The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Bramwell Update…

I think that I mentioned before that we have all of the Bramwell DVDs… And, since we do, we are able to take our time watching them. I thought that I had seen the entire series when it first aired on PBS… Now that I have just finished re-watching the entire series, I find that I hadn’t actually seen the last (fourth) season.

I watched the series years ago when Masterpiece Theatre aired it. A few years ago I decided that we would enjoy the series as a family, so we got all of the DVDs. We waited to watch them when both of our college-age children were home, so it took us a while to watch all of the discs.  Our son watched the first season with us and decided that it wasn’t something he wanted to stay with, so we went on without him. And, our daughter comes home so infrequently, that it has taken us a long time to finish the series.

If there are any people out there who are thinking of watching the series: I would highly recommend the first three seasons. Everything I said in the initial post about the Bramwell series still stands.

HOWEVER!!!!!>>>>>

I would stop watching the series after the third season. It appears to be quite evident that they had planned on finishing the series after the third season… They had a definite completion (of sorts), with all of the characters seemingly knowing what they were going to be doing in the future. I would not recommend the fourth season. (It seemed like they simply tacked the fourth season on to the first three excellent seasons.) I won’t state the reasons since there are people out there who may be planning on watching all of the series’ discs, but be forewarned, the fourth season doesn’t stand up to the other three seasons’ level of excellence! My husband, daughter and I were left wondering who these characters were, since they were so “out-of-sorts” with the well-developed characters we “knew” from the first three seasons. Certainly, if we had started watching the series with the fourth season, we never would have watched the first three excellent seasons… That’s how much we disliked the new personalities of the old characters!

The Six Wives of Henry VIII: 1970s BBC Version…

Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Wow! I just finished re-watching The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and I am left flabbergasted! I loved this miniseries, and am so glad I was able to “get past” some reviewers’ ideas. I remembered the series as being luxurious and beautiful,  and I think that I enjoyed it even more now than I did the last time I watched it. Be forewarned though… this is another series that I have written about that is not a mystery, but it is such a wonderful BBC production that I felt I would be remiss to not write about it.

BBC produced the miniseries in the early 1970s. The miniseries is about Henry VIII and his six different wives and is comprised of six different episodes. The interesting thing (to me) is that each wife’s story is written by a different playwright… but the story line is continuously fluid. I think that the reason that all six of the stories flow so well is the excellent portrayal of Henry VIII by Keith Mitchell.. He is absolutely superb. We see Henry age, expand, and eventually wizen… and it is difficult to believe that the same actor is beneath those wonderful costumes. We can almost smell Henry as his leg progressively worsens. Now, that is great acting… if you can (just about) smell the foul infection as it progresses… (While he courts beautiful, young maidens, no less!)

Catherine of Aragon (Annette Crosbie) and Anne Boleyn (Dorothy Tutin) share the first DVD… Quite a contrast in wives! The second disc covers the days (just about!) of Jane Seymour (Anne Stallybrass) and Anne of Cleeves (Elvi Hale). (I was most touched by Henry’s complete “devotion” to Jane Seymour… the only wife to produce a son, albeit not a very healthy one.) Catherine Howard (Angela Pleasence) and Catherine Parr (Rosalie Crutchley) were his two last wives- (How convenient that he had three wives named Catherine, and two named Anne… Less of a chance that he would call them the wrong name… although, it is extremely doubtful that he would have minded at all!)

As an added bonus, the 2003 BBC version of The Other Boleyn Girl (with Jodhi May as Anne Boleyn, Natascha McElhone as Mary, Anne’s sister, and Jared Harris as Henry VIII) was tucked into the set. At first I thought I was not going to like it, since it was a completely different production, with completely different actors, sets, wardrobe, etc. But, I am glad I stayed with the movie after the initial surprise/jolt… I enjoyed it immensely. (I think that it would probably be a better idea to not watch this movie right after finishing the other six shows… It’s difficult to see a different actor portray Henry VIII right after having watched Keith Mitchell become Henry VIII.)  I had no sooner finished re-watching the series than I saw an advertisement for a new version of The Other Boleyn Girl… starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. I hope it’s as good as the 2003 version… but I do wonder why they are remaking a 2003 movie only five years later… I am guessing that the 2008 version spared no expen$e.

As I am only (so far) writing about TV shows and movies that I have enjoyed, I must remind people that some of these television shows were made as long ago as the 1970s, “back when” they had no idea that a close up was going to be shown on a fifty inch television screen. Also before the time when the producers thought that audio would be in “surround stereo.” All in all, I really enjoyed The Six Wives of Henry VIII, regardless of the lack of special effects and other techno-babbles. The sets, costumes, acting, and ambiance were right on the mark for me!

