The Definitive Ranking of All Pride & Prejudice Adaptations

I think it’s unlikely that anyone has watched more Pride & Prejudice adaptations than I have. I’ve seen Bollywood, Hallmark, and Vlog versions. I’ve seen Christian religious versions and “what if something went wrong” versions. And I think it’s high time someone got the rankings legitimately correct.

My qualifications are: was the performance memorable? Does it stick out in my mind? When I think of that character, whose face comes to mind? Was the performance unique, adding something to the character?

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!! (But, really, what’s there to spoil? Is anyone unfamiliar with the story at this point?)

The Best Lizzie Bennett:

Gold: Jennifer Ehle, BBC miniseries

Silver: Ashley Clements, The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Bronze: Keira Knightly, 2005

Honorable mention: Aishwarya Rai, Bride & Prejudice

Jennifer Ehle’s quiet elegance and charm, her good-natured frustration, her coy looks…those embody Elizabeth Bennett to me. And I will always see Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean first and foremost. But she did a great job too, so I understand why people love her performance.

I adored The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, and I thought Ashley Clements did a phenomenal job portraying a modern-day Lizzie Bennett. I was so pulled in by her charm, her intelligence, her wit, and her compassion. But I also thought she did a great job portraying Lizzie’s faults. And her chemistry with Darcy was sweet!

Aishwarya Rai did a great job balancing Elizabeth’s feistiness and stubbornness with her romantic heart. Though her acting sometimes fell flat, her performance was unique and added new layers to the character.

The Best William Darcy:

Gold: Colin Firth, BBC miniseries

Silver: Matthew Macfadyen, 2005

Bronze: Martin Henderson, Bride & Prejudice

Colin Firth IS Darcy, and I will not hear anything else. Matthew Macfadyen had an interesting take, portraying Darcy as more painfully shy rather than prideful, and that hand flex was hot, no lie. But Colin Firth is the definitive Darcy, forever and for all time. His every look, jaw clench, and wet t-shirt contest embodies Darcy in all ways. This is a simple fact of the universe.

I also thought Martin Henderson did a great job portraying Darcy as a man trying to overcome a cultural divide.

The Best Jane Bennett:

Gold: Laura Spencer, The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Silver: Morven Christie, Lost in Austen

Bronze: Rosamund Pike, 2005

Honorable mention: Catherine Hannay, An American in Austen

Jane is supposed to be the most beautiful Bennett sister, more beautiful even than Lizzie. But most adaptations simply CANNOT stomach the idea of the lead being less classically beautiful than a side character, so they fudge this part. While I love the BBC version, I had trouble believing Susannah Harker would receive SO much more attention than Jennifer Ehle. Same with Bride & Prejudice given Aishwarya Rai’s striking beauty (even though Namrata Shirodkar is also a knock-out.) In the 2005 version, I believed that Rosamund Pike could be the belle of the ball.

I also believed that Laura Spencer could attract such attention in The Lizzie Bennett Diaries. What sends Laura Spencer’s Jane to the top, though, is the fact that she evolved to become more than just arm candy for “Bing Lee.” She developed her own confidence and career, and ultimately found who she was without a man. Slow applause.

Morven Christie snags silver because, in addition to being beautiful, her performance adds new depth as we watch her struggle with new challenges not in the book. I don’t want to ruin this one for those who haven’t seen it, but I’ll just say that her commitment to her assigned familial role and her evolving interactions with Mr. Bingley felt both believable and novel.

Catherine Hannay does a great job portraying not only how beautiful and kind Jane is, but also how unexpressive. Here it’s no wonder why Bingley can’t tell she’s in love with him—she doesn’t show much. (Until she blurts out that she loves him, of course!)

The Best Lydia Bennett:

Gold: Mary Kate Wiles, The Lydia Bennett (The Lizzie Bennett Diaries spin-off)

Silver: Preeya Rau Chowdhary, Bride & Prejudice

This one is hard for me, because Mary Kate Wiles annoyed me to death during much of The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, and I found her moping at the end tiresome. However, I have to give her props for how well she depicted being in an abusive relationship. The episodes she did separate from The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, when she was supposedly creating her own vlog, were masterpieces. Watching her evolve from the feisty firecracker to the forlorn, insecure victim was breathtaking. I also thought this was a very interesting take on the Lydia-Wickham dynamic. No other version of Lydia pulled me in quite so much.

