Lord Peter Wimsey – The
Complete Collection (British TV)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: B
Though not as remembered as much as Sherlock Holmes,
Hercule Poirot or Jane Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey is one of the great early
successes of detective literature.
Writer/creator Dorothy Sayers first appeared way back in 1923 in the
book Whose Body? and it is amazing how little the character has appeared
on screen in any way shape or form.
There were eventually 16 original books in all and five were broken down
starting back in 1972 into multiple-episode adaptations. Lord Peter Wimsey – The Complete
Collection offers all of the, with Ian Carmichael in the title role.
The mysteries are:
1)
The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club
(originally published in 1928; Book 4/ first aired 1973) [Adaptation by John
Bowen/Directed by Ronald Wilson]
2)
The Nine Tailors (1934;
Book 11/1974) [Anthony Steven/Raymond Menmuir]
3)
Murder Must Advertise (1933;
Book 9/1973; considered one of the classic books) [Bill Craig/Rodney Bennett]
4)
Five Red Herrings (aka Suspicious
Characters; 1931; Book 7/1974) [Bill Craig/Rodney Bennett]
5)
Clouds Of Witness (1926;
Book 2/1972) [Anthony Steven/Hugh David]
Carmichael brings the character to life in a believable
way that revived the character and (as the big box the 10 DVDs come in)
convinced PBS to launch the showcase series Mystery! That show still is with us today, featuring
hosts like Vincent Price and Diana Rigg.
The cast is always up to the challenge and the production design is
impressive, from a golden period in British TV like no other. Yes, this is where some of the cliché of the
dead body turning up where it should not (in the houses and halls of the rich
and well-off, where they were supposed too civilized and well-mannered for such
a thing to happen happened) was established, but then you see why the butler
was always being scapegoated. Wimsey’s
cases always showed otherwise and the motivation, when it was greed, was
universal enough for audiences of all classes to identify with. No wonder they were hits. This is done so well, one can see why no one
has tried again to adapt more of the books since.
The 1.33 X 1 image was show on the professional analog PAL
video format with the film-like outdoors shots so common to such
productions. These copies hold up very
well, and even with their visually technical limits, have the look and feel of
both the 1920s and Mystery genre. That
these shows actually have better form than many feature films (and digitally
shot HD works) I have seen recently says something about how lame productions
have become today. The Dolby Digital
2.0 takes the original monophonic television sound and boosts it very
effectively to a simple stereo that is particularly important here for the way
the clues and conversations are laid out.
The score by Herbert Chappell, including the theme, are just right. Acorn and the BBC have done great justice to
this landmark television.
Extras include a good interview with Carmichael from
12/4/2000 and running 7:42, some text pages on Sayers and the Wimsey books,
filmographies for all the actors for each of the multi-part mysteries and fun
trivia games we recommend you try out after watching each mystery
completely. The bibliography of Wimsey
books on all DVDs misses the 1937 release Busman’s Holiday, but this was
probably excluded because it was set on the stage, as noted in her four-page
text biography section. The 1972 book Striding
Folly is also known as “Talboys” and is the only other tale besides #4
above with two titles, a British/U.S. publishing difference. Otherwise, this is a decent supplement
section.
Like Bulldog Drummond, Lord Wimsey was washed away more
than he should have been by World War II and new cycles of heroes and
detectives. In Wimsey’s case, he was
further stereotyped as an effeminate lightweight who was only in circles of
wealth and privilege who happened to solve murders. This was partly due to the arrival of the Gumshoe Private Eye and
Film Noir movement. As good as those
Noirs are, that is wrong. Even when
certain aspects of the stories show their age, though the TV producers have
retained some of this on purpose to avoid too much contemporary revision, this
is as important as any of those works.
Wimsey is an early example of how detective literature arrived and does
not always carry the conventions of the genre in its later years. Some would argue it helped build it, even if
it did not completely have all the genre markings. Lord Peter Wimsey – The Complete Collection is a key part of
this legacy, one all Mystery fans will want to get.
- Nicholas Sheffo
