Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-09-29
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 178 minutes

Synopsis
Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper) is a devoted Jane Austen fan; often immersing herself into a world of dashing gents, elegant corsets and picturesque manor houses. Unsatisfied with her life and relationship in modern day London, Amanda's ordinary existence is changed forever when she discovers Elizabeth Bennet (Gemma Arterton) alive in her bathroom and ends up replacing her in the very 'real' fictional world of Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. An all star cast bring Austen's classic characters to life in a cleverly modern context; with Hugh Bonneville as Mr Bennet and Alex Kingston as the irrepressible Mrs Bennet.

Behind the scenes extras are exclusive to DVD.

Customer Reviews

The humourous creation of it
I watched the first few series on ITV and couldn't wait for the rest of the episode. It was humorous and still told the P&P story except you can imagine yourself in the story. Fantastic stuff

A enjoyable 21st Century spin on Pride and Prejudice but not a great DVD presentation...
I orginally watched this when it was first shown on ITV1 and it had me hooked. While I didn't think it was amazing it's still a good piece of period drama with the twist of someone from our world thrown into the mix. I've never read Pride and Prejudice or any Austen novel, so I can't say how a hardcore fan reacted to this.

Disc 1 - Episodes 1 & 2: We are introduced to Amanda's disillusioned life in London and then how she enters Austen's 'real' fictional world of Pride and Prejudice. Obviously, things don't go to plan and stray from how they should be.

Disc 2 - Episodes 3 & 4 Plus Extras: Things seem to be looking up for our herione in Ep 3 but how long does this happiness last?
The last episode tries to wrap up things with the conclusion where Amanda is faced with an ultimatum. Does it all end happily for her and the other characters?

The acting side, Bonneville stands out with all the best witty lines and and a certain flair and gravitas he brings to his role. The rest, including Jemima are all good but he gets a special mention from me.

Cinematography wise, it's warmly lit and has lovely scenery of Yorkshire I think. I wish there was more of how life was in the early 18th century, more of Lizzy's life adjusting to modern day life in London and it's a bit predictable really. Amaiable fluff to me but nothing great. The music's got a main theme with nice strings and a floaty of not complately original tune.
Overall, for the mini series gets: 7/10

DVD Extras: Behind the Scenes: If when the last Ep 4 was shown on ITV1 you did what I did and turned over to ITV3 to watch the behind the scenes doc this is that exact same thing.
It's a 42 min technical doc showing a bit more of the work that went into finding locations, decorating sets, snd how to organise a particular scene involving a cold pond ...
There are some few brief info some of the actors give about their experiences but these aren't at a sufficient length to be insightful enough to me.
I would've liked some deleted scenes, proper in-depth interviews and maybe a commentary. This one extra only rates fair for me - 5/10.

Note: The DVD picture quality is quite grainy from maybe a suspected 'noisy transfer', which is surprising as it came out this year, and I'm used to a sharp, clear picture on DVD as a standard(I don't have the money at the mo to upgrade to HD TV and Blu-Ray like what it seems, everyone else seems to be doing ...).
Also it says on the back 'Certain scenes in this DVD version have been edited or deleted for copyright reasons' so the scene with Amanda singing Downtown has been cut, so that scene doesn't make sense unless you remember watching the original broadcast on ITV1. It's annoying really.

Fantastic feel good factor
I bought this after watching the ITV showing with my other half. He even enjoyed following the twists to this story. Whilst Colin Firth still is the ultimate Darcy all the characters were really well portraited.

I would recommend this to anyone, it doesn't ruin the story and moves at a respectable pace. A lovely feel good factor in this gloomy time, good to see something light hearted and well acted.