Oh yes, death did come to Pemberley and it destroyed Jane Austen's much loved characters. The period drama mini-series that the BBC shows over the Christmas holidays is a well-known and eagerly anticipated tradition that rounds up the festive period but this year's (2013's) offering was quite disappointing.'Death Comes to Pemberley' is an adaptation of PD James' 2009 murder mystery novel of the same time, a sequel to Pride and Prejudice that occurs six years after the events of the much loved story. PD James' novel and the BBC adaptation follows the aftermath of a murder in Pemberley Woods that throws the Darcy family into chaos as the main suspect is the scandalous rogue, George Wickham. Now, this writer has very strong views about sequels to well known classics but that is a post for another day. There were many things wrong with this period drama.
First of all, not everyone would have been able to follow it as you'd have to be quite familiar with the Pride and Prejudice story to understand the characters and their motivations, (If you haven't read P&P, do so, NOW). Secondly, in my opinion, Anna Maxwell Martin looked too old playing Elizabeth, who is supposed to be around twenty-six at this point. In fact, at times, she even looked older than Matthew Rhys' Fitzwilliam Darcy and Alexandra Moen's Jane Bingley! In addition, the liveliness and wit that P&P fans associate with the character of Elizabeth was lost in this adaptation and replaced with pointless, forlorn and solemn glances.
Thirdly, the spark between Elizabeth and Darcy seemed to be lost for most of this adaptation and when it was eventually 'regained', it was done in an unneeded manner that ironically seemed to take away the sensitivity and high level of romance that readers love so much about the characters, (vague so as not to give away spoilers).
The adaptation wasn't all bad, though. Jenna Coleman was spot on as the ever childish Lydia Wickham, even bringing out a vulnerable element to the character that made audiences able to empathise with her predicament and pity her. Eleanor Tomlinson was beautiful as Georgiana Darcy, giving more depth to the character than audiences are used to seeing and Rebecca Front's Mrs Bennett was wonderfully overbearing and irritating. The location and costumes were also spectacular, so one can at least say the drama was pretty to look at.
Maybe the novel is better than the lacklustre adaptation that the BBC provided. I really hope that it is.
Rating 5/10
