Casting
When casting the many characters of Pride and Prejudice, the producer Sue Birtwistle and director Simon Langton were looking for actors with wit, charm and charisma, who could play the Regency period. Their choices for the protagonists, 20-year-old Elizabeth Bennet and 28-year-old Mr. Darcy, determined the other actors cast. Hundreds of actresses between 15 and 28 auditioned for the younger female characters, and those with the right presence were screen-tested, performing several prepared scenes in period costumes and makeup in a television studio. Straight offers were made to several established actors.
Jennifer Ehle was chosen from six serious candidates to play Elizabeth, the second Bennet daughter, the brightest girl and the cutest and her father's favourite. At the time in her mid-20s, Ehle had read Pride and Prejudice when she was 12 and was the only actor to be present throughout the whole filming schedule. Sue Birtwistle particularly wanted Colin Firth, a relatively unknown British actor in his mid-30s at the time, to play the wealthy and aloof Mr. Darcy. Birtwistle had worked with him on the mid-1980s comedy film Dutch Girls, but he repeatedly turned down her offer as he neither felt attracted to Austen's feminine perspective nor believed himself to be right for the role. Birtwistle's persistent coaxing and his deeper examination of the Darcy character finally convinced him to accept the role. Firth and Ehle began a romantic relationship during the filming of the series, which received media attention only after the couple's separation.
Benjamin Whitrow was cast to play Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth's distinguished but financially imprudent and occasionally indulgent gentry father. Alison Steadman was cast to play the parvenu Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth's mortifyingly affected social-climbing mother. Steadman was offered the role without auditions or screen tests. Elizabeth's four sisters, whose ages ranged between 15 and 22, were cast to look dissimilar from each other. Susannah Harker portrayed Elizabeth's beautiful older sister Jane, who desires to only see good in others. Lucy Briers, Polly Maberly, and Julia Sawalha played Elizabeth's younger sisters – the plain Mary, the good-natured but flighty and susceptible Kitty, and frivolous and headstrong Lydia. Being 10 years older than 15-year-old Lydia, Julia Sawalha, of Absolutely Fabulous fame, had enough acting experience to get the role without screen tests. Joanna David and Tim Wylton appeared as the Gardiners, Elizabeth's maternal aunt and uncle. David Bamber played the unctuous clergyman, Mr. Collins, a cousin of Mr. Bennet. Lucy Scott portrayed Elizabeth's best friend and Mr. Collins's wife, Charlotte Lucas, and David Bark-Jones portrayed Lieutenant Denny.
The producers found Crispin Bonham-Carter to have the best physical contrast to Firth's Darcy and gave him his first major television role as the good-natured and wealthy Mr. Charles Bingley. Bonham-Carter had originally auditioned for the part of Mr. George Wickham, a handsome militia lieutenant whose charm conceals his licentiousness and greed, but Adrian Lukis was cast instead. Anna Chancellor, of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame, played Mr. Bingley's sister Caroline Bingley. (Chancellor is also Jane Austen's six-times-great-niece.) Mr. Bingley's other sister and his brother-in-law were played by Lucy Robinson (Louisa Hurst) and Rupert Vansittart (Mr. Hurst). Casting the role of Darcy's young sister, Georgiana, proved hard as the producers were looking for a young actress who appeared innocent, proud and yet shy, had class and could also play the piano. After auditioning over 70 actresses, Simon Langton suggested Emilia Fox, the real-life daughter of Joanna David (Mrs. Gardiner), for the part. Barbara Leigh-Hunt was cast as Darcy's meddling aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, without auditions or screen tests.
