a seductive chemistry evident between the pair as the pent-up affections of their characters evolve into sensuality. Pride and Prejudice sexy? You bet. Thriller writer P.D. James once described Austen's work as "Mills and Boon written by a genius". The TV critic for The Guardian observed of Darcy's suppressed lust as portrayed by Firth: "He (Darcy) stares at Elizabeth like a ravenous mastiff that has been put on its honour not to touch that sausage". Andrew Davies, the ace screenwriter who adapted Middlemarch, House of Cards and To Play the King before turning his talent to Austen's classic, described the sexual attraction between Darcy and Lizzie as "the engine that drives the plot". Indeed, producer Sue Birtwistle originally sold the idea to Davies as a story about money and sex. "It's what those wonderful old films used to be about, all smouldering glances across the room," she said. "It's sexy the first time they touch hands when they dance. Those kinds of moments are exciting and much sexier than thrashing around in bed." British underwear retailers certainly recognised the power of the series' restrained sex appeal. The bosom-enhancing cut of the Bennet sisters' frocks inspired one company to offer customers the chance to recreate "Jane Austen's classic look" with a bustier designed to give the wearer "an authentic Pride and Prejudice cleavage". Where to watch it now: Pride and Prejudice (1995) is available now to stream in Australia on Stan, BritBox and Apple TV. It is a truth universally acknowledged that someone in possession of the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD* will never want for a melting moment. Jane Austen's stately story of strong-willed young Lizzie Bennet and her elegant dance of love with the aristocratic Mr Darcy was beautifully told over six compelling hours by the BBC. It's been 10 years since we first saw Firth's uptight Darcy swap bittersweet misunderstandings with Jennifer Ehle's forthright Miss Bennet. That intensely romantic series - TV's fifth adaptation of the Austen novel - remains the costume drama against which all other literary adaptations and period pieces are measured. This lively new Pride & Prejudice is the first feature film of the book since 1940, when Laurence Olivier matched wits with Greer Garson. It's a handsome, charming and warmly amusing comedy of manners particularly notable for its big-name supporting players and director Joe Wright's willingness to forgo pretty bonnets and sitting rooms for muddy hems and outdoor settings. But the Firth version is a hard act to follow. Keira Knightley (from Bend it Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean and King Arthur) pouts ever-so delicately as Lizzie, second and most sensible of the five Bennet sisters, whose insufferable, embarrassing mother (Brenda Blethyn) has made it her life's mission to marry them off. Spirited Lizzie resolves to follow her heart, never suspecting that it will lead her to Mr Darcy, a very rich and very handsome man who makes a very poor first impression. Knightley looks engagingly unglamorous as our heroine and Matthew MacFadyen (from TV spy show Spooks) is her telegenic match. But his aloof aristocrat Darcy comes on way too strong as an arrogant sourpuss and proves no competition (in wet shirt or dry) for Firth, though to be fair Firth had much more time on the telly to work his charms. More important, the chemistry between the leads lacks the exquisite tingle required to make us swoon when Wright rings down one of his stunning backdrops (their confrontation in a downpour, their reconciliation on a misty meadow in the golden glow of dawn). Making up for that somewhat are lovely performances by Blethyn as the cringefully improper Mrs Bennet, Donald Sutherland as her long-suffering but quietly rational husband, and Judi Dench as Mr Darcy's imperious aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Sutherland's Mr Bennet is probably the film's most engaging character, especially in the pivotal sequence in which he is touched by his favourite daughter's sense and sensibility. It's just a shame we're not as moved as he is. Where to watch it now: Pride & Prejudice (2005) is screening in selected cinemas and available now to stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel and Apple TV. Like the nerves of his wife are to Pride and Prejudice's Mr Bennet, we have high respect for these screen versions of Jane Austen. We talk, of course, of the BBC's 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and the 2005 Keira Knightley movie version of the great novelist's most popular book. To misquote Mr Bennet, these adaptations are our old friends and we have heard them mentioned with consideration these past 30 years at least. Yes, this year marks three decades since Firth's Mr Darcy steamed up TV screens in his clinging wet shirt, thrusting Austen's novels back into popular culture. And it's 20 years since director Joe Wright's big-screen Pride & Prejudice - with its noteworthy ampersand in the title - gave us Matthew Macfadyen as Darcy and that meme-worthy "hand flex" moment of emotional intensity. Both screen treatments continue to give ardent Austen fans the vapours and both, fittingly, are marking milestones in the 250th year since the great novelist herself was