00:00 My name is Eli Dawson and I'm a curator for the Colordale Museum Service.
00:04 Can you just tell us about this piece?
00:06 This is one of the most recent acquisitions by Bamfylde Museum and this is probably one of the most exciting things the museum has ever acquired.
00:14 It's probably one of the most famous white shirts in television history.
00:19 It's a shirt worn by Colin Firth when playing Fitzwilliam Darcy in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
00:28 It features in one of the most iconic scenes in the film, though not actually in the original book,
00:34 when Mr Darcy emerges from the lake clad only in his breeches and in his white shirt and unexpectedly runs into Elizabeth Bennet.
00:44 This has become one of the most iconic scenes in television history.
00:48 For a whole generation of women and men it made Colin Firth an incredibly important sex symbol.
00:57 This shirt is a real piece of television history and we're delighted to have acquired it for the museum collection.
01:03 This shirt is now itself a piece of history. It's from 1995, which is 30 years ago.
01:09 Bamfylde Museum collects fashion history from throughout the ages and this shirt being such an iconic piece,
01:17 we felt it was something that would make a wonderful addition to our collection and we've got a huge amount of interest from the general public.
01:25 It was bought from Cosprop, who are the company who makes the original costumes for the Pride and Prejudice series.
01:32 After the end of the series it was returned to Cosprop but it was loaned out to various organisations over the years.
01:40 In 2024 this and a huge number of other costumes from television history were put up for sale by Cosprop.
01:48 Bamfylde Museum were lucky enough to acquire this along with a number of other costumes.
01:55 The shirt plus the other items that Mr Darcy wore, so his breeches, his coat, his cravat, cost £25,000 in total.
02:05 That money was taken from an art fund which was dedicated for purchases for the museum collection.
02:12 It was taken from requests and donations to the museum.
02:16 The whole of that £25,000 has gone to charity.
02:20 The shirt is going to be unveiled here at Bamfylde Museum on Saturday 25th May.
02:26 It's going to be likely on permanent display here at the museum, certainly for the next couple of years or so.
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