Death Comes to Pemberley | |
---|---|
First episode titles
|
|
Genre | Drama |
Based on | Death Comes to Pemberley novel by P. D. James |
Written by |
Juliette Towhidi P. D. James (Novel) |
Directed by | Daniel Percival |
Starring | |
Composer(s) | The Insects |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 3 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
|
Location(s) | |
Cinematography | Steve Lawes |
Running time | 60 minutes (each episode) |
Production company(s) | Origin Pictures, Masterpiece co-production |
Release | |
Original network | BBC One |
Picture format | 16:9 1080i |
Audio format | Stereo |
Original release | 26 December | – 28 December 2013
External links | |
BBC site Death Comes to Pemberley |
Juliette Towhidi
Death Comes to Pemberley is a three-part British television drama based on the best-selling P.D. James novel of the same name. Her murder mystery was based on the style and characters of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
The series was commissioned by Controller of BBC Drama Commissioning Ben Stephenson and then-Controller of BBC One Danny Cohen, and was first broadcast from 26–28 December 2013 on BBC One.
It is October 1803, six years after the marriage of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet, as recounted in Pride and Prejudice. One evening, George Wickham and his wife Lydia (Elizabeth's sister) are traveling by carriage to Pemberly for a ball with Captain Denny. Wickham and Denny have an argument, and leave the carriage in anger. The two men disappear into the woodland, where Lydia hears two gunshots. After being informed, Darcy sends out a search party, who find Wickham distraught and hysterical, holding Denny's body and blaming himself for his murder.
The cast was announced on 18 June 2013. The series was cast by Gary Davy. Actor Tom Ward, who plays Colonel Fitzwilliam, is the only cast member to have previously played a role in an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. He played Lt Chamberlayne in the 1995 BBC adaptation.
Filming began in June 2013 on location in Yorkshire and Derbyshire and has been supported with investment from Screen Yorkshire. Chatsworth House in Derbyshire was used as the exterior of Pemberley, and rooms at Chatsworth and at Castle Howard and Harewood House, both in Yorkshire, were used for indoor scenes. Areas of National Trust land, including Hardcastle Crags, Fountains Abbey and the Studley Royal estate and Treasurer's House, were also used in filming. Beverley's Guildhall provided the location for a courtroom. The gallows scenes were filmed on a purpose-built scaffold outside York Crown Court, with Wickham emerging from the gate to the old debtors' prison in the York Museum.