I enjoyed Preeya Rau Chowdhy’s performance in Bride & Prejudice. I found her innocent search for fun believable as we watched her chafe against the cultural restrictions in her small town. She wanted to be “big city” without really understanding what that meant. It added new depth to a character that can seem flighty and selfish on the page. Modern audiences always have trouble with Lydia’s character, whose primary fault is having sex before marriage, something that’s no longer culturally prohibited (for the most part). The overlay of clashing cultural expectations helped make her character more understandable (and ultimately more likeable.)

I don’t have a Bronze here. No other Lydia was particularly memorable to me.

The Best Caroline Bingley:

Gold: Jessica Jade Andres, The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Silver: Christina Cole, Lost in Austen

Bronze: Embeth Davidtz, Bridget Jones’s Diary

I adore Jessica Jade Andres in The Lizzie Bennett Diaries. (And it was super fun to see her return in Emma Approved!) She SLAYED in this role. I’ve never seen a Caroline with such ferocity. You could really sense the interplay of her familial love, pride, need for control, and mean-girl energy. Too often, Caroline is played as just a petty wallflower pining after Darcy, but Jessica took this character to a whole other level.

I don’t want to spoil the twist in Lost in Austen, but let’s just say Christina Cole brings a…new side to an old character.

In Bridget Jones’s Diary, Embeth Davidtz’s “Natasha” is clearly intended to play a similar role to Caroline Bingley. Embeth does a great job making us hate her while also seeming like someone Darcy would feel compelled to pair with over Bridget. A veteran to period dramas (see her in Mansfield Park), she brings that same poise and sophistication to this role, perfectly complementing Colin Firth’s return as the Darcy figure.

The Best Mr. Collins:

Gold: Maxwell Glick, The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Silver: Nitin Ganatra, Bride & Prejudice

Bronze: Guy Henry, Lost in Austen

Again, I have to give the gold to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Maxwell Glick was downright HILARIOUS in this role, and he is by FAR my favorite Mr. Collins. I adore this modern adaptation of Mr. Collins as a bumbling start-up web content creator. The way he stammers over his sentences, the way he doles out useless advice with zero self-awareness…I feel like I’ve met so many versions of this guy in Silicon Valley. If Mr. Collins lived today, he would absolutely be this guy.

I also really enjoyed Nitin Ganatra as “Kohli Saab.” His mannerisms, his bragging about living in LA, his random American slang…it was all hilarious and really honored the original Mr. Collins in a fun, fresh way.

In Lost in Austen, Guy Henry was downright terrifying as Mr. Collins. I love the idea that Mr. Collins was even more repulsive in “real life” than in the book—as if he were so repulsive, Jane Austen could only bring herself to say so much on the page. The way he kept sniffing his hand…omg so gross (and hilarious!)

The Best Mr. Wickham:

Gold: Adrian Lukis, BBC miniseries

Silver: Tom Riley, Lost in Austen

Bronze: Hugh Grant, Bridget Jones’s Diary

Adrian Lukis will always be the quintessential Mr. Wickham to me. He so deeply embodied the character that he recently starred in Being Mr. Wickham, a play about the subsequent life of Mr. Wickham after Pride and Prejudice. (I SO wish I could have seen it!!)

In Lost in Austen, I did not see the twist coming regarding Mr. Wickham’s character. I don’t want to spoil it, but I enjoyed watching this version of Wickham play out.

It’s a bit of a stretch to equate Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver with Mr. Wickham, considering he doesn’t run off with the main character’s little sister, but I guess a younger American woman will suffice. Clearly Daniel Cleaver is supposed to represent the “bad boy” our female protagonist narrowly avoids settling down with. And as far as Wickham characters go, it’s hard to beat the sizzling charm of Hugh Grant. I think we all understood why Bridget was tempted by that one.

