For all things Jane Austen. Her novels, short stories, adaptations, etc. For fan-fiction please go to the designated sub below. Not the place to ask for help with your school work! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Related reddits: * /r/books * /r/literature * /r/HistoricalRomance * /r/LizzieBennet * /r/JaneAustenFF
Let's pretend that you have to marry Mr Collins, what tv/movie adaptation would you choose to live in? Which version of Mr Collins would be the least annoying? The 1995 TV series, the 2005 movie or another adaptation?
List of adaptations:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen_in_popular_culture#Pride_and_Prejudice_(1813)
Edit: Thank you to everyone who commented! I loved reading your choices and reasoning. It seems like most of you prefer the 2005 movie Mr Collins. Other popular choices are also Mr Collins from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries!
2005 easy. The other one creeps me out too much :D
Plus the 2005 one looks like he's easier to control.
Imagine how easily you could impress him at the dinner table. Just boil some potatoes and he’s good.
I make the most excellent vegetables all the time. He would find my cooking quite exquisite.
2005 Mr. Collins seems like the perfect head to my neck. I feel like I could refine him in a way that even Lady Catherine would approve.
That and I like Charlotte's little parlor in the 2005 movie. I want that little nook for my writing space.
They have to be exemplary though, not just any old boiled spuds
Well... you add a little parsley and some butter. Should be good.
Excellent point!
Excellent potatoes
lol i’d kill him with a hammer like plz lol it’s 1803 or whatever
hey, he would appreciate my cooking. That's pretty good.
I throw some Tony Chacheres in there and blow his mind. I’d be in total charge after that.
Totally agree with 2005; however, I can throw some utter confusion in here...
David Bamber (95 Collins) was in Death in Paradise a few years after P&P - the episode was Damned If You Do. While his character's under investigation for the murder, the DI arrives to question him while he's having a swim. He gets out of the pool... and I suffered the biggest case of body/brain disconnect possible. He's in genuinely amazing shape in that episode! I was sitting there for about two minutes trying to match Mr Collins up with what I was seeing, and then wondering if he'd been in that shape when he did P&P. Maybe Charlotte had seen Buff!Collins and decided not to complain?
Oh a secretly buff Mr Collins! Must be from all that gardening! I remember reading somewhere that the actor is into bodybuilding.
That would make sense. The shape he was in would need a certain amount of specialist work!
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8gm3wh For science, I have dug this up. It's around 26-27 minutes in.
Would have never guessed. Never.
I... wow. I looked at his instagram and indeed, he seems to be into bodybuilding.
I have no idea what to do with this information so I must go give it to some other unsuspecting person.
Every day's a learning day!
Or a deeply confusing day.
I'm having trouble processing this, so I'm just going to leave reddit for now.
I peer reviewed your science, doctor, and I concur.
Hang on, is that Adrian Lukis guest-starring in the beginning? * googles * Hot damn, Collins AND Wickham! That island must be cursed.
Adrian Lukis AND Amanda Root (Anne Elliot of Persuasion 95)! Three Austen stars in one episode. Of course, when you watch British TV, those coincidences happen sometimes 😊
It's a BBC1 murder-mystery series. Of course it's cursed!
There’s an episode of Miss Marple that has Adrian Lukis in it. My dad correctly pegged his character as the murderer because he was played by Mr Wickham 😂
I had seen this episode before and didn’t even click that it was the same person.
Well, that was weird.
Truthiest truth
I hate myself for googling this. I hate even more that nothing came up.
Oh wow xD I need to look it up now
I love death in paradise! You inspired me to rewatch it haha
Absolutely. He's a guy with probable neurodiversity, who's learned "the rules" and is confused when they don't fit the new situation. He doesn't even need to be manipulated, so much as to have a partner who will be patient and explain stuff, and maybe take over much of the whole socialising with parishioners thing.
Yes, I didn't mean control in a mean way and more like voice my wants and needs and make him agree with what I sugest. I agree patience would be a valuable trait in a relationship with him :)
"My wife encourages me to spend as much time in the garden as possible for my health." 😂
Definitely not controlling in a bad way. Charlotte seemed very happy in her new life with her new husband and just wanted her daily "me time."
Tom Hollander was brilliant in the role, he's forever Mr. Collins in my head canon
Give his hair a good wash and he’s decent looking
Tom Hollander has been a sexy short KING in other projects!
He's the Collins I envision when I read "The Other Bennet Sister". Him and Mary would have been happy I think.
He refused Mary.
I would pick 2005 as well. He is just less objectionable. I could even see myself come to care for if not actually love him.
P&P&Z for sure!
Agreed! Matt Smith was actually a fantastic Mr Collins.
This is my vote; he's attractive and he doesn't come across as so snottily pompous as some of the others.
He's funny!
Right? He's actually really good looking!
The bestest and most adorable Mr Collins ever! Love that movie, and wonderful Mr Collins is one of many reasons why!
But then you have to live in the crapsack dystopian nightmare realm that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Also, Matt Smith has a face like a boot. I said what I said.
He's not conventionally attractive.
I would slay in a zombie world!
I was born with a heart condition and get winded climbing stairs. I would have died in the first zombie uprising.
