There's a brief scene in this that is not in the book and not in any movie version: When Charlotte and Lizzie are making fun of Collins for buying an inflatable hat. Why on earth would the screenwriter here interject such a preposterous non-Austen scene? Yes, I know they were aiming to prove that Collins was goofy, but that had already been shown plenty.
I wonder why a modern writer just inserted this?
Why would a modern writer just insert a scene where Darcy jumps into a scummy pond?
The scene is an example of the lengths Collins will go to obey Lady Catherine. It doesn't bother me at all. But the pond scene does.
To each his/her own.
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True... Although I am not familiar with the book entirely, I'll believe you that Darcy's pond dive was an invention for the movie only...and that too makes me wonder why a tv writer would just invent something like that.
I've read the book more times than I can tell you, and I can assure you with 1,000% confidence that the pond scene, the fencing scene and the bathtub scene do NOT appear in the book. In my not-so-humble opinion, those are nothing more than stupid filler scenes that do not advance the plot at all. They are merely an attempt to titillate. And then, Davies adds scenes that give the plot away. The whole pond scene lets us know that Darcy is at Pemberley before Elizabeth knows. Davies also tells us that Darcy is in London looking for Wickham and Lydia before Elizabeth knows about it. Austen didn't want us to know these things. But Andrew Davies doesn't seem to care what Austen wanted.
He also left out several scenes from the book that 1980 kept in, such as the scene where Caroline talks to Darcy about how nice (ha!) it would be to have Mr. Phillips' portrait next to that of Darcy's uncle the judge. Or the scene where Darcy asks Elizabeth if she feels inclined to dance a reel. Or the scene where the Bennets host a dinner party towards the end of the story and Elizabeth wants to be able to speak with Darcy yet can't because another woman gets in the way. These scenes are so much better than Fencing Darcy.
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