born. Which is all the excuse you need to revisit them - which I heartily recommend after my own recent weekend binge. With the Pride & Prejudice movie getting a cinema re-release to mark its 20th anniversary, a new Netflix screen version currently in the works and an Audible audiobook production featuring the likes of Bill Nighy and Glenn Close dropping worldwide on September 9, let's look back at which screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice wore it best: Darcy's wet shirt of 1995 or Darcy's hand flex of 2005? The Firth series premiered on UK TV screens on September 25, 1995. The Brits had already swooned for dashing Mr Darcy and lively Lizzie Bennett (played by Jenifer Ehle) by the time Australians got to see the ravishing rendition an absurd six months later. Yes, kids, back in 1995, pay-TV had only just started in Australia and most of us were stuck with only five channels to watch. Pride and Prejudice premiered on ABC TV on Sunday, March 3, 1996, in the hotly contested 7.30pm timeslot against 60 Minutes (following Burke's Backyard!) on Nine, Tim Allen sitcom Home Improvement on Seven and US drama Party of Five on Ten. "Surprisingly erotic" is how we described the lavish costume drama back then, noting the bust-enhancing necklines of the ladies' frocks and Firth's splendid smouldering as Darcy, the aloof but handsomely wealthy romantic hero. Here's how we previewed Pride and Prejudice 30 years ago: Popping the question has rarely been as eloquent as it is in the BBC's exquisite new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. When novelist Jane Austen's well-bred, handsomely rich and most agreeably good-looking romantic hero, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, asks for the hand of outspoken country girl Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the restrained passion of the inscrutable dasher burns brightly on the screen. READ MORE: Says Darcy after exchanging one too many smouldering glances with Miss Bennet: "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you ... I beg you most fervently to relieve my suffering and consent to be my wife". Darcy puts his elegant proposition at the end of the third episode of the ravishing six-part drama as he reaches the half-way point on his rocky road to wedded bliss with the gorgeous Lizzie. Set to premiere on the ABC on Sunday, March 3, at 7.30pm and released last month on ABC Video*, Pride and Prejudice went to air in Britain late last year and had critics raving and set the hearts of male and female viewers racing. While some academies and purists from the Jane Austen Society labelled the show a "romantic counterfeit" of the book, which was first published in 1813, an average audience of 10 million Britons watched the TV version of the elaborate love story unfold over six weeks. More than 100,000 fans couldn't even wait for the episodes to roll around and raced out to buy the video*. Austen's novel has been given some narrative surgery (including a new-look happy ending) in the move to TV but the compelling refinement of the story and characters, the exchanges of verbal wit and the moral remain gloriously intact. Colin Firth (seen recently on the ABC in the British movie A Month in the Country) stars as Mr Darcy, Austen's tall, dark, handsome but mysteriously aloof leading man. Firth is fabulous as the character that set the standard for other famous romantic heroes like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. In Darcy's tight white trousers and brooding demeanour, Firth attained virtual pin-up status during Pride and Prejudice's run on the BBC and is bound to turn female heads Down Under. Jennifer Ehle (who played Calypso in The Camomile Lawn) is Firth's perfect match as Lizzie Bennet, Austen's bright and witty heroine, the second of the five Bennet sisters, whose embarrassingly vulgar mother (played by Alison Steadman) has made it her mission in life to "secure" rich husbands for her variously accomplished daughters. Firth reportedly squired the delectable Ehle during the shooting of the $12 million series and production insiders fed the British press juicy stories of "bruised lips and sexual tension" during the couple's more intimate scenes together. There is certainly a seductive chemistry evident between the pair as the pent-up affections of their characters evolve into sensuality. Pride and Prejudice sexy? You bet. Thriller writer P.D. James once described Austen's work as "Mills and Boon written by a genius". The TV critic for The Guardian observed of Darcy's suppressed lust as portrayed by Firth: "He (Darcy) stares at Elizabeth like a ravenous mastiff that has been put on its honour not to touch that sausage". Andrew Davies, the ace screenwriter who adapted Middlemarch, House of Cards and To Play the King before turning his talent to Austen's classic, described the sexual attraction between Darcy and Lizzie as "the engine that drives the plot". Indeed, producer Sue Birtwistle originally sold the idea to Davies as a story about money and sex. "It's what those wonderful old films used to be about, all smouldering glances across the room," she said. "It's sexy the first time they touch hands when they dance. Those kinds of moments are exciting and much sexier than thrashing around in bed." British