Continuing my foray into Jane Austen, I recently watched the 1995 BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice. It's in six parts, and runs for around five and a half hours altogether. I have it on good authority that it was a huge success in the UK, and it's not too hard to see why.
The miniseries is fairly faithful to the novel, the difference being mostly that the miniseries adds a few scenes. I did notice that the film rearranged Darcy's letter to Elizabeth so as to place his explanation regarding Wickham before his explanation regarding Bingley and Jane. A curious choice, intended, I suppose, to soften us up a bit for his unflattering (though true) description of Elizabeth's family. There were a few other changes which I suspect were intended to make it appeal a bit more to a modern audience, which I imagine is also the reason that several scenes were added featuring Darcy.
I do feel like its length is a bit excessive; watching it in one sitting is quite an endeavour. I suspect it might have been shortened somewhat without harming it significantly; the added scenes not present in the novel would be a good first approximation of unnecessary footage, although deciding what precisely ought to be cut would take much more careful study of the film than I have patience for, and in any case would matter little. I would rather watch a long, but faithful, film adaptation than a shorter one which cuts out scenes from the novel.
It is difficult to give more than my general impressions of the miniseries. Suffice it to say that I felt it was about as enjoyable as the novel, which is high praise coming from me; I generally hold that the book is always better.