Product Details

• Actors: Ian Carmichael
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Acorn Media
• DVD Release Date: September 28, 2010
• Run Time: 604 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0038M2SBQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,560 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Ian Carmichael stars in the original British adaptations

"Eternally appealing" --NPR’s Fresh Air

As seen on Masterpiece Theatre

"Realized superbly" --The New York Times
"The cast is splendid" --The Washington Post

IAN CARMICHAEL STARS in the original BBC adaptations of the Dorothy L. Sayers crime thrillers. Hailed by critics as one of the finest mystery series ever filmed, its success on PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre inspired the spin-off Mystery! Running at least three hours each, these dramas do full justice to Sayers’s vivid characters, trenchant wit, and lavish 1920s settings.

THE MYSTERIES:

MURDER MUST ADVERTISE
Lord Peter goes deep undercover at Pym’s Publicity to investigate the suspicious death of a young copywriter following his affair with a wealthy and indolent socialite.

FIVE RED HERRINGS
When the body of an unpopular artist is found in a stream, it’s up to Lord Peter to determine which of six suspects could have committed the crime.

THE NINE TAILORS
Stranded in a sleepy village after a car accident, Lord Peter quickly stumbles upon a decades-old case of stolen emeralds, unidentifiable corpses, and coded messages.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I say!, July 5, 2010

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Set 2 (DVD)

Dorothy Sayers created a rather unusual sleuth in Lord Peter Wimsey -- think Bertie Wooster, except with a formidable crime-solving brain and a haunted past. And "The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Set 2" brings together a second round of the solid BBC adaptations of her works, which are hampered mainly by the fact that the cast is a bit old for their roles.

"Murder Must Advertise" when an employee at an advertising agency falls down a spiral staircase and breaks his neck. Using the name "Death Bredon," Lord Peter goes undercover at the agency, and quickly discovers that he has a natural talent for it. He also discovers that the agency is involved somehow in a seedy drug smuggling ring, and has links to an upper-class party crowd. Oh yeah, and there are more murders.

Then in "Five Red Herrings," a fishing/painting vacation to an arty little village in Scotland goes horribly awry. Bunter and Wimsey stumble across the body of Sandy Campbell -- a violent, malicious, verbally-abusive painter who has alienated almost everybody in Galloway -- face-down in the pond. At first it appears to be an accident, but Wimsey soon realizes that it was murder. Now he has to figure out who actually murdered the man everyone wanted to throttle.

And finally, in "The Nine Tailors" Wimsey helps out the bellringers at a remote village by helping them ring in the New Year... and of course, a corpse is found the next day. As Wimsey investigates the identity of the mystery man, he discovers that it's connected to stolen emeralds from several years ago -- AND the biggest mystery is not just who killed the man, but HOW.

The BBC did an excellent job preserving the spirit of Dorothy Sayers' classic mystery novels, steeped in the atmosphere of post-World War I England -- gentlemen's clubs, tweed jackets, wood-paneled manorhouses and flapper dresses. There's incisive wit in the dialogue, clever humor ("Every time I get my pay packet, I glow with honest pride!"), and an array of characters including fusty old gentry, office drones, feisty artists to drug-addled flappers.

Even better, these are genuine whodunnits. All three mysteries are tangles of lies, deceptions, infidelities, errors and the occasional bizarre twist such as a Nosferatu-esque man scaring a maidservant into a few grey hairs. In "Nine Tailors" and "Five Red Herrings" there are plenty of motives and suspects, and "Murder Must Advertise" has only a few of both. But as the plot unfolds Peter wrangles out a sensible solution that explains everything (and usually without too many disasters along the way).

Perhaps the biggest problem of the story is that Ian Carmichael Carmichael is old enough to be his own character's dad.But despite being in his mid-fifties, Ian Carmichael plays Wimsey with a light, incisive touch and a clever tongue, and he's a good detective who can be steely when the occasion demands it. Glyn Houston is a warmly jolly Bunter, and he's sorely missed in "Murder Must Advertise."

"The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Set 2" brings together a solid trio of murder mysteries -- lots of jolly good writing, befuddling murders, and the occasional "vampire rising from the grave."

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting to see different points of view, September 3, 2010

By 

John D. Muir "oldies and pies lover" (Oglesby, Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Set 2 (DVD)

It's interesting to me to see the points of view of the various reviewers here. Though there are only three of them (prior to this review), all are extremely experienced reviewers. However, it's easy to tell that all three are Americans. Being brought up in Britain, my view is a little different.

Dorothy L. Sayers is one of the best mystery writers Britain has produced. She's also, along with Reginald Hill and P.D. James, one of the most literate. Her detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, is an aristocrat, but not the typical member of the aristocracy. He's sensitive, vulnerable, at times tortured and somewhat rebellious. As the series of stories develops, from Whose Body?, written in 1923, to Busman's Honeymoon in the mid-1930s, his character becomes more and more developed. Many believe that Dorothy L. Sayers fell in love with him and it's true that Harriet Vane, who eventually becomes Wimsey's wife, bore more than a passing resemblance to Sayers herself.

