Mr. Darcy On Skates

Canadian ice dancer Scott Moir felt the loss of the Olympic gold medal, but he is wrong to blame the coach he shared with the American couple who took gold.


There were some who thought the judging was fixed, with the pair of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir facing a rigged game. Scoring in dancing is bound to be somewhat subjective, and there is always someone who questions the eyesight of the judges. When you're a fan of the Canadians, you're going to criticize those holding power over placement, when all you need is a fan of Jane Austin and a lover of costume dramas to set your straight.

Scott Moir didn't stand a chance, poor lad.

He was skating against Mr. Darcy.

Look at Charlie White over there. Does that curly mop of hair remind you of anyone?

Think Masterpiece Theatre, the quintessential authority on British period pieces. Their 1995 adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel has been the most enduring, the version that set the tone for Regency romances. Said to be the truest to the author's text, the show made actor Colin Firth the unquestioned master of the Darcy character. He owned Darcy, so much so that he played a similar character in Bridget Jones' Diary, in a nod to the romantic swoon-inducer that he owned in the television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. 

You won't find the likes of Lawrence Olivier or Mathew McFadyen rising up out of the lake in London's Hyde Park. No indeed. It's Firth's Mr. Darcy, recreating the wet shirt scene that sets many a lady's heart to fluttering.

So what would you expect when Mr. Darcy steps out onto the ice and dances with manly grace? The Canadians didn't stand a chance, not when the judges were looking at Mr. Darcy in the guise of Charlie White. A minor flaw here or there for the American team? Mr. Darcy was flawed, in his way, but still he won the heart of Elizabeth Bennet...and enough ice dancing judges to give the American team the gold medal.