underwear retailers certainly recognised the power of the series' restrained sex appeal. The bosom-enhancing cut of the Bennet sisters' frocks inspired one company to offer customers the chance to recreate "Jane Austen's classic look" with a bustier designed to give the wearer "an authentic Pride and Prejudice cleavage". Where to watch it now: Pride and Prejudice (1995) is available now to stream in Australia on Stan, BritBox and Apple TV. It is a truth universally acknowledged that someone in possession of the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD* will never want for a melting moment. Jane Austen's stately story of strong-willed young Lizzie Bennet and her elegant dance of love with the aristocratic Mr Darcy was beautifully told over six compelling hours by the BBC. It's been 10 years since we first saw Firth's uptight Darcy swap bittersweet misunderstandings with Jennifer Ehle's forthright Miss Bennet. That intensely romantic series - TV's fifth adaptation of the Austen novel - remains the costume drama against which all other literary adaptations and period pieces are measured. This lively new Pride & Prejudice is the first feature film of the book since 1940, when Laurence Olivier matched wits with Greer Garson. It's a handsome, charming and warmly amusing comedy of manners particularly notable for its big-name supporting players and director Joe Wright's willingness to forgo pretty bonnets and sitting rooms for muddy hems and outdoor settings. But the Firth version is a hard act to follow. Keira Knightley (from Bend it Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean and King Arthur) pouts ever-so delicately as Lizzie, second and most sensible of the five Bennet sisters, whose insufferable, embarrassing mother (Brenda Blethyn) has made it her life's mission to marry them off. Spirited Lizzie resolves to follow her heart, never suspecting that it will lead her to Mr Darcy, a very rich and very handsome man who makes a very poor first impression. Knightley looks engagingly unglamorous as our heroine and Matthew MacFadyen (from TV spy show Spooks) is her telegenic match. But his aloof aristocrat Darcy comes on way too strong as an arrogant sourpuss and proves no competition (in wet shirt or dry) for Firth, though to be fair Firth had much more time on the telly to work his charms. More important, the chemistry between the leads lacks the exquisite tingle required to make us swoon when Wright rings down one of his stunning backdrops (their confrontation in a downpour, their reconciliation on a misty meadow in the golden glow of dawn). Making up for that somewhat are lovely performances by Blethyn as the cringefully improper Mrs Bennet, Donald Sutherland as her long-suffering but quietly rational husband, and Judi Dench as Mr Darcy's imperious aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Sutherland's Mr Bennet is probably the film's most engaging character, especially in the pivotal sequence in which he is touched by his favourite daughter's sense and sensibility. It's just a shame we're not as moved as he is. Where to watch it now: Pride & Prejudice (2005) is screening in selected cinemas and available now to stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel and Apple TV. Like the nerves of his wife are to Pride and Prejudice's Mr Bennet, we have high respect for these screen versions of Jane Austen. We talk, of course, of the BBC's 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and the 2005 Keira Knightley movie version of the great novelist's most popular book. To misquote Mr Bennet, these adaptations are our old friends and we have heard them mentioned with consideration these past 30 years at least. Yes, this year marks three decades since Firth's Mr Darcy steamed up TV screens in his clinging wet shirt, thrusting Austen's novels back into popular culture. And it's 20 years since director Joe Wright's big-screen Pride & Prejudice - with its noteworthy ampersand in the title - gave us Matthew Macfadyen as Darcy and that meme-worthy "hand flex" moment of emotional intensity. Both screen treatments continue to give ardent Austen fans the vapours and both, fittingly, are marking milestones in the 250th year since the great novelist herself was born. Which is all the excuse you need to revisit them - which I heartily recommend after my own recent weekend binge. With the Pride & Prejudice movie getting a cinema re-release to mark its 20th anniversary, a new Netflix screen version currently in the works and an Audible audiobook production featuring the likes of Bill Nighy and Glenn Close dropping worldwide on September 9, let's look back at which screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice wore it best: Darcy's wet shirt of 1995 or Darcy's hand flex of 2005? The Firth series premiered on UK TV screens on September 25, 1995. The Brits had already swooned for dashing Mr Darcy and lively Lizzie Bennett (played by Jenifer Ehle) by the time Australians got to see the ravishing rendition an absurd six months later. Yes, kids, back in 1995, pay-TV had only just started in Australia and most of us were stuck with only five channels to watch. Pride and Prejudice premiered on ABC TV on Sunday, March 3, 1996, in the hotly contested 7.30pm timeslot against 60 Minutes (following