5. The Missing Lovers
Due to running time constraints, a very sweet and tremendously touching lesbian love story ended up cut from the final film, which can be seen as part of the Deleted Scenes on the DVD, as introduced by Richard Curtis:
I was really sorry to lose this next bit, but obviously when we'd lost the bit with Emma and her son, we couldn't do this. The idea was meant to be that we just sort of casually met this stern headmistresses ... and then 15 minutes later we fell in with the stern headmistresses and you realize no matter how unlikely it seems, any character you come across in life has their own complicated tale of love.
The sequence involved a lesbian couple, one of whom is the headmistress of the school featured in the film, whose lover is dying. It is a hugely affecting scene, and it is unfortunate it was cut, since it is infinitely better than the unnecessary Kris Marshall element. Here's the scene in full... http://youtu.be/_ao_heePixQ