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

Miss Marple Movies and Television Series…

Ordinarily, you probably don’t think of Miss Marple as funny. That will change if you are able to see Margaret Rutherford’s portrayal of Miss Marple. You will most likely by tempted to think of her as “Jane” instead of “Miss Marple.”

At first, I was quite put off by Ms. Rutherford’s portrayal of Miss Marple. Once I got over my initial shock (for truly that is what it was!) I was delighted by these early 1960s movie productions.  The Agatha Christie Miss Marple Collection includes Rutherford in the classics Murder, She Said, Murder at the Gallop, Murder Most Foul, and Murder Ahoy. Margaret Rutherford was truly busy playing this feisty rendition of Jane. And, as an added bonus, we are able to see Joan Hickson appear as the housekeeper in Murder, She Said!

Some of you may ask…. Who is Joan Hickson, and why would seeing her be a treat? For some, those who were teenagers or older in the 1980s, Joan Hickson will always be Miss Marple. She has a quiet resolve about her… She is very proper, never excited, always observant. Fortunately for those of us who remember Ms. Hickson playing Miss Marple, there are now DVDs available for us to capture the true essence of Miss Marple. (I miss the days when A & E played these classic BBC shows, don’t you?)

Joan Hickson portrays Miss Marple in such a manner that makes it totally believable when she is able to casually stay in the background while gleaning even more information than the police detectives. I read somewhere that Agatha Christie had actually said that Joan Hickson was the actress who best could play Miss Marple as she had written her.

There are several sets out on the market (as well as being available through rental places) that brought back memories of a time when you had to be seated in front of your television at the precise time the show was scheduled to begin if you wanted to watch a Miss Marple movie/episode. Shows like The Body in the Library,  A Murder is Announced, and A Pocket Full of Rye (Gift Set)…The Mirror Crack’d, 4:50 from Paddington, Sleeping Murder, and A Caribbean Mystery (Collection 1)… Nemesis, They Do It with Mirrors, The Murder at the Vicarage, The Moving Finger, and At Bertram’s Hotel (Collection 2) And, such luminary actors as Donald Pleasence, Claire Bloom, Jean Simmons. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the BBC produced these shows… You know that you can rely on the costumes and sets to be right on the mark!

I think that Joan Hickson’s portrayal of Miss Marple is probably the one which most captures Agatha Christie’s character, including the hair pins in her bun and the knitting needles in her over-sized (almost a carpet!) bag. If you love cozy mystery movies, then I strongly recommend checking out these Joan Hickson renditions of our beloved Miss Marple.

Here is the actual way that the Joan Hickson/Miss Marple shows aired:
  1   The Body in the Library
  2   The Moving Finger  
  3   A Murder is Announced
  4   A Pocketful of Rye 
  5   The Murder at the Vicarage 
  6   Sleeping Murder
  7   At Bertram’s Hotel 
  8   Nemesis 
  9   4:50 from Paddington  
10   A Caribbean Mystery   
11   They Do It With Mirrors  
12   The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

To Serve Them All My Days… BBC Miniseries

The To Serve Them All My Days miniseries is based on the novel (of the same name) by R. F. Delderfield. I admit to not having read the novel, but I have seen the miniseries… and I love it! It is not a mystery, but it does stand up to its BBC counterparts in that it is an extremely good production. The thirteen segment series was produced in 1980 and is set during the time between World War I and WW II.

The miniseries follows “David,” a soldier who survived WW I physically (albeit with a limp) but who was left with a somewhat shaky mental outlook… commonly known as shell-shock. Although not a teacher by trade, he is given a job as a teacher at an exclusive, upper-crust boys boarding school. (A “public” school… which to us in the USA translates to “private.”) David, the teacher, is beautifully played by John Duttine— who— if you are a lover of BBC/ITV productions, you will surely recognize.

David does not come from the privileged background that his students come from, and is not entirely sure he wants to teach at this posh school. But, with time, you see how David is able to identify with these boys who are expected to be “brave, little men:” while being taken from their families and placed into boarding schools at very young ages… 

The cast is superb, the wardrobe is authentic-looking, and the setting is wonderful. I think that the only negative thing I have to say is that the series is simply too short. I would have loved watching more segments>>> actually, many more segments!

I missed seeing this series when it was broadcast on Masterpiece Theatre in the early 1980s so I was delighted to find it recently. I strongly recommend this wonderful production… even though it isn’t a mystery!

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

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