IT is a truth universally acknowledged that Colin Firth emerging from the lake in the zeitgeist scene of the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice cemented ‘Darcymania’ across Britain. Twenty-five years on, the series continues to enchant.

Twenty five years?

Indeed, from the first episode of the six-part series based on Jane Austen’s enduring 1813 novel, which aired on September 24, 1995, the attention of the nation was captured, with around 11 million watching each episode. Colin Firth became a household name with his role as Mr Darcy, opposite Jennifer Ehle’s Elizabeth Bennet in the series that also starred Alison Steadman, Julia Sawalha, Susannah Harker and Emilia Fox.

The video sold out?

Back in the days of VCRs, the entire first run of 12,000 copies of the BBC video release of the series sold out within two hours - by the end of the first week of sales, 70,000 copies were sold. This rose to 200,000 within a year. The same was true for the CD soundtrack and 20,000 copies of an official book about the making of the programme which also sold out.

The most famous scene was not in the novel?

It is regarded as a turning point in previously rather sedate period dramas - the moment where brooding hero Mr Darcy went for an impromptu dive in his private lake, before emerging sodden from the water, with his shirt clinging to him, only to bump into Miss Bennet. The scene was the work of screenwriter, Andrew Davies, and many a homage has been played since, including Poldark’s Aidan Turner scything with his shirt off.

Darcymania?

Davies said the lake scene was supposed to be amusing, later telling the BBC: “When women started pinning Colin’s picture on their walls, it was a puzzle and a surprise because I just thought it was a funny scene. …you have two people having a stilted conversation and politely ignoring the fact that one of them is soaking wet. I never thought it was supposed to be a sexy scene in any way.”

Firth has since said he felt “typecast”?

In an interview with Good Housekeeping magazine earlier this year, Firth, now 60 and an Oscar-winner for The King's Speech in 2011, said it was "a great role and it was a major event in my career, certainly" but added: "I don't think it was all that helpful because it tended to create this image that can restrict what kind of roles you are going to be able to find. Looking good and strutting around is very boring. I wanted to do other things as an actor.”

Fun facts?

Harker played Jane Bennet, a role portrayed by her mother Polly Adams in an earlier 1967 adaptation for the BBC, while Fox made her TV debut at 21 as Mr Darcy’s sister Georgiana, alongside her mother, Joanna David, who played Elizabeth’s aunt. Crispin Bonham Carter, now 50, a third cousin once removed of actress Helena Bonham Carter, played Mr Darcy's friend, Mr Bingley, but is now the assistant headmaster at the Queen Elizabeth's School in Barnet, London.

Firth became Mr Darcy again?

He reunited with Andrew Davies, who worked on the script of Bridget Jones’s Diary, to portray Mark Darcy in the film versions of Helen Fielding’s books, opposite Renee Zellweger.