The Best Charlotte Lucas:

Gold: Julia Cho, The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Silver: Sonali Kulkarni, Bride & Prejudice

Bronze: Claudie Blakley, 2005

Julia Cho gave Charlotte far more personality than she has in any other adaptation. Her “selling out” for money also made more sense to a modern audience in this version, since instead of love, it was about taking a job she didn’t really want. And, being the badass that she was, she made it her own! I loved the dynamic between her character and Lizzie’s. This adaptation did so much more justice to their friendship than other versions.

I also thought Sonali did a good job making us understand why “Chandra Lamba” would marry someone like “Kohli Saab.” It wasn’t just for money, but a chance to move to the US, and she assures us (believably, I think) that she really is happy with her decision, and that Kohli can be sweet. I found this a more satisfying end for her character than in most other adaptations (except for the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, of course.)

For me, Claudie Blakley best embodied the Charlotte Lucas from the book.

The Best Georgiana Darcy:

Gold: Allison Paige, The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Silver: Emilia Fox, BBC Miniseries

Bronze: Sarah Desjardins, Unleashing Mr. Darcy

Like Julia Cho, Allison Paige had so much more personality in The Lizzie Bennett Diaries than in other adaptations. I enjoyed watching her try to set her brother up with Lizzie. The BBC Miniseries version will always stick in my head as the quintessential Georgiana, but I think Allison Paige’s performance deserves gold.

Sarah Desjardins’s dialogue leaves much to be desired in Unleashing Mr. Darcy, but I enjoyed her performance as a high schooler who was essentially raised by her brother.

The Best Lady Catherine de Bourgh:

Gold: Judi Dench, 2005

Silver: Barbara Leigh-Hunt, BBC Miniseries

Bronze: Frances Fisher, Unleashing Mr. Darcy

Honorable mention: Lindsay Duncan, Lost in Austen

I mean, what’s there to say? It’s Judi f-ing Dench! She gets all my golds.

BBC version comes next as a hefty performance from Barbara Leigh-Hunt. I thought Frances Fisher’s evil aunt Violet in unleashing Mr. Darcy was rather terrifying, and I enjoyed Lindsay Duncan’s surprising moments of insight in Lost in Austen.

The Best Mr. Bingley:

Gold: Crispin Bonham-Carter, BBC Miniseries

Silver: Simon Woods, 2005

I think Crispin Bonham-Carter did the best job embodying the good-natured awkwardness of Mr. Bingley, with Simon Woods as a close second. No one else sticks out in my mind as a great Mr. Bingley.

The Best Mr. Bennett:

Gold: Donald Sutherland, 2005

Silver: Anupam Kher, Bride & Prejudice

Bronze: Jim Broadbent, Bridget Jones’s Diary

Even before the recent tragic death of Donald Sutherland, he was my top choice for Mr. Bennett. He gave the role such poignancy, such depth of emotion, that I saw new layers to a character that frankly doesn’t exactly jump off the page for me.

Anupam Kher as Mr. Bakshi was a huge get. He’s been in a ridiculous number of Bollywood movies, and he’s basically the canonical dad in so many. In an almost Shakespearean way, where the same actors tended to play roles in multiple plays, I feel like Anupam Kher brings his “Bollywood dad energy” to this role. He also had some great one-line zingers. Instead of a man unwilling to advocate properly for his daughters, as Mr. Bennett can tend to seem, Mr. Bakshi seems like a man who is proud of his heritage and unwilling to be seduced by the Western promise, all while being delightfully good-natured about it.

Jim Broadbent in Bridget Jones’s Diary is adorable and pitiable. I love the scene where he and his wife reconcile, but he’s great throughout the entire movie. A fun take on the traditional Mr. Bennett character.

The Best Mrs. Bennett:

Gold: Alison Steadman, BBC

Silver: Alex Kingston, Lost in Austen

Bronze: Gemma Jones, Bridget Jones’s Diary

Honorable mention: The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Alison Steadman’s cry of, “Oh Mr. Bennett!” lives in my mind as the epitome of Mrs. Bennett.

In Lost in Austen, Alex Kingston’s Mrs. Bennett becomes a bit of an antagonist to our “Amanda Price.” I loved her ferocity as she protected her daughters, even if it was ultimately misplaced. It was a cool side of Mrs. Bennett we don’t usually get to see in most versions where she’s purely hysterical.