Carmichael's Wimsey, unfortunately, misses almost all of the more human elements of Wimsey. He's basically a bit of a silly ass- Bertie Wooster playing detective. It's a million miles away from Sayers' conception of the character. In fact, the series portrays what I believe many Americans see as a typical member of the English upper-class, hence the reason the other reviewers find him convincing. To someone from Britain, he's a caricature.

Now I'm not usually a fan of comparing anything done for the big or small screen to the book from which it is drawn, as my other reviews make clear. However, in this case there is another TV series with which to compare this. In the 1980s Wimsey was revisited in a series starring Edward Petherbridge. The three stories told there (Strong Poison, Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night) show Wimsey as he really should be. In comparison to that, this series is very one-dimensional. This series is not bad, just nowhere near as good. It's worth three stars- but I encourage anyone who wants to see the real Wimsey to watch the other series.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ian Carmichael became THE LORD PETER WIMSEY, aristocratic sleuth, August 1, 2010

By 

Harold Wolf "Doc" (Wells, IN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Set 2 (DVD)

Bonnie fine PI mystery, init? Bonnie but not wee, as EACH story is over 3 hours, each divided into 4 parts. Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey plays a perfect gentleman of the 1920s/30s with all the pomp and finesse that an aristocrat can emit. Glyn Houston plays Bunter, the gentleman's gentleman, Watson-like in investigations, a fine chef, and as spiffy stuffy as any English butler can be. The series has a parade of fine period vehicles; cars, bus, even a period ambulance.

You will enjoy the dialects, both English and Scot, with the subtitling available but unnecessary for the accent. Scenery is wonderful, costumes perfection. A period delight in all ways. Some book adaptations can fail the author's classic skill. Not so here, the BBC adapted Dorothy L. Sayers Wimsey novels very well, thank you.

MURDER MUST ADVERTISE--1973 airing -book published 1933
Advertising copywriter, Dean, was associating with a wealthy group who used drugs. Was his death fall down a spiral stairs truly accidental? Sister Pamela (Gwen Taylor-"A Bit of a Do", "Heartbeat","Barbara") says he's not a drug user. Did he know something? How is Msajor Milligan (Peter Bowles-"To the Manor Born","Lytton's Diary","Rumpole of the Bailey") connected? One annoying over-played blonde actress in this story, but bang-on good, regardless. As true to the series, a surprise, very uncommon ending, but satisfying after 3 hours.

FIVE RED HERRINGS--1975 airing -book published 1931
Wimsey is told of Bunter's art hobby while riding a train to Gallway area, Scotland, for a holiday in the fishing area frequented by artists. Later Mr. Campbell is ejected from a golf club and has a drunken fight in a local pub. While painting beside a stream which Wimsey is fishing, he notices an abandoned easel, and upon investigation a body is discovered. So much for vacation. There are enough artist murder suspects to fill the Glasgow Gallery. 1 killer and `five red herrings' (distractions). The investigation surrounding the town of Kirkcudbright takes place in 1931, according to the date on a police suspect's statement. This was in earlier policing times because PI Wimsey, in self-appointing himself to find the killer, totally contaminates the crime scene evidence by handling every item prior to a police search. Oh well, TV could get away with mistakes like that 35 years ago. Regardless, this is a fantastically dramatized Sayers book. Wonderful landscape film artistry; and that's no red herring. Over 3 hours of mystery realism.

THE NINE TAILORS--1974 airing -book published 1934
According to bonus material, this was the most anticipated/desired Sayers story to be adapted. The title refers to church bells being rung 9 times for the old year, or for a man's death. 6 times for a woman's death. About 1914 in Fenchurch St. Paul, a Norfolk village, emeralds were stolen from a wedding guest. Maj. Wimsey goes off to WWI, his bunker is hit, then is pulled to safety by Sgt. Bunter in 1918 and sent home. Later, about 1924, Wimsey and now butler Bunter have a car accident on a snowy road outside Fenchurch St. Paul. Wimsey volunteers to fill in as a bell ringer for the New Year Peal. Again, after considerable time, about 1930s, a hand-less body found caused Wimsey to again search for the emeralds. A finely woven mystery over a couple of decades. "By Jove; and bless your black button gaiters; jolly good," as Wimsey would say. Again, over 3 hours long, the length of 2 feature-length movies in each story.

Bonus: Three different Sep. 2000 interviews with Carmichael, text bios for Dorothy L. Sayers & Carmichael, Sayers bibliography, text production notes, subtitles. Not rated but family friendly.