"Mr. Darcy may turn out to be no more of a black-hearted villian than your average rich man" --- just guessing here as it has been a long time since I've watched it. I don't recall reading it in the novel (does anyone know?) so that may be an Andrew Davies creation but it left me with the impression that Mr. Bennet was - as we know, educated and well-read - more likely to read something else into W's tale of woe than a (relatively) naive 20 year old girl, predisposed to believing terrible tales about someone who'd insulted her. Very similiar to the line in Ch 25 "every body was pleased to think how much they had always disliked Mr. Darcy before they had known any thing of the matter (W's tale)."