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| Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries [1987] (REGION 1) (NTSC) | ![Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries [1987] (REGION 1) (NTSC)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51s4vzkWPHL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Directors: Christopher Hodson, Michael Simpson
Actors: Harriet Walter, Edward Petherbridge, Richard Morant, Rowena Cooper, Simon Cuff
Studio: BBC Warner
Category: DVD
Buy New: £31.87
Buy New/Used from £31.87
Avg. Customer Rating:  (3 reviews)
Sales Rank: 12552
Format: Box Set, Colour, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 500 minutes
Number Of Items: 3
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.5 x 1.9
MPN: WARDE1624D
ISBN: 0790766175
UPC: 794051162427
EAN: 9780790766171
ASIN: B000062XDX
Release Date: May 14, 2002
Theatrical Release Date: May 28, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 No perfect Whimsey September 22, 2006
6 out of 14 found this review helpful
I first watched this series as a teenage undergraduate at Cambridge, and seem to recall that I thought it wonderful - no surprise as I was mad about Lord Peter anyway. Twenty years later, I re-read Gaudy Night and decided to watch the TV adaptation again. I was surprised how disappointed I was with Edward Petherbridge's portrayal. Here is a cold arrogant smug Lord Peter with no hint of the boyish humour that Sayers gives him in her books. In my dewy-eyed youth, I somehow overlooked this, as well as Harriet Walters' fresh and attractive portrayal of Harriet Vane (in the books, often a bit gloomy and self-obsessed). Ah well, how we change with age. But something that still stands out is the excellent production, with beautiful settings, costumes and props. For that and to make up for overlooking Ms Walters before, I give this two stars.
 Everything except "Busman's Honeymoon" February 9, 2004
20 out of 29 found this review helpful
Strong PoisonpThis is the first in a series of television movies based on Dorothy L. Sayers's famous mystery series featuring Harriet Vane and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.pTo be can tell it the first of the program that the actors are struggling to find the characters that they play however by the end of the program they are easily identifiable. In the next mystery "Have His Carcass" and they run smooth from the beginning. Then in "Gaudy Night" they are somewhat abbreviated.pOne of the strengths of the BBC production is that they do not try to dramatize so much that the story that it does not match the book. One of the advantages of this series is that it is long enough that most of the pertinent information is shown. They made an excellent choice when deciding to use Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane. They match the book character descriptions perfectly. In fact if you see this program before you read the book their images will be in your mind.pYou may recognize Harriet Walter as the nasty attituded Fanny Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (1995).pIn the opening scenes we notice that Harriet is on trial for life accused of murdering her ex boyfriend. Everyone is convinced that she did it except Lord Peter Wimsey. Because he fell in love with her she just had to be innocent. As with all Dorothy Sayers mysteries the harder Peter whimsy fought to prove Harry its innocence, the tighter than use got around her neck. In the mean time Peter Wimsey proposes to Harriet.pWatch every scene and listen to every word from the beginning as this movie is peppered with clues. You will have to see the second time to recognize the clues that you missed. br-------------------------pHave His CarcasspThis is the second in a series of television movies based on Dorothy L. Sayers's famous mystery series featuring Harriet Vane and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. brThe characters are now smoother and fuller than they were in "Strong Poison" Which was the first in the series and had no guide to go by.pOne of the strengths of the BBC production is that they do not try to dramatize so much that the story does not match the book. One of the advantages of this series is that it is long enough that most of the pertinent information is shown. They made an excellent choice when deciding to use Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane. They match the book character descriptions perfectly. In fact if you see this program before you read the book their images will be in your mind. brYou may recognize Edward Petherbridge as France King Lear (1984). And many of the other character actors from The BBC Agatha Christie "Miss Marple" series. brIn the opening scenes we notice that Harriet on holiday, recovering from being on trial for murder. She is on the beach and hears something that startles her. Realizing it is getting late she tarts down the beach and finds (you guessed it) a body. Naturally there are only two sets of footprints hers and the deceased. Once again she is mixed up in a mystery and reluctantly with the help of Lord Peter Wimsey attempts to find out if it was murder, suicide or a Bolshevik plot. brWatch every scene and listen to every word from the beginning as this movie is peppered with clues. You will have to see the second time to recognize the clues that you missed. br-----------------------------pGaudy NightpThis is the third in a series of television movies based on Dorothy L. Sayers's famous mystery series featuring Harriet Vein and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. The first two programs are "Strong Poison" and "Have His Carcass."pOne of the strengths of the BBC production is that they do not try to dramatize so much that the story does not match the book. One of the advantages of this series is that it is long enough that most of the pertinent information is shown. They made an excellent choice when deciding to use Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane. They match the book character descriptions perfectly. In fact if you see this program before you read the book their images will be in your mind. pMaybe due to time restraints or different directing, many of the most interesting book characters were left out of "Gaudy Night" A chess board plays a significant part in the book and is also left out of this version.pHarriet is invite to her university's gaudy. She soon finds out that it is not an idle indentation. It seems that people are receiving poison pen letters and very nasty pranks. Not wanting the police to be involved they turn to Harriet (knowing of here reputation for solving crimes.) When Harriet receives a letter herself she confides in Lord Peter. Are these innocent pranks or will they lead to some thing more sinister? And who is the culprit?br------------------------brBusman's HoneymoonpToo bad they could not make this one. They probably could not get the license. It was made many years ago as "Haunted Honeymoon" (1940)brRobert Montgomery as Peter WimseybrConstance Cummings as Lady Harriet Vane
