Colin Firth

Watch how hard Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy works to keep his face still in Pride and Prejudice (1995). We were moved by the effort of his restraint, because a slight change of expression lets us see how much he would rather not disclose. Simon Langton’s series gives him time to make those changes matter, while Andrew Davies’s adaptation keeps the wit alive alongside the courtship. Firth makes forbidding manners interesting without asking us to mistake them for charm.

Jennifer Ehle is essential to that performance. Their scenes depend on two people having to reconsider what they think they know, and neither actor makes that process look easy. Some of the supporting comedy is too broad, but these two justify the six-episode courtship. This is where his economy pays off: we start watching for the things Darcy would prefer everyone else to miss.

His early screen work included the war trauma of A Month in the Country (1987) and Tumbledown (1988). After Pride and Prejudice made him a household name, Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) knowingly returned him to a Darcy, this time Mark. That success also risked making the reserved romantic lead look like his only available job. A Single Man (2009) and The King’s Speech (2010) marked a substantial dramatic turn. Quiet devastation in the former and the effort of speech in the latter gave his control something difficult and specific to express.

The later films need judging separately from our affection for him. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025) brings back his Mark Darcy, though it is Zellweger and Grant’s work on getting older that earns our qualified recommendation. In Disclosure Day (2026), his Noah Scanlon is good in a part smaller than the billing suggests. He cannot make the mystery less second-hand or the chase shorter. Start with the six episodes of Pride and Prejudice, where the time spent watching him is well used.