Pride and Prejudice fans can stream this darker Pemberley mystery on Channel 4

Fans of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice looking for another period drama with familiar characters and a very different kind of story have a murder mystery waiting at Pemberley.

Death Comes to Pemberley, the BBC’s three-part adaptation of P. D. James’ bestselling 2011 novel, is currently available to stream on Channel 4 in the UK. The drama takes Austen’s characters six years beyond the events of Pride and Prejudice, but replaces much of the original novel’s romantic focus with a murder investigation.

The series originally aired over three nights from December 26 to 28, 2013, and stars Matthew Rhys as Fitzwilliam Darcy and Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Darcy.

A murder interrupts life at Pemberley

The story opens in June 1803, with Darcy and Elizabeth preparing to host a ball at their estate, Pemberley Manor.

Their seemingly peaceful evening is thrown into chaos when Lydia Wickham arrives in distress. She claims that her husband, George Wickham, has had a confrontation with his travelling companion, Captain Denny.

The situation quickly becomes far more serious when Captain Denny is found dead.

From that moment, Death Comes to Pemberley shifts into a period whodunit. The mystery forces Darcy and Elizabeth to confront uncomfortable secrets and complicated family connections, while the investigation eventually reaches the courtroom.

At the same time, the murder places new pressure on the Darcys’ marriage, giving the story a darker edge than Austen’s original romance.

The premise has often been described as a meeting between Jane Austen’s world and the traditional murder mystery. P. D. James’ novel deliberately brought the characters and setting of Pride and Prejudice into the territory of crime fiction, and the television adaptation follows that unusual combination.

A cast packed with familiar faces

One of the biggest attractions is the ensemble cast.

Matthew Rhys plays Darcy, while Anna Maxwell Martin takes on Elizabeth. Matthew Goode appears as George Wickham, with Jenna Coleman playing Lydia Wickham.

The supporting cast includes Eleanor Tomlinson as Georgiana Darcy, James Norton as Henry Alveston, one of Georgiana’s admirers, and Penelope Keith as the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Trevor Eve also appears as Sir Selwyn Hardcastle.

There is also a connection to the much-loved 1995 television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Tom Ward, who plays Colonel Fitzwilliam in Death Comes to Pemberley, had previously appeared in that adaptation.

For viewers familiar with Austen’s characters, the casting provides an added reason to revisit the story, while the murder plot gives the familiar world of Pemberley a distinctly different atmosphere.

Critics praised the unusual Austen-meets-mystery approach

When the series first aired over Christmas in 2013, it attracted strong attention from critics and audiences.

The Guardian described the production as a successful combination of costume drama and murder mystery, calling it “pretty much perfect Christmas TV.”

Time Out similarly praised the adaptation for taking the six-years-after-Pride and Prejudice premise and turning it into an engaging period mystery. Its review highlighted the performances of Matthew Rhys, Anna Maxwell Martin, Jenna Coleman and Matthew Goode.

The series also holds an 82% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 critic reviews.

Audience reactions have also focused on the production’s treatment of Austen’s characters and its supporting performances. Some IMDb reviewers have particularly praised the way the adaptation handles the source material, while others have highlighted performances including those of Lydia, Georgiana Darcy and Henry Alveston.

One particularly simple piece of praise from an IMDb reviewer summed up their reaction with three words: “Jane Austen would approve.”

Nearly 8 million watched when it first aired

The BBC drama attracted nearly 8 million viewers when it was first broadcast over Christmas 2013, helping make it one of the notable period dramas of that festive television season.

Its original BBC run consisted of three episodes, each running for about an hour.

More than a decade later, the series has found a new audience among viewers looking for Austen-inspired dramas with something beyond romance at their centre.

For Pride and Prejudice fans, the appeal is easy to understand. The characters, locations and relationships are familiar, but the central question is very different: who is responsible for the death at Pemberley?

Where to watch Death Comes to Pemberley

All three episodes of Death Comes to Pemberley are currently available to stream on Channel 4 in the UK, with the series also listed on other streaming services including Amazon Prime Video and UKTV Play.

The 2013 BBC production remains a particularly unusual continuation of Austen’s world: a story that takes Darcy and Elizabeth’s married life, places them six years beyond the events of Pride and Prejudice, and then drops a murder investigation directly into the middle of Pemberley’s carefully ordered world.