Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4720 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-08-03
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Number of discs: 10
• Running time: 1013 minutes

Synopsis
This collection includes all five original BBC adaptations of the LORD PETER WIMSEY mystery stories. Based on the popular detective novels of Dorothy L. Sayers, the miniseries feature Ian Carmichael as title character Wimsey, an aristocratic gentleman in 1920s England who solves crimes among Britain's upper crust. Acting as Lord Peter's Watson was his valet Bunter (Glyn Houston), a man whose (apparently) checkered past served him well when analysing the criminal mind.

Each of the five series is presented on two discs and include THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT THE BELLONA CLUB (1972), THE NINE TAILORS (1974), MURDER MUST ADVERTISE (1973), FIVE RED HERRINGS (1975), and CLOUDS OF WITNESS (1972). See individual titles for details.

Customer Reviews

Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Wimsey falls almost in the middle period of fictional detectives first begun by Edgar Allan Poe nearly a hundred years earlier. Wimsey, with a man to do for him, is a toff whose deductive skills are carefully masked by the flowery habits of the upper classes in the 1920s plus plenty of champagne. He has the money to buy people off and get results.
As characterised by Ian Carmichael he can appear on occasions as a bit of an annoying twit but generally these BBC productions from the early 1970s are quite enjoyable with the exception perhaps of the first adaptation, Clouds of Witness, which seems somewhat shrill and overacted. These stories play out mostly against a milieu of the well to do and are a far cry from the more naturalistic sleuths like Morse. The videotape recordings, as against film, have an advantage in their immediacy but the acting appears somewhat stagy. Cutting is also slower than modern standards and audiences today may feel a mite impatient for more action. Overall though, good fun. KJL.