Matthew Rhys and Anna Maxwell Martin play the Darcys in this three-part BBC One Christmas thriller that turns Jane Austen’s happy-ever-after into a Yorkshire-shot murder case. When Jenna Coleman’s Lydia hysterically bursts into Pemberley claiming her husband Matthew Goode’s Wickham has been shot, the household is pitched into a justice system where the gallows are only days away. Juliette Towhidi’s adaptation trims James’s novel to its courtroom bones, letting barrister James Norton and magistrate Trevor Eve spar over silk and blood while the wives sew bandages and secrets.
Filming began June 2013 across Derbyshire’s Chatsworth House and Yorkshire’s Castle Howard, with Screen Yorkshire money and a cast announced that same month by Gary Davy. Only Tom Ward, reprising uniformed duty as Colonel Fitzwilliam, had previous Austen form, having played Lt Chamberlayne in the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice. Director Daniel Percival keeps candlelight low and mud high, while composer duo The Insects thread ominous strings beneath ball-gown waltzes.
The series aired consecutively from 26-28 December 2013, clocking in at three precise 60-minute episodes and ending with the hangman’s noose formally avoided but civility already cracked. No second run was commissioned; the production companies, Origin Pictures and Masterpiece, closed the Pemberley case with the final credits.
Production Details
BBC One / 1 Season / 3 Episodes / 2013
Created by: Juliette Towhidi
Showrunner(s): Polly Hill, Rebecca Eaton, Justin Thomson
Writer(s): Juliette Towhidi
Producer(s): David M. Thompson, Eliza Mellor
Cinematography: Steve Lawes
Music: The Insects
Main Cast
Matthew Rhys as Fitzwilliam Darcy
Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Darcy
Matthew Goode as George Wickham
Trevor Eve as Sir Selwyn Hardcastle
Jenna Coleman as Lydia Wickham
Oliver Rix as Cartwright
Tom Ward as Colonel Fitzwilliam
Eleanor Tomlinson as Georgiana Darcy
James Norton as Henry Alveston
Nichola Burley as Louisa Bidwell
Kevin Eldon as Dr. McFee
Philip Martin Brown as Mr. Bidwell
