Announcing its new six-part adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Netflix quoted screenwriter Dolly Alderton as saying: “Once in a generation, a group of people get to retell this wonderful story.” In the 250th anniversary of her birth, it would seem that every new generation wants its own adaptation of Jane Austen’s perennial classic.
It’s 30 years since Colin Firth’s Darcy decided that the only remedy for unrequited love was a dip in a muddy lake. And 20 since Matthew Macfadyen’s Darcy strode across a chilly field at sunrise to declare that Keira Knightley’s Lizzie had “bewitched me body and soul”. And, erm, almost 10 years since Lily James’s Lizzie fell for Darcy while simultaneously battling zombie hordes in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