But then you would come back as such a lovely Zombie!
He’s not physically attractive but he has charisma for days.
His face looks like a slightly melted candle.
Came here to say this, lol
This is the way
Tom Hollander from 2005 I think he’s hella cute. I love me a petit man soft man.
I thought he was super appealing in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
So definitely him. Plus if I had to have kids with one of them he has a good face, and I don’t mind a small dude.
I am always mesmerized watching him take his tea in those fine cups in the movie.
I've been obsessed with those cups ever since.
He was amazing as a sentimental-romantic character in Wives and Daughters (1999). He has the range. But then that soured his role in P&P for me beyond repair. So much of the humor is weirdly about how short and thin he is (not that making Mr Collins' repulsiveness all about his physical appearance isn't a sin of SEVERAL adaptations. 1995 and Lost in Austen are huge culprits of this too).
Haha I hear ya there’s no accounting for taste I guess. I love him pretty much everything he does I love that his general personality is kind of an awkward dormouse. I really liked him in the tv show Rev. where he was a perpetually exhausted dogooder.
Oh yes….I loved him in Rev, and with Olivia Coleman it was like my two favorite people were a couple. He always makes it just a bit awkward and therein lies hilarity to me.
Apparently I need to watch this actor in more stuff, 'cause "awkward dormouse" is totally my type.
He was great in Doctor Thorpe. Such a good guy!
I love him in Wives and Daughters, but he plays a tremendous creep in The Night Manager. Range indeed
His portrayal of Truman Capote in Capote vs the Swans was incredible even if I wasn't crazy about the entire series.
I recently watched Wives and Daughters and when he first came on screen I could only think of Me Collins but by episode 2 he was definitely Osborne Hamley to me and by the end I could only think how perfect he was in the role (maybe just a little short next to Roger).
He’s also got a bit part in Possession (Gwyneth Paltrow film) as a dry-humoured lawyer ☺️.
He’s hilarious in the movie In the Loop
He made such a good Villain in Pirates of the Carribean and If I was going to marry one of his characters it would be his Dr Thorne.
My husband played Mr. Collins in a stage adaptation, so him.
I can probably use this Reddit golden oldie in no other context quite so fitting:
I too choose this woman's (not dead) husband.
That's adorable.
best answer ever!!!
The 2005 version, hands down. Hollander played up the awkwardness of the character and made him seem deeply insecure and like he's trying way too hard to get people to like him. Collins is often portrayed as a bit creepy or insidious (he does have trouble taking 'no' for an answer after all) but I in general just felt kind of bad for this version of him. I don't know if I'd marry him, but I'd be willing to be his friend. I think he could use one lol.
Matt Smith from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Not bad looking with the right haircut, and his version is a little condescending but seems ultimately to mean well. And he’s charmingly overenthusiastic about, and delighted by, social niceties like dancing. I could 100% convince him it’s his moral duty to go to every country ball and dance with every single young lady, and he’d have the time of his life doing that - while I sat to the side drinking ratafia and gossiping.
This seems like an excellent plan to me.
All the 1995 version has going for him are those shelves in the closet.
Happy thought indeed!
Fantastic plan 😆
If not Matt Smith from P&P&Z, then Kohli Saab from Bride and Prejudice. Sure he has some stereotypical ideas of what he wants in a wife but ultimately he's just really dorky and a bit of a people pleaser and really does seem to dote on/adore Chandra/Charlotte.
Yes, Mr. Kohli from B&P is my vote. Plus, he’s rich and you get to live in a nice house in L.A.
Yes, I love what Chandra says about him later in the film:
Chandra Lamba: I'm not romantic like you Lalita. I didn't want to take the chance in case my prince never came. I know he's not for you, but... but he's kind and... and he adores me. And I love it here.
I’ve only seen 1995 and 2005, and I’d have to go with 2005. He seems more shy and awkward in that one…in the 1995 one he’s 100x more insufferable 🤣🤣
Also waaaaaaay older looking. Hollander can be cute on his awkwardness
I guess Mr. Kohli is now my man?
No life without wife!
I haven't seen him mentioned yet, but the 1980 BBC adaption Mr. Collins comes across much more bumbling and awkward and less slimy than the 1995. I have never been able to finish the 2005, can't stand it, so don't feel qualified to comment on that Mr. Collins.
I was thinking of him too. For exactly the reason you said.
And his garden is really pretty!
Agree, I liked Mr.Collins portrayal from1980. He does match the description from the book as well:
"Mr. Bennet indeed said little; but the ladies were ready enough to talk, and Mr. Collins seemed neither in need of encouragement, nor inclined to be silent himself. He was a tall, heavy-looking young man of five-and-twenty. His air was grave and stately, and his manners were very formal. "
I’m voting for Ricky Collins from Lizzie Bennet Diaries because then I only have to work for him and not be married to him.
Also, I like that he has a fiancé from Winnipeg, I have a lot of friends in Winnipeg.
Lol, this was my vote, too! Lizzie Bennet Diaries wins, hands down.
The Tom Hollander version. He seems....trainable.
If one had to marry Mr Collins a trainable Mr Collins would definitely be desirable!
Well, if you're Charlotte, apparently all of them are trainable.