Peter Wimsey BBC Productions
Jim Mann
Way back in the 1970s, the BBC produced a number of mini-series
based on Dorothy Sayers' novels. These were shown in the US on
Masterpiece Theatre long before I owned a VCR. Does anyone know:
Are these ever rerun?
Are they available on video?
I've been rereading all of Sayers lately and would love to see
the series again.
--
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*
Jim Mann jma...@transarc.com
http://www.transarc.com/~jmann/
Marriage should be a balanced stalemate between equal
adversaries. -- Amelia Peabody
Debbie Cusick
I remember this series. However the key thing I remember about it was that
the actor chosen to play Peter Wimsey was so utterly wrong for the part in
every single way that it completely spoiled my abilty to enjoy the episodes.
--
Debbie
dcusick at prodigy dot net
"I'd agree with you if you were
right."
-Awakenings
Jim Mann wrote in message <6e6j9l$i7e$1...@newshost.transarc.com>...
Teresa
Debbie Cusick wrote:
>
> I remember this series. However the key thing I remember about it was that
> the actor chosen to play Peter Wimsey was so utterly wrong for the part in
> every single way that it completely spoiled my abilty to enjoy the episodes.
> --
> Debbie
> dcusick at prodigy dot net
>
> Jim Mann wrote in message <6e6j9l$i7e$1...@newshost.transarc.com>...
> >Way back in the 1970s, the BBC produced a number of mini-series
> >based on Dorothy Sayers' novels. These were shown in the US on
> >Masterpiece Theatre long before I owned a VCR. Does anyone know:
> >
Hi! I guess this fits into the "that's why they make vanilla and
chocolate" category. I thought the actor was very good- and captured
many of Wimsey's psychological traits wonderfully.
Teresa
Joann Lawler
>Debbie Cusick wrote:
>>
>> I remember this series. However the key thing I remember about it was that
>> the actor chosen to play Peter Wimsey was so utterly wrong for the part in
>> every single way that it completely spoiled my abilty to enjoy the episodes.
>>
>> Jim Mann wrote in message <6e6j9l$i7e$1...@newshost.transarc.com>...
>> >Way back in the 1970s, the BBC produced a number of mini-series
>> >based on Dorothy Sayers' novels. These were shown in the US on
>> >Masterpiece Theatre long before I owned a VCR. Does anyone know:
>> >
>Hi! I guess this fits into the "that's why they make vanilla and
>chocolate" category. I thought the actor was very good- and captured
>many of Wimsey's psychological traits wonderfully.
Remember, there were two series with different actors. You may be remembering
one, and Debbie the other.
Ian Carmichael was a little too old and a little too pudgy -- he looked absurd
as the Harlequin in "Murder Must Advertise". I only have one of the other
series -- the actor (his name's slipped my mind right now) had a much more
appropriate appearance. I only have one of that series on tape -- "Have His
Carcase" -- and he seemed to do a decent job with the role.
And no, don't ask me for copies. I had a silly economic fetish of trying to
fit everything on one tape, so I dubbed them into 4-hour mode. The tapes look
awful.
Joann
Dlock
The two TV Wimseys were Ian Carmichael (in the first mini-series) and Edward
Petherbridge (ms?) (in the second). I much preferred the former series for a
number of reasons. It utilized the earlier and IMO the better books ("Clouds
of Witness," "Unpleasantness at Bellona Club" and "Murder Must Advertise."
Production values seemed better. And I very much preferred Carmichael's
interpretation. Yes, he was a little too old and not what you'd call svelte.
But the actor, who was sort of an early Hugh Grant in British movies of the
Fifties, brought a great deal of charm and humor to the role. Petherbridge's
Wimsey seemed prissy and sour and, in a word, unpleasant. It's possible that
this interpretation was in keeping with Dorothy Sayers intention. According
to mystery novelist Rex Stout, she became so disgusted with the character,
she grew physically ill when discussing him.
Dick Lochte
Marilyn Mosher
The second one was Edward Petheridge (sp?). I really liked these, expecially
Harriet Vane, played by Harriet Walters.
Marilyn
In article
<jal1.749...@voicenet.com> ja...@voicenet.com (Joann Lawler)
writes:>From: ja...@voicenet.com (Joann Lawler)>Subject: Re: Peter Wimsey BBC
Productions>Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 21:15:44 GMT
Debbie Cusick
Yes, this is exactly the one I am talking about - an older, graying, pudgy
actor chosen to portray someone who is described as blond and boyish
looking, and who is vain about keeping his figure. "He strips well" as
Harriet Vane thought the first time she saw him in bathing dress.