As a loose interpretation of Mrs. Bennett, I enjoyed Gemma Jones’s performance in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Her flightiness and hedonistic search for excitement came through. I often have trouble understanding why Mr. and Mrs. Bennett ever got married – the implication being that it was a love match, though they don’t seem to like or respect each other – but here they seem genuinely in love by the end.

Mrs. Bennett isn’t actually in The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, so it seems unfair to award her anything. But I loved Ashley Clements’s impressions of her mother. The southern accent also made it [chef’s kiss]!

The Best Overall Adaptation:

Gold: BBC Miniseries

Silver: The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Bronze: Bride & Prejudice

Honorable Mentions: 2005, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Unleashing Mr. Darcy, Lost in Austen

The BBC miniseries was my first introduction to Pride & Prejudice, so it will always hold a special place in my heart and represent the quintessential P&P. When I think Pride and Prejudice, I think the BBC version. Hands down. It just…IS.

The Lizzie Bennett Diaries is an extremely well-made modern adaptation of P&P told in vlog style. The acting is top-notch, and I personally related to Lizzie’s experiences as a graduate student trying to find love & career opportunities. I found their updates to the script charming for the most part, and I enjoyed watching the characters deepen in the extended storytelling format. Truly a masterpiece of the modern age.

I loved every minute of Bride & Prejudice. The overly campy musical numbers, the electric energy of the dancing, the longing looks…I was down for all of it. I’ve rewatched this movie countless times since I discovered it. I pretty much never tire of it. I find it fascinating how the writers applied the tensions of Jane Austen’s time to the modern-day intercultural friction of a wealthy American man courting a small-town Indian woman. Much of Pride & Prejudice – particularly Lydia’s dalliance – tends to make little sense in a modern context, but the cultural overlay of East & West tensions brought out new meanings in the old story. I loved watching Darcy fumble over his awkward attempts to impress Lalita, Balraj and Jaya pine for each other, Kiran try to bond with Darcy over their shared Oxford days, Lakhi salivate over “Johnny” Wickham…It was all fabulous!

To those who will get mad at me for not ranking the 2005 version higher – look, it’s a great big-screen adaptation. It’s solid. If you’re 10 years younger than me, the 2005 version probably represents to you what the BBC version represents to me. It’s probably your quintessential Pride & Prejudice manual. But to me, it just feels like a less-good version of the BBC miniseries. Sorry not sorry.

As an adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, Bridget Jones’s Diary is iconic. Though it takes liberties with the specifics, it’s clearly intended to honor P&P. The man’s name is Darcy, and he’s played by Colin Firth for goodness sake! While I can’t say Bridget really embodies the Lizzie from the book in any real way, Renee Zellweger is certainly fabulous in this movie, and the movie overall is a cultural phenomenon. I could do without all the fat shaming (plus, if she’s British, why is she measuring her weight in pounds rather than kilos?). But still, it’s always an enjoyable watch otherwise.

Unleashing Mr. Darcy is pure Hallmark fun. It’s silly and ridiculous, and I loved it.

Lost in Austen was SO engaging. I was really pulled into the systematic breaking of the original story, and the twists were thrilling, particularly for someone who’s super familiar with the original. I do think the first half was better than the second, and the story does tend toward the ridiculous, but all in all, I loved it! Personally, I preferred this to the similar-premised An American in Austen, but both movies were fun for P&P fans. An American in Austen probably had a better takeaway message, but I liked the twists and turns in Lost in Austen better.

One disclaimer: I have NOT seen the highly regarded Pride, Prejudice, & Zombies. I really hate watching violence, so even though I adore the concept, and I’ve seen some clips here and there (which were excellent), I just can’t sit through a movie with that much violence. Therefore, that particular gem was excluded from this list. Otherwise, anything goes!

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT! My definitive ranking of the best Pride & Prejudice adaptations. Do you agree? Disagree? Rather watch Bridgerton? Let me know!

The Definitive Ranking of All Pride & Prejudice Adaptations

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