Death Comes to Pemberley

I am a big P&P fan so I came to this series prepared to love it, although I wasn't a great fan of the book.

Could someone not have had a chat with BBC execs about age appropriate casting? Anna Maxwell Martin was a full ten years older than what Lizzie would have been at the time of the story (i.e. A few years after marrying Darcy at 21). She's a good actress but she definitely looks her age, so she can't play a girl in her mid-twenties. Added to this, she looks tired and dishevelled most of the film, as you'd expect a Dickens character to look, not the witty, happy and bubbly Elizabeth Bennet. It's a complete miscasting and honestly very distracting.

Darcy is also miscast - he is a bit more put together, but has the wrong countenance for Darcy, he does not come across as the imposing figure he is supposed to be.

Georgiana Darcy and Lydia Bennet are far better casting choices, they play their characters fairly well and most importantly look the part (and are the right age...). However Lydia is portrayed as fairly self-aware and certainly not the "silliest girl in Britain", Georgiana is far too relaxed and "modern" for the times.

Add to this some silly plot points, and it's a no from me. However much I enjoy Jane Austen adaptations, this one misses the mark.

This would have been a good series if it had not appropriated Jane Austen's characters and settings. I was surprised at the casting of Darcy and Elizabeth, who were both dour and unattractive. The plot was interesting, but rather than being an homage to "Pride And Prejudice", which, like "Gone with the Wind", should remain intact and untouched by those with less imagination. The production was excellent, with beautiful costumes and sets, as always for British period dramas, but the leads playing the Darcy's were too old. Elizabeth looked like a worn out servant of at least 45, when Elizabeth Bennet would have been 27 at most, with wit and sparkle. They could not rise to the performances of Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, who will always be the only Darcy and Lizzy. And why is the beautiful Georgiana so much taller than her own brother, who looks nothing like her? The mystery was a competent one and the performances of the supporting actors well done. But it does no justice to Jane Austen. This series would have been much improved as a period murder mystery with completely fresh characters.

I am sorry to disagree with the many fans of this. The dialogue is terribly anachronistic and a million miles from the style of Jane Austen. "Let's not overreact" from Darcy, for example, and worst of all from Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the world's most supercilious and conservative woman of her age, who says to Lizzie, "We need to talk". Need I say more?

I'm not an expert on legal procedures through the ages, but I strongly suspect that the court scenes were anachronistic, too. Others can probably give better information on this.

Also, I noticed very little chemistry between the Darcys, despite what some have claimed.

Daniel Peacock's adaptation of P. D. James' reworking of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE offers a fascinating combination of styles and stylistics. It unfolds in the leisurely manner of most British television detective thrillers, taking care to sketch in the characters and define their relationship to one another. A murder occurs two-thirds of the way through the first episode, and the remainder of the time is spent outlining the series of hypotheses, assumptions (some mistaken), and clues that lead to the unmaking of the culprit. DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY also situates itself squarely in the heritage adaptation genre, with plenty of exterior shots of the Darcys' house (I counted twelve in episode one alone), augmented with moments of period 'realism' as various types of coach and horse arrive and depart from the front entrance. The cast comprises a series of star names calculated to appeal to different generations of television viewers; Jenna Coleman from EMMERDALE and DOCTOR WHO shares the screen with Trevor Eve (WAKING THE DEAD, SHOESTRING) and Penelope Keith (THE GOOD LIFE, TO THE MANOR BORN). The acting is competent without being out of the ordinary, although I do wonder whether the Lydia Bennet of Austen and James would have reacted with quite such ferocity to her husband's arrest. What gives this production is true fascination, however, is the way in which director Peacock deliberately references Simon Langton's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1995) throughout the mise-en-scene. This can be seen in the costume- designs (by Marianne Agertoft), as well as in the characterization: Elizabeth Bennet (Anna Maxwell Martin) communicates the same spirit of quiet determination embodied by Jennifer Ehle in the earlier production. She is also shot in much the same way, with the emphasis placed on her reactions to what happens around her. Her mother (Rebecca Front) seems completely oblivious to her offspring's feelings and shrilly complains of having had a fit should anything go wrong, in a performance inspired by Alison Steadman's reading in the earlier revival. Likewise her husband; James Fleet follows Benjamin Whitrow in maintaining a facade of polite loyalty to Mrs. Bennet, while searching for any opportunity to escape. The experience of watching DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY is a fascinating one, an exercise in identifying intertexts as well as understanding how adaptations are shaped as much by other adaptations as by their source-texts. Definitely worth watching.

So many bad reviews that I'm surprised I watched it at all. I agree it was lacking in the costume department. Elizabeth seemed to wear the same dress or nearly the same one daily. A woman of her means should have better clothing. It also lacked in staff housing. No footman, not butler, not lady's maid. They're should have been a chef and a maid for the chef. All those maids in the kitchen should have been busy I'm the house. It wasn't true to the time. That aside I rather enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for period pieces. I loved seeing it all play out. I wanted more when it was all said and done.