The Harlequin scene in particular is the one that still sticks in my mind
after all these years as the height of embarassing absurdity. Wimsey was
lithe and lean as Harlequin. One envisions him in black tights showing off
his legs - not the silly baggy Harlequin outfit they had to show on the TV
series to accomodate the actor and his definitely unfit figure. One could
never envision him capturing the fancy of a young 'with-it' girl like Dian
de Momerie. I never knew there was another actor who had played the part.
Wish I had seen him.
--
Debbie
dcusick at prodigy dot net
"I'd agree with you if you were
right."
-Awakenings
Joann Lawler wrote in message ...
Debbie Cusick
Edward Petheridge? (sp?) He'd be *much* better as Wimsey. If these were
available on video I would definitely want to add them to my library.
--
Debbie
dcusick at prodigy dot net
"I'd agree with you if you were
right."
-Awakenings
Marilyn Mosher wrote in message ...
G Bell
ja...@voicenet.com (Joann Lawler) writes:
>Ian Carmichael was a little too old and a little too pudgy -- he looked absurd
>as the Harlequin in "Murder Must Advertise". I only have one of the other
>series -- the actor (his name's slipped my mind right now) had a much more
>appropriate appearance. I only have one of that series on tape -- "Have His
>Carcase" -- and he seemed to do a decent job with the role.
Edward Pretheridge was the second Wimsey.
Graham
Kathy Li
In article <6ef46h$d...@sjx-ixn8.ix.netcom.com>, "Dlock"
<dl...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> The two TV Wimseys were Ian Carmichael (in the first mini-series) and Edward
> Petherbridge (ms?) (in the second).
Yup. Petherbridge. Not Petheridge. The guy who was Newman Noggs in
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. Who tortured us for hours with his "New England
accent" in the Glenda Jackson STRANGE INTERLUDE. Who got to fall down
stairs in AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE. Who played John Rhys-Davies's
sidekick Jason in NOBLE HOUSE. Who was the original Guildenstern in
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD at the National in 1965. The King of
France to Olivier's LEAR. Gower in the BBC PERICLES. (sorry. fan love of
the obscure role kicks in. Can't shake it.)
> I much preferred the former series for a
> number of reasons. It utilized the earlier and IMO the better books ("Clouds
> of Witness," "Unpleasantness at Bellona Club" and "Murder Must Advertise."
> Production values seemed better. And I very much preferred Carmichael's
> interpretation. Yes, he was a little too old and not what you'd call svelte.
> But the actor, who was sort of an early Hugh Grant in British movies of the
> Fifties, brought a great deal of charm and humor to the role. Petherbridge's
> Wimsey seemed prissy and sour and, in a word, unpleasant. It's possible that
> this interpretation was in keeping with Dorothy Sayers intention. According
> to mystery novelist Rex Stout, she became so disgusted with the character,
> she grew physically ill when discussing him.
Hmm. It's funny, but I had the opposite reaction, both in the books and in
the series. In the earlier books of the series, Wimsey seems more
clownishly Bertie-Woosterish, and (imho) grows in depth and character as
the books progress. I think that I prefer the nerves'n'nose Wimsey of the
later books, and that's probably also why I preferred Petherbridge's
portrayal (if not the adaptations. HAVE HIS CARCASE was cherce [bless
you, Rosemary Anne Sisson!], but GAUDY NIGHT was something of a
travesty). I found Petherbridge's Wimsey to be quite charming and
humorous, and I would have loved to have seen Petherbridge and Emily
Richard in the stage production they did of BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON at the
Lyric Hammersmith.
The Carmichael adaptations were certainly more faithful to the book, but
seemed a little ponderous (maybe it's just my MTV-trained
short-attention-span), and heavy-handed for me than the later series. And
Carmichael's Wimsey was more in the Woosterish mode.
Did want to note, just for trivia's sake, that Shirley Cain, who
portrayed, most admirably, Miss Climpson in the 1986 series, was also one
of the typing pool in MURDER MUST ADVERTISE.
--Kathy Li, madwoman with a vcr.
--
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-------------------| his late father's court he scents infection/The
My employeers | funeral meat's not cold/And ere these shoes get
nothing to do with | old/The odds are north-northwest in your
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