Pride And Prejudice stars Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin and Freya Mavor are seen together as the Bennet family for the first time as it's revealed they have a 'Bennet Bitches' WhatsApp

Netflix's lavish Pride and Prejudice adaptation ushers in a new Bennet family and during filming they brought the 21st century to Jane Austen's Regency-era characters.

The anticipated new interpretation of Austen's most adapted novel – this will be the 17th screen version – arrives on the streaming service in December, and British Vogue has been granted a first look. 

The adaptation was written by Everything I Know About Love author Dolly Alderton, 38, and directed by Euros Lyn, whose credits include Netflix's coming-of-age hit Heartstopper.

A Vogue shoot from photographer Scott Trindle sees the all-star cast, headed up by Emma Corrin, 30, who plays Elizabeth, gallivanting about the countryside in period costume.

Emma joins forces with onscreen mother Olivia Colman, 52, and sister Freya Mavor, 33, who plays eldest Bennet girl Jane, for the shoot, before reclining on the grass with Jack Lowden, 36, who smoulders as her Mr Darcy.

Alongside the shoot, screenwriter Alderton has lent Vogue her on-set diary, in which she chronicles the making of the series, from casting and read-throughs to costumes and filming at Longbourn and Pemberley. 

Alderton has revealed that the Bennet family castmates immediately bonded during long shooting days that began in the sweltering heat of July 2025 through to snow sprinkled Christmas lunches in December. 

The screenwriter reveals that 'Olivia, Emma and the Bennet sisters are all on a WhatsApp group called The Bennet Bitches,' communicating non-stop on their rare hours away from each other.

The group also made the most of a day off from set, heading en masse to a box at London's O2 to watch Emma perform with Little Simz. 

Alderton writes that she was delighted to arrive to see the 'Bennet sisters draining the free bar', adding that it was 'strange for them to be not in corsets and even stranger to watch them dancing to hip-hop'.

The diary also includes tidbits from Lowden who struggles at first to 'get under the skin of Darcy'.

'Darcy really is such a hard part in so many ways. So unknowable and brooding for such a hefty portion of the story,' Alderton admits. 'Mostly mute, deep-in-thought acting for Jack this first month of filming.'

She recalls one scene which she later watched back and 'I hear him say, "I've got nothing going on behind my eyes, I should have never taken this job," as he is directed to get in and out of a carriage for the 100th time.'

Alderton also toiled with condensing Austen's 400-page classic into six episodes. 

'There were so many bad versions of this part of the story that I wrote and ended up in the bin,' she writes in the diary.

'One of the more memorable ones was "the horny tree" draft, where Darcy shows Lizzy the oldest trees on the Pemberley estate and talks in cack-handed metaphors about how you can only see the true colour of the bark when you are close to it.'

Before shooting began Alderton sat down for tea with Dame Emma Thompson who wrote and starred in the beloved 1995 film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.

Listing the pearls of wisdom gleaned from their meeting, Alderton writes that she was told '90 per cent of Austen is the casting; a good comedy editor will make or break it; we must ignore the temptation to over-score and let the dialogue speak for itself.'

'I must prepare a document of additional dialogue so the language stays precise and the actors don't 'Regency ad-lib'; I have to make the stakes of marriage clear for a modern audience; I must not be scared of the Janeites ('They have the books. Let them enjoy the books.').' 

'As I leave, she gives me a big hug. “Mate, it’s gonna be brilliant.” True sisterhood.' 

See the full feature in the October issue of British Vogue, available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday, September 22. 

Pride and Prejudice arrives on Netflix on December 3.