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Colin Firth statue appears in London lake as 'Pride and Prejudice' tribute

A statue of Colin Firth, dressed as Mr. Darcy in an homage to his 'Pride and Prejudice' role, has appeared in the Serpentine Lake in London. Colin Firth emerging from a lake in 'Pride and Prejudice' was recently voted the most memorable moment in British drama.

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David Parry/AP
A depiction of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in 'Pride and Prejudice' has been placed in the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park in London.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Colin Firth has appeared in the middle of a London lake – or one version of him has, anyway.

A 12-foot statue of Firth in a white shirt, as seen in the 1995 BBC miniseries “Pride and Prejudice” in which he portrayed Mr. Darcy, has been placed in the middle of the Serpentine Lake in London's Hyde Park to promote the new British TV channel titled Drama, which is owned by UKTV and launched on July 8. UKTV says viewers chose the scene in which Firth emerges from a pond as the most memorable moment ever to occur in drama on British television.

The statue is made of fiberglass and will move to other locations before being put in a body of water in Lyme Park, where Firth originally filmed the scene. (And no, the sequence in which Mr. Darcy goes for a swim was not originally in Jane Austen’s book.)

Adrian Wills, the Drama network general manager, told the Hollywood Reporter the statue doesn't just depict Firth.

"We're very pleased with his appearance... He's portraying many of the Darcys that have appeared over the years in film and TV adaptations," Wills said of the statue.

An anonymous swimmer told the Hollywood Reporter, "It makes swimming a bit more interesting, and I think the swans like it."

But some find the statue a bit odd. An Atlantic Wire story on the statue ran with the headline “Giant Colin Firth terrorizes London,” while Twitter users seemed both pleased and amused over the Firth tribute. 

“Loch Ness Monster?” a user named Rachel Watson tweeted. “Nope, Just a Giant Colin Firth Statue: He's not just coming for Elizabeth. He's coming for you.”

Meanwhile, the Twitter account for Des Plaines Library in Illinois tweeted, “Not sure how I feel about creepy fiberglass Mr. Darcy.”

Twitter user Claire McKinney felt the statue was going a bit too far.

“We do love Colin Firth... But a statue of him in a lake?!” she tweeted.

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