Not exactly what a lot of you may be expecting especially if you were hoping to see Lizzie and Darcy as we recall them from our fave 1995 Pride and Prejudice adaptation with the delightful Jennifer Ehle and gorge Colin Firth. Seems like this adaptation, written by PD James in 2009 as a sequel, time and characterization has passed them by. Lizzie (Anna Maxwell Martin) seems aloof from her sister, Lydia (Jenna Coleman) and appears to be distant from Darcy (Matthew Rhys) too, perhaps there was just not enough chemistry between the leads to do our indubitable characters justice. Everytime I saw Matthew I was constantly reminded of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and his brooding sense of lurking with menace.
The scene begins with two servant girls and one of them claiming she's seen the ghost of the cook/servant/housekeeper explains it's an old wives's tale which is what Lizzie leaves it at. She's busy arranging a ball to which she hasn't invited Lydia or Wickham (Matthew Goode) since he's not to set foot at Pemberley. So Lydia seems to have cut ties with her sister but it more comfortable accepting Georgiana (Eleanor Tomlinson) as her own flesh and blood. Georgiana has two suitors now, one in the form of Henry Alverson (James Norton), a man of law and Fitzwilliam (Tom Ward). Who aims to propose to her after he speaks with Darcy and thinks love will follow. Lizzie doesn't believe this is so and is a stern believer in love coming first. Georgiana however wants Henry.
Lizzie meets a woman in the woods whom is believed to be mad, just to add some more mystery to proceedings. We see Lydia and Wickham who argues with Capt Denny (Tom Canton) telling him he doesn't know how women think. In the carriage, Denny leaves and Wickham follows into the woods. What we see next is Lydia in hysterics and arriving at Pemeberley. The Bennetts have already arrived and father Bennett (James Fleet) prefers to hide himself away in the library whilst Mrs Bennett (Rebecca Front) finds a portrait of Wickham hidden in a closet. Everyone preferring to change the subject. But we're reminded of how Wickham was favoured by Darcy's father.
Lizzie has a flashback to meeting Wickham for the first time where he tells of how he was wronged by Darcy who drove him away from Pemberley. As she mentions her line of his showing his prejudice wherever Darcy goes. Lydia needs to be slapped by her father before she tells them what happened, how two shots were heard and Wickham must be dead. The men arrange a search into the woods accompanied by the coach driver and find Wickham with Denny, dead, and exclaiming how he killed his friend, it's all his fault.
Darcy must go for the magistrate Hardcastle (Trevor Eve) since he is too close and under the law Wickham is seen as his brother, they must do the right thing. Appears he is loathe to do this as Hardcastle is not really favoured much. They ride back to Pemeberley and takes statements from the witnesses who all tell him the same thing. Wickham is sedated by the doctor as is Lydia and Hardcastle finds Wickham has been cleaned and the blood washed. Doctor Belcher (Kevin Eldon) tells him there is no way to ascertain whose blood belongs to which man.
The doctor examines Denny and finds he was hit on the head first by some object like a cosh and then struck at the back of the head. Wickham gives his statement of what happened and claims he wouldn't kill his friend. Doubt and suspicion is also placed on Fitzwilliam as he was out riding alone and Lizzie spies him burning a letter, fragments of which read how he needs support and needs to meet Darcy. Hardcastle finds Wickham's hat with thirty pounds hidden inside. The issue of poachers is raised and Darcy has a flashback to a boy who poached on Hardcastle's land and his father sentenced him to death without being lenient. Darcy and Wickham, as boys, sneaked away to see him hanged. Which is why Hardcastle isn't liked. Later his mother hanged herself in the woods and Lizzie realizes that was the ghost they were talking about earlier.
Hardcastle arrests Wickham since he confessed in front of witnesses and Lydia is hysterical once more. She has to be consoled by Georgiana, whereas her own sister just looks on, wasn't much of a sister then was she. Seemed like there was trouble in paradise between the two since Darcy didn't come right out and tell her he loves Lizzie but had to write to down, though he appears to be a doting father to their son. Though why did Lizzie mention "all good things must come to an end."
Seems this production was aimed at the darker sides of all concerned, I mean who would expect Col Fitzwilliam, Darcy's cousin of harbouring secrets and Lizzie snooping around as if she's some sort of eighteenth century detective. Lydia was as close to the 'original' Lydia from the book and the first BBC adaptation as they could get, as she's brought her ballgown and wants it removed from the trunk, also eating when she has no appetite. But the others were as far removed as possible. Plenty of suspects abound though for the next installment.
There was plenty that could have been done with this drama but alas I found myself not really caring for the characters at all, except Lydia and Jenna gave a good performance and as for the plot, well it's apparent Wickham didn't do it, since we have to find out who the loony in the woods is and what she was doing there. Also why Wickham fired the gun and at whom? Let's hope Part 2 is more interesting or enough to keep me interested.
No comments:
Post a Comment