Burke's Backyard!) on Nine, Tim Allen sitcom Home Improvement on Seven and US drama Party of Five on Ten. "Surprisingly erotic" is how we described the lavish costume drama back then, noting the bust-enhancing necklines of the ladies' frocks and Firth's splendid smouldering as Darcy, the aloof but handsomely wealthy romantic hero. Here's how we previewed Pride and Prejudice 30 years ago: Popping the question has rarely been as eloquent as it is in the BBC's exquisite new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. When novelist Jane Austen's well-bred, handsomely rich and most agreeably good-looking romantic hero, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, asks for the hand of outspoken country girl Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the restrained passion of the inscrutable dasher burns brightly on the screen. READ MORE: Says Darcy after exchanging one too many smouldering glances with Miss Bennet: "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you ... I beg you most fervently to relieve my suffering and consent to be my wife". Darcy puts his elegant proposition at the end of the third episode of the ravishing six-part drama as he reaches the half-way point on his rocky road to wedded bliss with the gorgeous Lizzie. Set to premiere on the ABC on Sunday, March 3, at 7.30pm and released last month on ABC Video*, Pride and Prejudice went to air in Britain late last year and had critics raving and set the hearts of male and female viewers racing. While some academies and purists from the Jane Austen Society labelled the show a "romantic counterfeit" of the book, which was first published in 1813, an average audience of 10 million Britons watched the TV version of the elaborate love story unfold over six weeks. More than 100,000 fans couldn't even wait for the episodes to roll around and raced out to buy the video*. Austen's novel has been given some narrative surgery (including a new-look happy ending) in the move to TV but the compelling refinement of the story and characters, the exchanges of verbal wit and the moral remain gloriously intact. Colin Firth (seen recently on the ABC in the British movie A Month in the Country) stars as Mr Darcy, Austen's tall, dark, handsome but mysteriously aloof leading man. Firth is fabulous as the character that set the standard for other famous romantic heroes like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. In Darcy's tight white trousers and brooding demeanour, Firth attained virtual pin-up status during Pride and Prejudice's run on the BBC and is bound to turn female heads Down Under. Jennifer Ehle (who played Calypso in The Camomile Lawn) is Firth's perfect match as Lizzie Bennet, Austen's bright and witty heroine, the second of the five Bennet sisters, whose embarrassingly vulgar mother (played by Alison Steadman) has made it her mission in life to "secure" rich husbands for her variously accomplished daughters. Firth reportedly squired the delectable Ehle during the shooting of the $12 million series and production insiders fed the British press juicy stories of "bruised lips and sexual tension" during the couple's more intimate scenes together. There is certainly a seductive chemistry evident between the pair as the pent-up affections of their characters evolve into sensuality. Pride and Prejudice sexy? You bet. Thriller writer P.D. James once described Austen's work as "Mills and Boon written by a genius". The TV critic for The Guardian observed of Darcy's suppressed lust as portrayed by Firth: "He (Darcy) stares at Elizabeth like a ravenous mastiff that has been put on its honour not to touch that sausage". Andrew Davies, the ace screenwriter who adapted Middlemarch, House of Cards and To Play the King before turning his talent to Austen's classic, described the sexual attraction between Darcy and Lizzie as "the engine that drives the plot". Indeed, producer Sue Birtwistle originally sold the idea to Davies as a story about money and sex. "It's what those wonderful old films used to be about, all smouldering glances across the room," she said. "It's sexy the first time they touch hands when they dance. Those kinds of moments are exciting and much sexier than thrashing around in bed." British underwear retailers certainly recognised the power of the series' restrained sex appeal. The bosom-enhancing cut of the Bennet sisters' frocks inspired one company to offer customers the chance to recreate "Jane Austen's classic look" with a bustier designed to give the wearer "an authentic Pride and Prejudice cleavage". Where to watch it now: Pride and Prejudice (1995) is available now to stream in Australia on Stan, BritBox and Apple TV. It is a truth universally acknowledged that someone in possession of the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD* will never want for a melting moment. Jane Austen's stately story of strong-willed young Lizzie Bennet and her elegant dance of love with the aristocratic Mr Darcy was beautifully told over six compelling hours by the BBC. It's been 10 years since we first saw Firth's uptight Darcy swap bittersweet misunderstandings with Jennifer Ehle's forthright Miss Bennet. That intensely romantic series - TV's fifth adaptation of the Austen novel - remains the costume drama against which all