Author Fielding has said her incredibly successful 1996 book "Bridget Jones's Diary," detailing the romantic misadventures of a modern-day Londoner, was inspired by Austen's novel and its 1995 BBC adaptation. When the book was adapted into a 2001 movie, the role of Bridget's knight in shining armor, Mark Darcy, was given to "Pride" actor Colin Firth as a self-referential joke.