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Lydia Bennet and Mr Wickham

I hope you have all enjoyed the Pride and Prejudice adaptation that has just finished on TV in the US. I loved this version and I thought Julia Sawalha was a fantastic Lydia, petulant and precocious but still managing to be very funny! Adrian Lukis was perfect for Wickham too, just the right combination of charm and charisma to convince us in the beginning that he is an ideal partner for Lizzy but also imbued with a certain sleaziness, which soon shows us his true character. Poor Lydia cannot see this and believes herself to be in love with him. Whatever her faults, I could not let Lydia be miserable with Mr Wickham for the rest of her life - I had to find a happy ending for her in Lydia Bennet's Story!
Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet was a wonderful Lizzy and I'm sure most will agree that Colin Firth is unsurpassed as Mr Darcy. I think the on screen chemistry between these two is what sparked so many web sites, blogs and sequels to Pride and Prejudice in the years since its first airing. I remember talking to Ann Channon at Jane Austen's House in Chawton when this adaptation first came out. She said that the building could scarcely cope with the huge numbers of people that wanted to find out more about the author who had written Pride and Prejudice; they were inundated with visitors. One entry in the visitor's book made Ann laugh-they noted the house was very nice but asked 'where is Mr Darcy?'