I have to say the thought of reviewing this 6 part mini series seemed quite daunting as I sat down on a quiet Sunday to watch it. In High School I started reading the original novel by Jane Austen but got bored with it and never finished it. An err of my younger days I now see. Resigning myself to just watching a couple of episodes at a time I found after a couple of hours I couldn’t leave. This is one of those true chick flicks you just can’t stop watching.

Let me first outline some of the main characters.

Mr Bennett (Benjamin Whitrow) the quiet, temperamental and often facetious father of 5 daughters and husband to Mrs Bennett

Mrs Bennett (Alison Steadman) this is a fabulous character who frequently reminded me of Mrs Bucket from Keeping up Appearances with her exasperating attitude towards her family and her pledge for a place in society even if it was only gained by marrying off her daughters.

Their daughters:

Lydia: (Julia Sawalha) of ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ fame is as her father puts it the silliest of the 5 daughters and also the youngest.

Kitty: (Polly Maberly) also young and silly and very jealous of Lydia.

Mary: (Lucy Briers) is quiet and obedient, instead of chasing prospective husbands, prefers to play music or read books.

Elizabeth or Lizzie: (Jennifer Ehle) is one of the main characters in the series and is a witty and intelligent young woman who is intent on marrying for love and not money.

Jane: (Susannah Harker) is the oldest and considered to be the prettiest which I think is more so just because she has blonde hair. She is also to marry only for love.

Mr Collins: (David Bamber) the cousin of the five sisters who is looking for a wife.

Mr Darcy: (Colin Firth) a sensational character, who is rich beyond all belief and who is at first betrayed as a hard and arrogant man who is rude and impolite.

Now that you know all the main characters I’ll attempt to overview the plot.

The Bennett family who live by their worth are anticipating the arrival of the Rich Mr Bingley and Mrs Bennett is making plans of marrying off one of her daughters to the unsuspecting gentleman. Jane and Mr Bingley do seem to hit it off quite well, however Mr Darcy and Lizzie seem to clash immediately. Mr Darcy is the sort of man who does not dance and does not associate with anyone below his stature in society and the Bennett family are obviously not very wealthy. Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy then return to London leaving the family wondering of the romance between Bingley and Jane.

Enter Mr Collins the cousin of the 5 sisters who is set to inherit their property in the event of the death of Mr Bennett, as he is the closest male kin in the Family. I might be wrong but isn’t it incestuous for cousins to marry? This played on my mind quite a lot as Mr Collins sought after the hand of Lizzie in marriage. Maybe this was acceptable in these times. Lizzie however does accept Mr Collins proposal as she loathes him and is persistent in her efforts to only marry for love. Mrs Bennett is devastated and so is Mr Collins who spends the night a friend of the family’s and ends up marrying their daughter Charlotte who is a very good friend of Lizzie’s.

Between trips to London and Derbyshire and gossip of Mr Darcy’s intended marriage of the daughter of Lady Catherine is the influence of Mr Wickham. An officer of the Militia who is happy to convince Lizzie that Mr Darcy is in fact a very seedy character.

This is where the story starts to get very interesting so I won’t spoil it for you.

From here on we see the fall and rise of Mr Darcy, the fall of the Bennett family pride when Lydia elopes with Mr Wickham who turns out to not be what he first seemed and the marriage of Lydia even though it’s obviously not for love. Last but not least in the finale is the outcome of the relationship between Jane and Mr Bingley and Lizzie and Mr Darcy.

A very happy ending I must say.

So how does this transfer hold up?

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VIDEO
I’ll be honest, I really didn’t expect much from 5 hours or so of a BBC mini series made for TV.

The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is little more than I expected and really quite disappointing for such a publicised series.

The biggest flaw in the transfer is the colour spectrum, which is completely drained and dull throughout. There is such a huge prospect for some spectacular colour; I really don’t understand why more attention wasn’t given to this aspect in the transfer. It is a period piece but that doesn’t mean we need to have a wash of period style colour. Mpeg artefacts seem to be limited to the opening credits and film artefacts are few and far between.

The transfer is plagued with grain, which is at times quite noticeable and annoying. The very last scene in the entire series in particular is basically only VHS quality and is a great downfall on the transfer.

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AUDIO
The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track is really all that is required for a period drama like this. Dialogue was mostly clear throughout although at times the verbose script can be hard to keep up with, and seems a little mumbled.

The surround channels didn’t get a lot of use, only a few sound effects and support of the soundtrack. The lfe channel could have been switched off and you wouldn’t have known it as it was very rarely used at all.

The soundtrack from Carl Davies was supportive of the era and was enveloping and relaxing most of the time with a subtle classical feel to it.

 

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EXTRAS
Making of Featurette: this is actually quite a good piece and could have been a lot longer. There are several sections which give some great insight into the behind the scenes of the series.

OVERALL
Anyone serious dvd or movie collector must have this in their collection. I was enthralled and excited throughout. The transfer may not be fantastic but the story almost makes up for it.

PICTURE QUALITY	6/10 some very major problems
SOUND Quality	8/10 not exciting but not a lot of faults either
EXTRAS	3/10 good but could have been more
OVERALL	9/10 a favourite in my collection

Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Pioneer 737
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V595a
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfedale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf
Sub: M&K v75

- Reviewed 17th May 2001

* jpeg files for internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by Roadshow Home Entertainment/ABC