other literary adaptations and period pieces are measured. This lively new Pride & Prejudice is the first feature film of the book since 1940, when Laurence Olivier matched wits with Greer Garson. It's a handsome, charming and warmly amusing comedy of manners particularly notable for its big-name supporting players and director Joe Wright's willingness to forgo pretty bonnets and sitting rooms for muddy hems and outdoor settings. But the Firth version is a hard act to follow. Keira Knightley (from Bend it Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean and King Arthur) pouts ever-so delicately as Lizzie, second and most sensible of the five Bennet sisters, whose insufferable, embarrassing mother (Brenda Blethyn) has made it her life's mission to marry them off. Spirited Lizzie resolves to follow her heart, never suspecting that it will lead her to Mr Darcy, a very rich and very handsome man who makes a very poor first impression. Knightley looks engagingly unglamorous as our heroine and Matthew MacFadyen (from TV spy show Spooks) is her telegenic match. But his aloof aristocrat Darcy comes on way too strong as an arrogant sourpuss and proves no competition (in wet shirt or dry) for Firth, though to be fair Firth had much more time on the telly to work his charms. More important, the chemistry between the leads lacks the exquisite tingle required to make us swoon when Wright rings down one of his stunning backdrops (their confrontation in a downpour, their reconciliation on a misty meadow in the golden glow of dawn). Making up for that somewhat are lovely performances by Blethyn as the cringefully improper Mrs Bennet, Donald Sutherland as her long-suffering but quietly rational husband, and Judi Dench as Mr Darcy's imperious aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Sutherland's Mr Bennet is probably the film's most engaging character, especially in the pivotal sequence in which he is touched by his favourite daughter's sense and sensibility. It's just a shame we're not as moved as he is. Where to watch it now: Pride & Prejudice (2005) is screening in selected cinemas and available now to stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel and Apple TV.
Scottish Sun
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
Rangers cult hero spotted back at Ibrox as he shares adorable family photo on return three years after Ibrox exit
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) MANY players leave Rangers having taken the club to heart. And that's certainly the case for a former Light Blues hero who's been spotted making a return to Ibrox. Sign up for the Rangers newsletter Sign up 5 Andy Firth spent three years with Rangers Credit: Willie Vass - The Sun 5 He was involved in huge celebrations after the win over RB Leipzig Credit: Willie Vass 5 The former keeper has been back at Ibrox Credit: INSTAGRAM/@BETHANFIRTH 5 Firth's young son experienced Ibrox for the first time Credit: INSTAGRAM/@BETHANFIRTH Goalkeeper Andy Firth made just one appearance for Rangers during his three-year stint at the club between 2019 and 2022. The former Liverpool kid was snapped up by Steven Gerrard from Barrow and was largely third-choice keeper during his spell with the Gers. Firth's only appearance came in May 2019 on the final day of the season against Kilmarnock, when he replaced an injured Wes Foderingham. While he wouldn't see any further playing time, Firth went on to become a cult hero among the Light Blues support. He was often front and centre of wild celebrations, including after the Gers' defeat of RB Leipzig to reach the Europa League Final. Firth's contract expired in the weeks that followed the Seville showpiece and his time in Glasgow came to an end. When his exit was confirmed, the stopper said it had been the "best time of my life" and that he had "lived the dream" at Ibrox. Firth spent two years with Connah's Quay Nomads in Wales after leaving Rangers before heading for Saudi Arabia in 2024 as a goalkeeping coach for Al-Ettifaq, once again working under Gerrard. While he's been away from Ibrox for three years, Firth's love for Rangers certainly hasn't gone away. The former goalkeeper was in fact BACK at his former home stadium to take in the Gers' clash with Club Brugge on Sunday. Rangers transfer special including Metinho chase, Rothwell latest and Igamane fee Wife Bethan shared a couple of adorable snaps on Instagram showing the family outside the Ibrox gates. Their baby son Carter was wearing a Rangers top with his name and his dad's number, 13, on the back. Firth shared the pictures to his own Instagram story, adding: "And all my sons, will be like me." Those are lyrics from a chant led by the Gers ultras group the Union Bears. It isn't the first time Firth has been to see Rangers in action since his departure from the club. Just weeks after leaving, he was in the crowd for a pre-season clash at Blackpool three years ago. While Gerrard left Al-Ettifaq earlier this year, Firth has remained in his role as goalkeeping coach since. 5 Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
Belfast Telegraph
19-06-2025
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
New Lidl opens in NI town with 15 jobs created
