Elizabeth Aston featuring the Darcy, Collins, and Bingley families. The first novel to go out under the "Elizabeth Aston" name, "Mr. Darcy's Daughters", was released as a sequel to "Pride and Prejudice" in 2003. It features the five daughters of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet as they navigate London society while their parents are in Constantinople. The novel was a success for publisher Simon & Schuster, and led the company to produce further Austen adaptations and sequels by other authors, such as Pamela Aidan's "Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" series. Aston's Darcy series came to include five further novels: "The Exploits & Adventures of
Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series) fictional interview. Firth participated in the editing of what critics called "one of the funniest sequences in the diary's sequel". Both novels make various other references to the BBC serial. Andrew Davies collaborated on the screenplays for the 2001 and 2004 "Bridget Jones" films, in which Crispin Bonham-Carter (Mr. Bingley) and Lucy Robinson (Mrs. Hurst) appeared in minor roles. The self-referential in-joke between the projects convinced Colin Firth to accept the role of Mark Darcy, as it gave him an opportunity to ridicule and liberate himself from his "Pride and Prejudice" character. Film critic James Berardinelli would later state that