Product Details

• Actors: Roy Marsden, John Vine, Barry Foster, Geoffrey Palmer, Ray Brooks (II)
• Directors: Herbert Wise
• Format: Color, Content/Copy-Protected CD, Dolby, 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: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: KOCH VISION
• DVD Release Date: June 7, 2005
• Run Time: 295 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0008EN6N6
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #76,048 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Mystery & Suspense > British Mystery Theater > P.D. James

• For more information about "P.D. James - Death of an Expert Witness" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 1 in The Adam Dalgliesh (Movies) Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This three-part, 1983 drama remains an honorable and largely captivating effort to adapt the unique structure of a P.D. James mystery novel to television. Despite bizarre production values--including intense lighting (presumably to accommodate the all-video shoot) and a near-absence of tone that often makes good actors look as if they're knocking about between rehearsals--the show holds up where it counts.

James's extensive, pre-murder set-up survives a script translation, and the terrific cast infuses urgency into the story of a forensic scientist (Geoffrey Palmer) bludgeoned to death by any one of many suspects: among them a hostile ex-lover (Meg Davies), her brother and the victim's boss (Barry Foster), and an angry cousin (Brenda Blethyn) living as "a friend" with the deceased's ex-wife. So many possibilities, and the rather dour but thorough Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh (Roy Marsden), burdened by the recent death of his wife, sifts through them all with deceptive impartiality and quiet self-disapprobation. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard, young for his senior rank and suffering the effects of his own personal tragedy, wades through a complex web of desperation, revenge, blackmail and secret love to solve a series of murders at a government forensic lab.

Dalgliesh has been hunting a "back seat strangler" in London. When a young woman is found strangled, her body sprawled over the back seat of a car abandoned in a bleak country quarry, he is rushed to the scene. Convinced that this murder is not linked to his investigation, Dalgliesh returns to London only to be urgently recalled to investigate when a senior forensic scientist is found murdered at a government facility not far from the quarry. Dalgliesh has to break through the wall of fear surrounding the tight-knit – and tight-lipped – staff before he can bring the killer, or killers, to justice.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The one that made P.D. James famous, January 11, 2005

By	readersf (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: P.D. James - Death of an Expert Witness (DVD)

Death of an Expert Witness was, I believe, the first Adam Dalgliesh book adapted for television. The novel, which appeared in 1976, made James famous in Great Britain and well known in the U.S. There are good reasons why this one, of them all, should have had such success: the brooding atmosphere of the Lab and the Fen country; the plot, complex but not ridiculously so; the essential care and fairness towards each character. Later mysteries often feature extended social statements and preaching by James, with Dalgliesh acting like the Angel of Judgment. This shows an earlier, more empathetic side of both author and detective. For those of you familiar with more recent P.D. James mysteries, this one bears some resemblance to "Devices and Desires", which I think of as a companion story. Please note that the editorial review contains a spoiler, so don't go back and reread it!

Now to the DVD-- At 295 minutes it is leisurely enough to do justice to the book. It features a rather long set up- it is nearly an hour and a quarter before murder strikes- but it rewards the wait. Filmed in 1983, it is sufficiently old that I have never seen it on American television. The video techniques are a bit more primitive than today's, but I was pleasantly surprised, after reading the editorial review above, at how good everything looked. The strong lighting and pale features of the cast tend to make all the characters look blotchy and not quite well-- but that's how people can look in real life as well. The performances are good. The success of this video led to all the subsequent Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, and one can see why.
The combination of length and age mean that you are unlikely to find "Death of an Expert Witness" on television, or at the library, or at your local vidoe rental. This makes it a perfect dvd for you to buy, own, and view at your leisure. It can, of course, be purchased as part of an omnibus set including many, but not all, of the other P.D. James mysteries. One caveat: the back of the dvd case simply fell apart the day after I received it and is now held together with rubber bands. Be very gentle!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF MY FAVORITE OF THE SERIES, May 2, 2006

By	Elaine Campbell (Rancho Mirage, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

because the script is compact and keeps you guessing to the very end. Because the perfomances are top notch: notably, Brenda Blethyn, who has gained such success in recent years, Barry Foster, Geoffrey Palmer, and last but not least, Roy Marsden as Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh. His is a taut and focused performance,and we even get a glimpse of Dalgliesh as a married man, albeit too briefly, as his wife and what appears to be his unborn child die suddenly. While not fully explained in this version, the reason for their deaths is well noted in other Dalgliesh novels and productions.

We have here a government scientific operation. And the setting takes place in the countryside. We have an initial murder, not related to the major case, which brings Dalgliesh briefly to the area. He must return when a major figure at the government house meets his demise. The intricacies of plot begin here, and the characters are more fully developed than in most mysteries, giving the viewer a rather in-depth look into their various relationships, all of which are interesting.

If one is a Dalgliesh fan, Death of an Expert Witness should satisfy. It certainly kept me on the edge of my seat, as well as Marsden's crisp and terse performance.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good one but not typical, March 2, 2005

By	E. Holmes (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: P.D. James - Death of an Expert Witness (DVD)

If this is the 1st ITV PD James adaptation that you see, keep in mind that it is a bit slower, a bit more 1980s-ish, a bit more choppy and the acting (excepting Marsden) a bit more caricature-ish than many of the others. So don't decide the Dagliesh series isn't for you just based on seeing this one. "Death of an Expert Witness" IS a great story and this does a good job with the story, but it definitely feels low budget relative to others.

My favorites among the other adaptations include "Shroud for a Nightengale" and "A Taste for Death" both of which include a bit faster pacing and some excellent acting by supporting cast members.