The Paralympic gold medallist Bethany Firth MBE cut the ribbon at the retailers 12,000 square metre 'concept store' A spokesperson for the discount grocer said that 15 new jobs have been added to the existing staff employed by the company in Newcastle, bringing the total to 37. Staff have moved from Lidl 's former location on the town's Railway Street, were it had been situated for 24 years. The site of the new store will also be used for the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team to develop a new purpose-built base. Over 200 people were employed in the construction of the shop, which has a 'living roof' design, which Lidl say is 'designed to blend seamlessly with the store's backdrop set within the Mourne Mountains Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).' Ms Firth said: 'As a proud ambassador for Lidl's Sport for Good programme, I am delighted to welcome Lidl Northern Ireland's newest store to my local area. "As someone born and raised in County Down, I am pleased to see Lidl's contribution to the local community that has welcomed the creation of new jobs, while promising continued environmental sustainability – protecting our outstanding local landscape. 'The impressive new store not only offers local shoppers' quality and value but also demonstrates Lidl's genuine investment in our community's future. "By providing a new base for the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team, it's great to see a business that truly understands and is sensitive to the place we call home, supporting the continued provision of a life-saving service in the local area.' Gordon Cruikshanks, regional managing director for Lidl Northern Ireland said: "We have been serving the Newcastle community for the last 24 years, from our former premises in Railway Street and our project to develop this brand-new store for the local area has been in planning for the last nine years. 'Newcastle is a thriving community and bustling seaside town attracting visitors from across the island of Ireland. "With growing customer numbers in the area and more shoppers choosing to 'Go Full Lidl', we are delighted to move to a larger, more sustainable, modern new store for the local community and visitors alike. 'We're also looking forward to completing further developments on our new site, to enable the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team to construct an upgraded new base for their services which are invaluable in this community.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Small business owner makes massive impact after starting forest preservation foundation with late wife: 'Patience, humility, and a unique long-term view'
A business owner and nonprofit founder is working to preserve Pennsylvania's forests tree by tree. By buying up forested land and engaging in sustainable logging practices, he's already helped save several thousand acres. Troy Firth has proven his commitment to forest preservation for more than 50 years. Since 1971, he's owned and managed Firth Maple Products, located in the northwest part of the state and relying on forests to produce lumber and maple syrup. He founded the Foundation for Sustainable Forests in 2004 with his late wife, Lynn. The nonprofit operates as a land trust, protecting more than 3,700 acres of Pennsylvania woods via direct ownership and conservation easements, according to the foundation. "The mission is to keep forested land forested," Firth told Lancaster Farming, a regional farm newspaper for the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. "That's why the foundation exists." Both the nonprofit and the business practice sustainable logging methods, including horse logging. Firth Maple Products says this causes less damage to the forests than modern machinery, preventing soil compaction, erosion, and harm to tree roots lying just beneath the topsoil. The benefits of preserving forests are clear, chief among them a healthier environment for humans. Not only do trees help purify the air by absorbing heat-trapping carbon dioxide, producing oxygen as well, but they're also the source of many medicines on the market. There's yet another way in which protecting forests can help safeguard health across species. Since woodlands serve as important habitats for animals that might otherwise be forced into dangerous proximity with human activity, preserving these ecosystems can help reduce dangerous human-wildlife interactions that can cause injuries and spread disease. The recipient of the 2024 Leopold Conservation Award, Firth has long been recognized for his work in forestry and conservation. Previously, he has received the Pennsylvania Tree Farmer of the Year Award, the Forest Conservation Stewardship Award, and numerous other honors, per the nonprofit WeConservePA. Firth's influence and impact on Pennsylvania's forestry industry are evident in how his peers and colleagues talk about him. "Troy has taught me to truly think about what 'perpetuity' means to a piece of land," Annie Socci, the foundation's executive director, told WeConservePA. Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. "The lifespan of a forest, if cared for, is far greater than any of us. In the woods, Troy thinks and manages on a time scale that matches that of both the forest ecosystem and the Foundation for Sustainable Forests as an organization. To do so takes patience, humility, and a unique long-term view." Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Scotsman
