The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Christmas Theme BBC Types of Mysteries…

Walter Wrote:
I love BBC mysteries and I am trying to find shows with a Christmas Theme. I already watched Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and loved it. I am looking for more, any BBC mystery with a Christmas theme would be welcome this season. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you Walter

I Responded:
Let me think about this a little longer, Walter. Right off the top of my head…. Sherlock Holmes had the Blue Carbuncle…
Also, I have a vague recollection of one of the Frost shows as being Christmas-themed…. I just can’t remember which one. I know that the first novel in the series takes place during Christmas (R. D. Wingfield‘s wonderful Frost at Christmas… I think that it might by Line of Fire, which is a two part episode.)

I sort of remember Gladys Mitchell‘s Mrs. Bradley show as having a Christmas special, but I can’t remember which one (or even if I am right about that.)

I will keep thinking about it… and will probably write a blog asking for other people to help.

Do any of you have possible suggestions?

Mapp and Lucia Miniseries … Definitely Cozy, Not Mystery…

What can I say? I know that I have mentioned (more than once!) E. F. Benson’s charming series about Lucia… and her nemesis, Mapp. Yes, “nemesis” sounds rather harsh, but “rival” might be too gentle a word! These two women vie for the highest social ranking of the village, and all of that is done with outward smiles and nods of the head. Although the series is not a cozy mystery, it is about as cozy a series of books or television shows as you will ever find.

To our great fortune, Great Britain gave us this wonderful television series back in 1985… Mapp and Lucia, Series 1. These made-for-television shows have three of Great Britain’s very best of “the best actors”: Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales, and Nigel Hawthorne. Some of you may recognize Geraldine McEwan from the recent Agatha Christie’s Marple, Carrie’s War and Barchester Chronicles. Once you see her as Lucia, you will probably always see a glint of Lucia in every roll she masters.  Prunella Scales was wonderful as the long-suffering wife on Fawlty Towers. And, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, as well as The Madness of King George would not have been possible without the acting talents of Nigel Hawthorne .

The series takes place in the late 1920s, in a small village, where there can only be one lady supreme. Tilling is an idyllic setting, and until Lucia arrives, Miss Mapp has been able to control the comings and goings of all the village’s inhabitants. Unfortunately for Miss Mapp, Lucia arrives like a tornado, bringing Georgie (Georgino mio!) with her, and as the viewer soon finds out, Lucia is not going to allow the town’s current hierarchy to remain the same… Lucia will reign!

The books, as well as the shows, involve characters… there isn’t a lot of action. The shows take place in a quaint seaside  village, with ordinary people, many of whom apparently live on family inheritances, leaving their entire days and nights free to pursue social activities. The show is not meant to teach us a moral lesson, inform us about tough philosophical questions, or solve all of life’s problems. It is simply a show that makes us smile, or in some cases laugh. I have watched the shows several times, and will certainly watch them again.

If you are interested in watching these show, I definitely recommend watching them in their correct order. Mapp and Lucia, Series 2 is from 1986, and this series continues the daily lives of the Tilling inhabitants. As delightful as these television shows are, I hope that they get people to start reading E. F. Benson’s novels. The books surpass this wonderful television series… and that’s saying a lot!

(Be forewarned, though… If you are planning on reading the novels, these delightful television movies don’t take place until the fourth book of Benson’s series. My guess is that when they were making the movies/shows, they had to pick a specific time span, and the fourth book is the one that actually gets these two adversaries together.)

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Buy British… television series, that is!

Hmmmm…. I don’t know if I should admit this… but my family doesn’t watch any mystery shows together  from the three major networks here in the States. (Three of us, however, do have a show or two that we follow individually…)  Instead, we "import" them… mostly from Great Britain. We do watch crime shows that are made right here in the States like…. Forensic Files, Masterminds, L.A. Confidential, North Mission Road, and we used to love City Confidential so much that we have seen all of them. (Please write me via the "comment button" below if City Confidential is still being made. I thought that both Paul Winfield and Keith David did great jobs as narrators, and I also thought that the writers showed a very good grasp of both the crimes and the cities in which the crimes occurred.)

Getting back to my initial thought…

We started watching The Last Detective (starring Peter Davison) a little while ago, and we are finding it quite enjoyable. (I’ll write about it in another blog…) After finishing our last episode, we started talking (I have to admit that I did most of the talking!) and we started kicking around the question: Why do we watch these British exports instead of our "home-grown" mystery shows? There are so many right here in the States that are available with just one click of our remote, yet we don’t watch them…. Why is that?…..

Hmmmm…. again!

Is it that the Brits have shorter seasons? Well, if that were true, then you would think that the longer seasons would give a series a longer time to develop characters and plot.

Is it that the Brits have fewer episodes per season? Again, if that were true, then you would think that the more the episodes, the better the chance to develop characters and plot.

Is it that the Brits have younger, more beautiful "stars" in their shows? Well, if that were true then wouldn’t we all be watching them on our major networks each and every week…. since our major networks seem fixated on youthful beauty.

Or is it that since we do have more episodes per season, we "dilute" the writers… They simply can’t spend the time needed on each of the (+/-) 26 episodes on which they feel compelled to present a mystery and wrap up the solution in the allotted 44 minutes… instead of taking a leisurely hour and a half, only five or six times per season to develop characters and plot…. thus not having the necessity of "cranking out"  shows each and every week.

Well, then what is it? Why is it that more and more people are buying the DVDs or joining online rentals like Netflix and Blockbusters?

I remember a time when we could count on A & E to air the high quality British mystery shows… Jeremy Brett in Sherlock Holmes, Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect, David Suchet in Poirot, David Jason in Frost, John Thaw and Kevin Whately in Morse, Warren Clarke and Colin Buchanan in Dalziel and Pascoe… (and I’m sure there are more…)

So, why is it that we keep (at least my two college-age children, my husband, and I) seeking out the exported mystery shows…. You only need to look above…. and see the highlighted words to know why we do…. How about you? 

Maigret Collection Television Series : Michael Gambon’s Maigret May Not Be French, but He’s Très Magnifique…

If you can get over the obviously British accents coming out of the French characters, then you will surely enjoy the Maigret Collection, a 1990s mystery series that (again) comes to us from the British (Granada Television). Michael Gambon is excellent as Chief Inspector Jules Maigret. He seems to never be in a hurry. He carefully thinks out his cases, and does not rush to judgement. Inspector Maigret has a very psychological approach when it comes to solving crimes, which his underlings (and superiors!) may not fully appreciate… until he solves his crimes.

I did not see this series when it aired on the PBS or A&E networks. Until I did a little research for this blog, I didn’t know that the series had ever aired outside of Great Britain. If you plan to watch all twelve episodes back to back, without the seasons’ division that television networks provide, here is one more thing you will have to overlook……….. It’s a little unfortunate that with only twelve episodes, they were not able to have just one actress to play the Inspector’s wife. At first I wondered if perhaps the second actress was playing a second wife…. not the case. But, if the great Rumpole of the Bailey could have two actresses playing the one and only wife, then so can Maigret!

The one disappointment for me is that Georges Simenon wrote many Maigret novels, so why are there only twelve episodes to this series?!? I sure would have enjoyed more!

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