Product Description: Three elegant murder mysteries adapted from the crime novels of Dorothy L. Sayers which chronicle the relationship of amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane unfolds in a realm of romance and intrigue. Includes the mysteries: "Strong Poison" "Have His Carcass" and "Gaudy Night."Running Time: 513 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR UPC: 794051162427 Manufacturer No: E1624
Amazon.com: Three Dorothy L. Sayers mysteries involving amateur sleuth extraordinaire Lord Peter Wimsey and the lovely Harriet Vane are realized to perfection in these 1987 BBC adaptations. In Strong Poison, Harriet (Harriet Walter) is on trial for murder. Lord Peter (Edward Petherbridge) becomes enchanted by her and decides she cannot possibly be guilty. What follows are the twin stories of Lord Peter's search to find the real killer and his romantic pursuit of Harriet. Both are charming. As always, Sayers has plotted her story brilliantly, with a satisfying mystery and a sly comic touch (a gentle poke at the spiritualist movement is particularly fun). The period atmosphere is pulled off naturally and with close attention to detail, and the adaptation has a careful reverence for Sayers's novel. The performances are all remarkably strong. Petherbridge is perfect as Wimsey, revealing his brilliance and allowing him to be hopelessly in love without ever damaging his dignity. Walter plays Harriet with rich nuance, saying as much with her silences as she does with her lines, and Richard Morant is quietly fantastic as the remarkable Bunting.
Harriet, fresh from the trial, tries to get away from it all and ends up stumbling over a recently killed body in Have His Carcass. Unable to resist a crime (or, for that matter, Harriet), Lord Peter is soon on the case. In Gaudy Night, Lord Peter is still proposing at frequent intervals, and Harriet, though unable to say yes, is also unable to send Lord Peter entirely away. But enough with the romance. As Wimsey heads off for some foreign service work, Harriet visits her Oxford alma mater and lands smack in the middle of a poison-pen scandal. Harriet's status as a mystery writer, naturally, means she's the one who should investigate. Sayers clearly had fun writing this one, using Harriet to gently tweak her own profession, at the same time both parodying and defending the cloistered life at a women's college. --Ali Davis
Enjoyable mystery series! A highly enjoyable English Mystery Series! Superb casting, interesting mysteries, a love story, and agreeable English humor. I saw these mysteries on PBS as a teenager, and jumped at the chance to own them on DVD as an adult. Strong Poison (the first in the series) and Gaudy Night (the third) are each three parts of approximately an hour each, and Have His Carcass is four one hour segments. Have His Carcass does show a corpse and is a tad graphic, but nowhere near the graphic violence and gore seen in today's television and movies. If you enjoy a good mystery, and especially a good English mystery, I highly recommend the Lord Peter Wimsey DVDs!
The Best Wimsey Edward Petherbridge is by far the best Lord Wimsey. He simply looks more the part, although he is also an excellent actor. Here the stories focus on the courtship of Harriet Vane, also excellently cast in these shows. If you liked the novels you'll love this TV version of them. And if you haven't read the books (why not?) watch these anyway -- they're great stories.
Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries - Lord Peter Wimey-Harriet Vane Collection I've always been a fan of English mysteries, so when I saw this collection I had to have as I enjoyed when I saw it PBS TV years ago. My biggest complaint is that more movies were not made. Alas, that seems to be the norm for the BBC, you start enjoying a series and then they drop it, before completing the stories by the authors. Petherbridge is very good as Wimsey.
very nice series, well-acted from great stories I'd seen these when they were first broadcast, and am a big fan of the books, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I was glad to see them on DVD.
The shows hold up -- the production values aren't movie-quality, but they don't detract form the stories at all. Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter are great as Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, and Richard Morant is also very good as Bunter. The supporting casts are good (note especially the performance of the actor who plays Bright in Have His Carcase). It's a shame they didn't make Busman's Honeymoon . . .
I was a little disappointed that the discs didn't have special features; it would have been interesting to hear some commentary by the leads. But, the shows themselves will have to do.
Dorothy Sayers DVD's Review... If you are a English Mystery fan, you know these movies are terrific and that Dorothy Sayers is a terrific author.
I did have a problem with one of the DVD's. It was scratched and the picture broke up into little still pictures for quite a while. I emailed Amazon and they were very good about replacing the whole set. All I had to do was return the set and pay postage. And, the postage was only about $2.90, so that wasn't too bad. Amazon was very prompt about sending the replacement set, too. I have bought from Amazon in the past and will buy from Amazon in the future.
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