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Pop CultureOctober 8, 2015

Television: Firth Things Firth – Our Fittingly Weird Tributes to the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice

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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice adaptation, fans share what the soggy shirts and fiberglass statues mean to them.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that most women in this country will encounter Pride and Prejudice at some stage in their lives, be it a set of old VHS tapes, a dusty fifth form novel or an endlessly repeating Bridget Jones’s Diary DVD. And that’s probably something to celebrate. This month marks 20 years since the BBC series based on Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, one largely considered the best adaptation.

This praise may be related to one iconic scene that wasn’t even in the book, featuring a young Colin Firth emerging from a truly terrible lake in a sodden shirt. Whether that’s true or not, there’s no denying that this series is important to a lot of people. With that in mind, we got some big-time Firthheads to share what the legendary BBC series means to them.

We will be rolling these updates, so please feel free to send any fan art/video re-enactments to alex@thespinoff.co.nz.

Laura Vincent on that scene (@hungryandfrozen)

Oh sure, I was enormously into Pride and Prejudice as a zealously overachieving nine year old, but it wasn’t until several years later that I truly appreciated the magnitude of that scene.

I had just done my final performance ever with my dance school. I’m always one to get post-thing anticlimactic blues, but this was last time I would dance for the school I’d been at since I was three. The level of emotions being flung about by the already histrionic teen me cannot be overstated.

On the drive home, Mum suggested we stop at Nanna’s. So that I wasn’t just going straight to bed with my woes to find out if self-indulgent tears dissolve false eyelash glue.

Nanna was watching Pride and Prejudice. It just so happened to be that episode. Mum and I sat down to watch it with her. And that is how me leaving my dance school turned into a cherished memory. In that moment, three generations of women collectively sighed over Mr Darcy emerging wetly from his lake.

The energy in the room from all three of us united in joy at the sodden, brooding Darcy was so powerful that I’m quite sure, somewhere on the other side of the world, Colin Firth suddenly fell into the nearest body of water (my guess would be a puddle or his cup of tea).

Leonie Hayden on her Firth Love (@sharkpatu)

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Jessy Connor on the Immaculate Colinception (@internetjessy)

Renee Church on the Fiberglass Firth (@Reneethe60s)

Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice is a triumph for women everywhere. What’s special to me about the show, is that it’s exactly the same age as me (I looked it up on Wikipedia.) But there’s an aspect of this show’s empire that I feel even more emotionally connected to. Even more so than Colin Firth soaking wet on an English country side.

It’s this, a terrifying fiberglass version of soaking wet Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, which is 12 foot tall, and for some reason was put in the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park in London. It then toured a few other lakes in England. It is probably the scariest thing to grace this fine planet.

So in light of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy turning 20, I have created a fitting tribute – a fictional look back in history of fiberglass Mr Darcy had appeared at various events in history. Enjoy.

Angella Dravid’s Haikus for Firth

 

Mild pastel flora

Encase the enchanting scene

While eyes look elsewhere

 

A swim in the lake

Right now!?  you’ll have wet Breeches!

Breaches of conduct

 

The King’s peach tempts me

My heart stammer ceases. This.

Is. A Golden Queen

 

Your surname is odd.

a lisp encounters it “first”

while those who don’t, lisp.

 

I searched on google

The terms “sexy B-B-C”.

It’s not safe for work.

 

Zoe Scheltema’s Expressions of Firth (@zoescheltema)

Here is my quick summary of Mr. Darcy’s more poignant moments in the series. After staying up all night watching YouTube videos, Mr. D has stumbled across Watch Me (Whip/NaeNae), and is very keen to learn the dance:

Screenshot 2015-10-07 at 2.22.40 PM

Mr. D met Kylie Jenner earlier in the day. Upon reflection he has become very jealous of the sheer volume of her lips and is considering ways to enhance his own:

Screenshot 2015-10-07 at 2.24.10 PM

Uh oh, Mr. D has just realised that he has left his panini press on:

Screenshot 2015-10-07 at 2.26.29 PM

“Oh look it’s a floater” – Mr. D

Screenshot 2015-10-07 at 2.27.43 PM

Jose Barbosa on Comic Book Firth (@milkshakebot)

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The 1995 Pride and Prejudice series will be showing on UKTV Wednesday nights at 8.30pm

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