Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

I’ve been enjoying the ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ TV series on DVD recently. This is a series of five TV serial adaptations of five ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ novels by author Dorothy L. Sayers. The series was shown on BBC1 from 1972 and 1975, and it stars Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter.

I was hoping to do in-depth reviews on the five stories in the ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ TV series, as I made a start with doing an in-depth review on ‘Clouds of Witness’, the first story in the TV series. Sadly, I couldn’t get any further than that, as there were other projects to do. 😦

Hopefully, I’ll have another chance of checking out the ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ TV series again and do proper in-depth reviews on the rest of the series in future. In the meantime, let me share with you what I generally thought of the ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ TV series overall.

I found this to be a very pleasant detective series and Ian Carmichael plays the role of a compassionate aristocratic detective very well in Lord Peter. The series has Lord Peter investigating certain mysteries gradually in each story, especially with being multi-parters.

The five stories include ‘Clouds of Witness’, which is a five-part story, ‘The Unpleasantness in the Bellona Club’ – a four-parter, ‘Murder Must Advertise’ – another four-parter, ‘The Nine Tailors’ – another four-parter, and ‘Five Red Herrings’ – another four-parter.

I’ve seen Ian Carmichael before in the 1999 BBC TV adaptation of ‘Wives & Daughters’. I found his take on Lord Peter Wimsey very enjoyable, especially when he’s so determined to solve a mystery. 🙂 He does it with such charm and wit in whatever case he encounters.

The cast also includes Glyn Houston as Bunter, Lord Peter’s manservant. I’ve seen Glyn Houston before in an episode of ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Them’. He’s also been in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV stories ‘The Hand of Fear’ and ‘The Awakening’. I enjoyed him as Bunter.

There’s also Derek Newark who plays Bunter in the second story of the TV series ‘The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club’. Glyn Houston played Bunter in ‘Clouds of Witness’, ‘The Nine Tailors’ and ‘Five Red Herrings’. Derek Newark is okay as Bunter in the TV series.

But with due respect, I wouldn’t say he plays Bunter in the same way that Glyn Houston plays him. I’ve also seen Derek Newark in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV stories ‘An Unearthly Child’ and ‘Inferno’. He’s also been in an episode of ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Them’. Uncanny, that. 😀

There’s also Mark Eden who plays Inspector Charles Parker in ‘Clouds of Witness’, ‘The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club’, ‘Murder Must Advertise’ and ‘The Nine Tailors’. It was nice to Mark Eden in this TV series. He played Marco Polo in the titular ‘Doctor Who’ story.

He also guest starred in the TV docudrama ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’. To see what Mark Eden looks like in the ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ TV series compared to not seeing him in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV story ‘Marco Polo’, which is currently missing, is a great blessing for me.

There’s also Rachel Herbert as Lady Mary Wimsey, Lord Peter’s sister who appears in ‘Clouds of Witness’ and ‘Murder Must Advertise’. Lady Mary later marries Mark Eden as Inspector Charles Parker in the series. 🙂 It’s very nice the two got together in the TV series.

Regarding the five stories, ‘Clouds of Witness’ is about Lord Peter investigating the case concerning his brother, the Duke of Denver, who has been accused of committing murder in Yorkshire. 😐 The murder victim is Lady Mary’s fiancé, who’s portrayed by Anthony Ainley.

‘Clouds of Witness’ is adapted for TV by Anthony Steven, who wrote ‘The Twin Dilemma’ and directed by Hugh David, who directed ‘The Highlanders’ and ‘Fury From The Deep’. In the guest cast, there’s George Coulouris, Francis de Woolf, Kate O’Mara, Noel Coleman, André Maranne and Anthony Jacobs. 🙂

In the second story ‘The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club’, a retired general is found dead at a London club called the Bellona Club for war veterans. This is on Armistice Day. A complicated will means that any number of people could have a motive for the murder.

The story is adapted for TV by John Bowen and Anthony Steven and is directed by Ronald Wilson. The guest cast includes Terence Alexander, Anna Cropper, Donald Pickering, John Quentin, Vivien Heilbron, Phyllida Law, Clifford Rose, Arthur Hewlett and John Scott Martin.

In the third story ‘Murder Must Advertise’, an unpopular copywriter is found dead at Pym’s Publicity under suspicious circumstances. Lord Peter goes undercover as new writer ‘Mr. Bredon’ and he uncovers a tangled web linked to the London drug-smuggling underworld.

‘Murder Must Advertise’ is adapted for TV by Bill Craig and is directed by Rodney Bennett (directed ‘The Ark In Space’, ‘The Sontaran Experiment’ and ‘The Masque of Mandragora’). Guest stars include Paul Darrow, Fiona Walker, Christopher Timothy, Peter Bowles, Peter Pratt, Spencer Banks and Ian Gelder

The fourth story ‘The Nine Tailors’ has Lord Peter and Bunter stranded in the Fenland village of Fenchurch St. Paul on a snowy New Year’s Eve. Lord Peter gets drawn into the lore of bell-ringing, but a body is discovered in a freshly-dug grave, revealing a conspiracy.

‘The Nine Tailors’ is adapted for TV by Anthony Steven and is directed by Raymond Menmuir. The guest cast includes Elizabeth Proud, Patrick Jordan, Gail Harrison, Christopher Banks, Donald Eccels, Neil McCarthy, David Jackson, Peter Tuddenham, John Duttine and Keith Drinkel. 🙂

The fifth and final story ‘Five Red Herrings’ has Lord Peter and Bunter on a fishing holiday in Galloway in Scotland. But their holiday is disrupted when a talented but quarrelsome painter is found dead. 😐 One of six artists who knew the victim may have done the murder.

‘Five Red Herrings’ is adapted for TV by Anthony Steven and is directed by Robert Tronson, who directed episodes of the ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ BBC TV series. David Rintoul, Russell Hunter, Robert James, Michael Sheard and James Copeland appear in it.

It’s been nice to check out the ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ TV series from 1972 to 1975 recently. Hopefully, I’ll get another opportunity to revisit this TV series and do in-depth reviews on the five stories in the series, especially as Ian Carmichael is superb as Lord Peter Wimsey.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