The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Inspector Alleyn Mysteries…..

If you are a Ngaio Marsh fan, and/or a fan of BBC productions, then you will surely enjoy the DVDs that feature Scotland Yard Inspector Roderyck Alleyn (as played by the wonderful Patrick Malahide.)  The main characters are Inspector Allyen, his girlfriend, artist Agatha Troy (Belinda Lang) and Detective Inspector Fox (William Simons).  Beware, though, if you expect over-the-top performances from these accomplished actors….Malahide’s portrayal of Inspector Allyen is very upper crust British, without a lot of emotion. If you expect overacted enthusiasm and emotions, then you had better pass on these BBC productions and stick with some of today’s current TV fare…

My husband and I both enjoyed Season One (1993) and Season Two (1994) of these shows. The only thing that we didn’t like about the series of shows is that they didn’t make more of Ngaio’s books into movies. We did not see the shows when they first aired on television, and wonder how we missed them.

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Hetty Wainthropp Investigates

If you are looking for a mystery series to watch that is short on the gore and long on fun with a lot of “cozy-ness” thrown in, then look no more……. you have found it……. Hetty Wainthropp Investigates is for you!

I first started watching the Hetty Wainthropp series on PBS years ago, and, having been a fan of Keeping Up Appearance, I was already a fan of Patricia Routledge. If you first saw Routledge as Hyacinth Bucket (Keeping Up Appearances… and pronounced “Bouquet”!!!) and then as Hetty, you will know what a wonderful actress Dame Routledge is. Don’t expect any “pratfalls” when you see Hetty…

Expect the BBC’s wonderful attention to detail when you see the Hetty Wainthropp Investigates shows. Patricia Routledge (as I stated above) is absolutely wonderful. And, for all of you Tolkien Trilogy movie fans, Geoffrey, her young, but very capable sidekick is played by Dominic Monaghan. (You might also recognize him from the TV show Lost…)

The first season of the Hetty Wainthropp Investigates is from 1996. We meet Hetty (right as she turns sixty), her retired husband Robert (Derek Benfield), and Geoffrey. Hetty is determined that she will not be a “senior citizen”… She is too young for that label, and she is going to show the world that people in the later part of their lives are viable and productive. And that, she does!

She starts up a detective agency with Geoffrey as her assistant in the field, and Robert, who is only involved in the field when absolutely necessary, handles the phone back in the “office” (home). She slowly wins the admiration and respect of DCI Adams (played perfectly by John Graham Davies), and is even called in a few times when DCI Adams feels that a case needs Hetty’s gentle technique. Unfortunately, PBS only showed four of the six episodes in the first season of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates.

At the end of 1996 and beginning of 1997, the BBC filmed six new shows for the second season of the Hetty Wainthopp Investigates series. (Again, for some reason, PBS only showed four of the six episodes.) These shows were as good as the first season’s. The scenery is beautiful, the acting is faultless, and the shows are great fun to watch. Very cozy!

Apparently, the BBC knew that they had a great show on their hands, because the third season of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates has nine episodes in it, instead of the previous two seasons that only had six episodes each. During the middle of the season, Robert (Hetty’s husband) makes an abrupt trip to Australia to visit their son. I am not quite sure what happened to the actor who played Robert, but, they brought Robert’s brother Frank in to replace him for the rest of the season. Although I missed Robert, Frank was able to infuse a new type of “friction” to the series, as he insists on helping Hetty and Geoffrey, usually messing things up along the way.

In 1998 the BBC made the fourth season of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, which unfortunately is the end of the shows. Hetty’s husband is back, and you don’t want to miss him as the millionaire who is confined to a wheelchair!  Of course, seeing Geoffrey as his chauffeur is a real treat!

One thing that I feel I must add is that six years before the BBC bought the rights to Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, another network commissioned a pilot for the series. Missing Persons is the name of the pilot, and it is based on the David Cook novel with the same name. The station (ITV) didn’t pick up the series.  I was able to track down this movie, and was really surprised at how different everything is. I would definitely not recommend watching this episode first; it is not at all like the BBC Hetty Wainthropp Investigates series. And, if you do decide to watch this pilot, it might help if you convince yourself that it is another character with the same name as the wonderful Hetty Wainthropp, even though Patricia Routledge is also the actress playing this very different Hetty.

I can truly say that I love (and highly recommend) the Hetty Wainthropp Investigates series!

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Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries… the Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane Collection

The Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane 1987 BBC production includes three of Dorothy L. Sayers mystery novels: Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, and Gaudy Night. The good thing is that each of the miniseries is about two and a half hours long, the bad thing is that only three Dorothy L. Sayers novels were made into miniseries for this production.

The three miniseries, of course, involve mysteries, but also include Lord Peter Wimsey’s infatuation with his one true love, Harriet Vane. Lord Peter Wimsey (played by Edward Petherbridge) is the debonair bachelor who, born into the aristocracy of Great Britain, is able to spend his leisure time as an amateur sleuth. Harriet Vane is equally inquisitive and intelligent, but is very happy with her single life style.

This series, unlike the 1970’s series, includes the romantic side of Lord Peter Wimsey. He is truly smitten with Harriet Vane (played by Harriet Walter), but she, it appears, does not return his feelings of blind devotion.

My husband and I recently rewatched the Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane collection, and again, found it to be a fun, light-hearted period piece that harkens back to a more innocent era. 

(Here is a list of the Dorothy L. Sayers novels.)

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Lord Peter Wimsey series…

The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Set 1 One series that we particularly enjoy is the Lord Peter Wimsey series. Actually, there are two different versions of the Lord Peter Wimsey series (by the great author Dorothy L. Sayers)…. one series was made in the 1970s and the other was made in the 1980s. (This article will be about the 1970s version. My next article will be about the 1980s miniseries.)

When I started watching the BBC 1970s version, I wasn’t quite sure if I would stay with the series, or not. It was “different” than any other series I had watched… the shows almost seemed a bit “campy.” But,  I finally decided to stay with the series, and boy (!) am I ever glad that I did!  If anything, now that my husband has seen the series, we are really sorry that there are only five different episodes. (Not to worry, each of the episodes is given three hours or more… so they aren’t crammed into the normal 52 minute format.)  I first saw the series on PBS, when it aired on Masterpiece Theatre. You may be asking why it was on Masterpiece Theatre and not Mystery!… but for those of you old enough to remember “way back then”, you will know that there was no such show as Mystery!…  And, rumor has it that this wonderful mystery series is what prompted Masterpiece Theatre to fork out into the Mystery! show.

Dorothy L. Sayers  is known to most mystery readers as one of the great mystery writers of all times. After Oxford, she taught school and also worked as a copywriter for an advertising firm. Her first Lord Peter Wimsey novel (Whose Body?) was published in the early 1920s.

Ian Carmichael stars as Lord Peter Wimsey in this BBC production. Clouds of Witness, Murder Must Advertise, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, The Nine Tailors, and Five Red Herrings are the titles of the different miniseries, which of course, are based on the novels of the same names.

The Lord Peter Wimsey collection  is one of the few miniseries series that features an aristocratic sleuth who is actually smarter than his butler! Bunter, while smart, is still no match for his employer. Inspector Parker, who befriends Lord Peter Wimsey and falls for Lord Wimsey’s sister, Lady Mary (“Polly”) is refreshingly smart, also. (Sometimes, when you have a main sleuthing character it is almost perfunctory to have a bungling police force…. which is not the case in these shows.)

(Here is a list of the novels by Dorothy L. Sayers.)

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