Pride and Prejudice - and Profit

 LAST night's concluding episode of Pride and Prejudice put the seal on the BBC's most popular costume drama serial ever. More than 10 million viewers tuned in to watch Elizabeth and Jane Bennet marry Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley.

 As the credits rolled, the screenwriter Andrew Davies, the producer Sue Birtwistle and an army of marketing executives could look back on an artistic and commercial success. Although the BBC is reluctant to disclose figures, it admits that it will easily recoup the £6 million cost of the co-production, which it made with an American partner, the cable company A & E Network. In October last year, before the series had even finished filming, the BBC was already selling it to overseas broadcasters at the industry's annual gathering in Cannes.

 So far, licences have been sold to eight countries, ranging from Australia > and New Zealand to Sweden, Iceland and Finland. American viewers will watch it on three consecutive days next January, courtesy of A & E. This first wave of sales represents about £500,000. But the BBC expects to sell the series to another 20 countries, yielding a further £1.25 million. "Pride and Prejudice has huge appeal," said a spokesman for BBC Worldwide Television. "Like other British drama serials, it goes down very well overseas because of the writing, the costumes and the period feel. Middlemarch went to a total of 30 countries and weíre expecting the same for this serial."

 In America, the production of Jane Austen's novel is being billed as "a lavish dramatisation," according to the A & E Network. A company spokesman described the book as a mixture of "finance and romance." He said it fitted in with the company's image, being "a highly literate project which appeals to the better-educated viewer."

 British viewers will certainly be better-educated about the novel after the BBC's carefully-orchestrated marketing drive. There is a BBC video for £19.99, a CD of Carl Davis's score at £12.99, a Penguin paperback bearing a picture from the series for £2.99 and a glossy book, The Making of Pride and Prejudice, for £8.99, of which 20,000 copies have been sold already.

 The Radio Times has done its bit, with a syrupy cover shot of Jennifer 
Ehle this week, carrying the words: "You are invited to the wedding of the year." 

The video has done especially well, with 70,000 copies sold so far, generating £1.4 million for the BBC. The video is being "reprinted" to satisfy consumer demand. The CD, produced in association wit h EMI, is also selling well.

 What of the book itself? Yesterday, nearly 200 years after Cadell, a London publisher, turned down Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice was the number one seller in paperback. According to Bookwatch, which monitors the UK market, last week's total sales were about 35,000, with 25,000 of Penguins new edition alone. Although Austen sells well throughout the year, with bookshops shifting up to 4,000 copies of Pride and Prejudice in its various editions each week, current demand is "exceptional". 

The cumulative effect of the serial has astonished Ms Birtwistle, who started work on it eight years ago, when the project was earmarked for ITV. She has had a huge response from viewers. "I am sitting by a sack of letters, literally hundreds of them. "A lot of people have completely fallen in love with Darcy, others just want to know where they can get some of the wallpaper in Longbourn. We were lucky to have such a wonderful book to work with - not a word is wasted in Pride and Prejudice and the dialogue is excellent. We could just lift it out of the book."

 Encouraged by the public's apparently insatiable appetite for period drama, Ms Birtwistle and Mr Davies have already embarked on an adaptation of Austen's Emma, destined to become a two-hour film on ITV next year.

 Meanwhile, for those who will find life without Mr Darcy's smouldering features intolerable, the BBC is providing a final chunk of Austen this weekend. The programme about the making of the series should keep> the video, CD and book sales buoyant for at least another week.