With the kind assistance of an AustenBlog reader, we have been able to listen to the BBC Radio Four “Front Row” program about the enduring appeal of Pride and Prejudice, which makes it such a popular choice to adapt to film. The show included interviews with Lee Hall, the adapter of the upcoming version of P&P; Andrew Davies, the adapter of the 1995 television version; Fay Weldon, the adapter of the 1980 television version; and Gurinder Chadha, the adapter and director of BRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

One thing that surprised us greatly was that Fay Weldon admitted she’d never read the novel before she set out to adapt it. “I think a lot of people haven’t read Pride and Prejudice,” she said, “though they know the story quite well.”

The writers all mention the strong narrative voice of the novel and how they attempted to include it in their scripts. Weldon had one of the sisters say the important line; Davies felt that Elizabeth and Mr. Bennet were the only characters capable of saying the lines; Hall mentioned that he first tried using voiceover but abandoned that idea, thankfully.

Andrew Davies said he had formed a theory that Pride and Prejudice is the first Darwinian novel, that Darcy chose Elizabeth because she was a better choice than the sickly Anne de Bourgh to renew the Darcy stock. “I was trying to do a very pro-Darcy adaptation…I was determined to somehow get him out of that tight suit and that top hat and find ways of showing him as a bloke…I was looking on all occasions to try to find plausible occasions where we could see both Darcy and Elizabeth without their full kit on.”

Davies was also involved in the adaptations of the Bridget Jones films, and mentioned that on his first pass at adapting EDGE OF REASON, he attempted to bring in the Persuasion content, but it had disappeared by the final version of the script. (He mentioned something about it was not thought to play well to American midwestern audiences. Humph.) He also mentioned that he wanted the scene where Bridget interviews Colin Firth in the film (he thought it would be interesting in a postmodern way, especially because Mr. Firth is more “laid-back and tousled” than Mr. Darcy) but was overruled.

Gurinder Chadha said that she made Darcy American in BRIDE AND PREJUDICE partly to avoid comparison with Colin Firth and partly to enhance the comparison of the First World and the Third World. Also said that Mr. Kholi is more American than Darcy in some ways. She made B&P more of a political movie; she gave her Lizzy character political opinions.

Several of the recent sequels to P&P and the “Mollywood” film from 2003 were also mentioned. Fay Weldon said that she tried to write a modern adaptation with a working-class family with four sons whose father was trying to marry them off to rich women.

Now, as to the “teen flick” comment that we mentioned previously: Lee Hall said first of all that he continuously was aware of the concept, pointed out by the director, that the principals of the story are very young and yet have a great deal of responsibility placed upon them, which would tend to explain many of their actions. He also says at the end that he has not specifically considered the target audience for the film, but that he expected it to appeal to young people, and that young audiences were attractive to studios. Hmm. We are less worried about the script, but the marketing campaign definitely should be interesting.

The interviewer also mentions that Mr. Hall recently married Beeban Kidron, the director of BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON. They must have interesting dinner table conversation.