"Except that the girl's innocent." January 3, 2004
31 out of 35 found this review helpful
Things are not going well at Harriet Vane's trial for the murder of her former lover, Philip Boyd - hearing the judge's summation, only the most unrealistic of minds could conclude that she is not guilty as charged.pOne such mind, however, is that of Lord Peter Wimsey - the same Lord Peter who, normally a beacon of logic, unfailingly unspins the web of every criminal intrigue to which he brings to bear his intellectual powers, but who now, epitome of a bachelor that he has heretofore been, without so much as ever having personally met Harriet, is dead-set on marrying her. So when he tells his old friend (and as readers of Dorothy Sayers's books know, soon-to-be brother in law) Chief Inspector Parker, who was in charge of the investigation, that Parker has made a mistake, the policeman is unsettled; despite the water-tight case he feels he has put together. "Where is the flaw?" he inquires gingerly. "There isn't one," Wimsey retorts. "Except that the girl's innocent."pThus, the scene is set for the first entry in Sayers's Wimsey-Vane canon, whose first three installments are brought to the small screen in this delightful miniseries. (As the movie rights to the fourth and last episode completed by Sayers herself, "Busman's Honeymoon," were sold by the author, the BBC was unable to also include that particular installment; unfortunately so, as their version would undoubtedly have been more faithful than 1940's "Haunted Honeymoon" starring Robert Montgomery and Constance Cummings). So, while Harriet is pining away in prison, dreading a jury verdict which, she feels, can only be delayed, not avoided entirely, and not knowing how to deal with the sudden attentions of a well-known member of nobility, Wimsey busies himself with the search for Boyd's true murderer; whom he eventually finds with the help of his confidante Miss Climpson (whose presence in the jury box, unbeknownst to Harriet, has already proved instrumental in producing a hung jury despite the judge's damning summation) and her assistant, Miss Murchison; both of which ladies, while perfectly honorable, do not shrink from unconvential methods when called for in the pursuit of justice.pIn the second story, "Have His Carcase," Harriet has gone on a walking tour along the English coast, to regain her peace of mind after her acquittal - only to find, instead, the corpse of a man lying on a beachside rock; and to promptly lose him again when the rock is covered by the tide, leaving only the photographs and personal items she has wisely taken as proof that he was there at all. Lord Peter is summoned to the spot by a reporter Harriet herself has called in an attempt to turn the tables on the inevitability of facing headline-hunting journalists again; and they are soon head over heals in an adventure featuring everything from a lonely rich widow set to marry the deceased, to gigolos at an expensive yet slightly sordid seaside hotel (the dead man having been one of those gigolos himself, although sporting a rather mysterious past), a razor's wanderings, an exercise in code-breaking, and a conspiracy ostensibly involving forces hailing back to imperial Russia - all of this, in the face of a police investigation stubbornly returning a verdict of suicide, and one of the most watertight alibis Lord Peter has to crack in all his career.pLastly, we see Harriet returning to Oxford, invited to her college's "Gaudy Night" celebrations (hence the episode's title), but also commissioned by the dean to look into an increasingly embarrassing series of poison-pen letters and vandalism directed against independent women, and primarily, women in academia. Lord Peter - after a diplomatic mission to continental Europe - comes late to the investigation, but when he does, the solution is found very quickly. And amid the hallowed halls of learned Oxford, also ended is the noble champion's quest for his lady's hand; not entirely in the high-spirited words only a scholar like Sayers could have put into the mouths of her singleminded and unusual couple of sleuths, but faithful to her novel nevertheless.pAnd it is that faithfulness to the books which most distinguishes this miniseries, as well as its superb cinematography, marvelously capturing the settings; from Old Bailey and pre-WWII London to sleepy and somewhat seedy seaside resorts and the timeless grace and high spirits of Oxford University. Unfortunately (particularly so in "Gaudy Night") a number of subplots were dropped, but the essence of Sayers's novels is maintained; and much of the dialogue is taken literally from those. Edward Petherbridge nails Lord Peter's tone and exalted mannerisms, as well as his hidden vulnerabilities, to a tee - fans of Ian Carmichael's more physical, over-the-top interpretation be reminded that Sayers herself, in "Strong Poison," describes Wimsey as of "slight" build, while giving a rather unexpected impression of "controlled power." (Granted, though, that, conceivably having endowed Lord Peter with much of her own preferences in men, Sayers would not have Harriet comment, as she does here, that he is "not much to look at;" in fact, she has her heroine veritably pining over a sleeping Lord Peter's physiognomy during "Gaudy Night"'s famous punting trip.) - Harriet Walter, similarly, shares more than her first name with the stories' female protagonist; she is exactly the Harriet Vane one might image when reading the books (I certainly did). Richard Morant as Lord Peter's faithful manservant Bunter is about a knife's tip too much of a jack-of-all-trades for my tastes - I can well see him "insinuating" himself into a suspect's household at his master's behest or shadowing another suspect all across London, but not necessarily fretting, as he does in "Busman's Honeymoon," over the sake of a case of vintage port, packed in eiderdowns in the back of a car and in danger of being rattled (and rendered undrinkable for months, if not years to come) by Lord Peter's brisk driving habits. Still, overall this is an outstanding production; undoubtedly one of the BBC's finest ever, and long overdue to be revived in this format.
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