Colin Firth Voted All Time Best Darcy

Chiswick-based actor tops Radio Times poll

Colin Firth has been named as the nation's favourite Mr. Darcy and takes his place in the dream Pride and Prejudice cast.

He was the runaway winner with two-thirds of the votes in a poll held by RadioTimes.com with other Darcys being as popular as Mr. Wickham.

The poll was held to mark the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with readers of the site asked to pick from all the TV and film adaptations of the 19th century classic. Over 12,000 votes were received.

It was the 1995 BBC adaptation by Andrew Davies which featured Colin Firth which proved most popular all round. Jennifer Ehle was named the ultimate Lizzie Bennet with 61% of the vote beating Keira Knightly into second place. The only character chosen not from this version was Jane Bennet from the 2005 film version played by Rosamund Pike.

Benjamin Whitrow beat off stiff competition from Hugh Bonneville and Donald Sutherland to be picked as the most popular Mr Bennet and Alison Steadman was chosen head of Brenda Blethyn for the role of Mrs Bennet.

Crispin Bonham-Carter's Mr Bingley beat Simon Woods and Lost in Austen's Tom Mison with 52% of the votes, while Adrian Lukis was voted the favourite Mr Wickham with 44%.

Jane Austen's most famous novel Pride and Prejudice was first published 200 years ago today, on 28 January 1812.

January 28, 2013