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen review: 'an extraordinary first novel'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Like all the best adventure stories, Michael Pedersen's debut novel Muckle Flugga begins with a map. It's a map of an imagined island at the far northern tip of Shetland; a small island complete with lighthouse, bothy for accommodating visitors, cliffs, caves, coves, and also unexpected gardens, and wild places. It's to this island that the book's central character, a young Edinburgh writer and artist called Firth, makes what he intends to be a final journey, after he abruptly cancels his planned suicide off the Forth Bridge. He is inspired to live a little more by a visit - as he dangles from the ironwork - from a passing gannet; the bird reminds him of a promise he once made to his old seafaring grandfather - who used to tell tales of Muckle Flugga - that he would go there and paint a gannet for him. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Shaun Murawski | Shaun Murawski So it is that Firth arrives on the island, inhabited only by the fierce widowed lighthouse keeper and his gentle 19-year-old son Ouse; and begins a physical, emotional and psychological journey so vivid, intense, and fiercely tragic-comic that it often threatens to take the breath away. Indeed Firth himself seems to spend much of his time gasping for air, as he is overwhelmed by rain and seawater, pitched by the swaying hammock in his bothy into the bath that sits beneath it, attacked by the ravenous sea birds known as bonxies, or - most significantly - increasingly heart-struck by the beauty, wisdom and genius of the boy Ouse, a quiet lad relentlessly bullied by his distraught father since his mother's death, yet nonetheless filled with an inner poise and creative energy that enables him to survive his father's rages, and even to continue to love him. Until now, Michael Pedersen has been known primarily as a poet; currently Edinburgh's Makar, he has published three powerful collections of poems, as well as his acclaimed 2022 memoir Boy Friends, a study of love and friendship inspired by the death of his friend Scott Hutchison, of the indie band Frightened Rabbit. In Muckle Flugga, though, he delivers an extraordinary first novel, that takes a fairly simple narrative arc - despairing hero travels to a far place, where he rediscovers the will to live and love - and packs it with the most audacious forms of strangeness, including a weird, tangential relationship with the normal timelines of human history. It is difficult to know, on Muckle Flugga, whether we are in an internet-free past where a demented solo lighthouse keeper might avoid the attention of the authorities, in a disintegrating future where such systems are breaking down, or in a parallel reality altogether, where past and future collide in Firth's tormented, whisky-fuelled dreams. What is clear, through, is that Firth's time on the island reconnects him with the natural world in ways that are both comically emphatic and unbelievably rich in brilliant and rotting detail; and that that encounter with the physical extremes of life on Muckle Flugga has nothing to do with 'escape' from Firth's previous city life, and everything to do with a new recognition of the reality on which all life rests. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad For all its geographical distance, Muckle Flugga is intensely linked to the wider world in myriad ways that race and dance through Pedersen's story. There is the lighthouse lamp itself, and its intense connection to the lives of the ships and sailors whom it guides to safety, all filtered through the disturbed but energetic mind of The Father, who tends the light with fanatical dedication. There is the great library Firth discovers on the island, tenderly cared for by Ouse, and rich with stories and histories from across the globe. And there is that strand of Scottish history that links islands and maps and lighthouses through the Edinburgh family of Lighthouse Stevensons, builders of the Muckle Flugga light; and their rebel son Robert Louis Stevenson, the magical storytelling creator of the best loved of all treasure islands, who appears on Muckle Flugga as Ouse's familiar spirit and guardian angel. Stevenson, of course, is also the author of The Strange Case of Dr, Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; and it's difficult not to see autobiographical elements both in Pedersen's self-mocking account of the briefly fashionable Edinburgh writer in flight from the shallowness of his world, and in his portrait of the strength, steady sweetness and sheer creative genius of Ouse, who designs and makes the most beautiful woollen artefacts Firth has ever seen. Pedersen's first novel, in other words, is as rich in meanings and resonances as a gorgeous painting laden with significant detail. And all of its threads and strands are transformed and re-energised by the brilliant refracting lenses of Pedersen's prose; sometimes tumbling over itself in haste and over-exuberance, sometimes glinting in perfection, but always conjuring up vital new realities, just when we need them most.
