It's a strange and wondrous thing that the last twenty years have seen the writing of a woman who's been dead nearly two hundred years be adapted for film and television more often than any other writer either living or dead. During her too short life, Jane Austen published only four books, and had two more published after her death. While her books must seem somewhat archaic to a modern audience, reflecting as they did the mores of her time, they would have been considered quite revolutionary at the time of their publication.

In the late 18th century and early 19th century when she lived, the majority of popular writing was far more romantic, with the flamboyant tales of Sir Walter Scott being preferred by the reading public over her near realistic descriptions of life and love among the gentry. As is still often the case today, there were not many in her day who preferred to read about their own foibles when they could read about the romantic exploits of King Arthur or other idealized heroes.

Still her work persisted, and unlike the aforementioned Scott and his fellow Romantics, her work has stood the test of time and she is now one of the most widely read female writers in the English language. Even today there are very few authors who have managed to create such beloved characters as those who inhabit Jane Austen's books, with Pride And Prejudice and the love story of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy being arguably the best loved and most famous of them all.

The fact that of all her novels Pride And Prejudice has been adapted probably more often to the stage and screen than perhaps her other books combined only serves to emphasize the chord that this story has struck with modern audiences. With everyone from Lawrence Olivier to Keira Knightley playing one of the two leads over the years it appears that every generation in the modern era has taken a stab at lifting the characters from the page to wander briefly among us.

But of all the productions, and all the actors who have taken on the roles of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, the one that seems to have caught people's imaginations the most was the 1995 co-production between the Arts & Entertainment Network (A&E), and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. At five hours in length this version of Pride And Prejudice was able to develop the dramatic potential of the novel to its fullest. All the humour, pathos, and insight of the novel remained intact as very little of the book had to be compressed or sacrificed because of time constraints.

The first time I watched this production I remember being overwhelmed by the sheer spectacle. The acting was universally outstanding, the sets and locations were not only spectacular, but appropriate for their occupants, and the set dances were immaculate in terms of their staging and for the edge to the energy that ran underneath them. The dances were the one place where the normal restraints of society were loosened and individuals stole what chances they could to exchange messages with those who were the objects of their affections.