One of the Greatest novels of the 20th century comes to TV
The Nine Tailors is generally agreed to be Sayers' finest book. There isn't much romance, but it uses flashbacks to put Lord Peter Wimsey in the frame of the First World War and explain his relationship to Bunter, his faithful man servant. Ian Carmichael delivers one of the outstanding performances of his career. The other characters are real, believable, people who suffered through WWI and the 1930's.

The best Lord Peter yet
Excellent escape quality, complexity, and characters. This is head and shoulders above the gritty tough-guy mysteries of the last half-century.

He sent forth a raven
A young Lord Peter (Ian Carmichael) in uniform on his way to the war. He is standing in for his brother The Duke of Denver at a wedding. Mischief is afoot and an emerald necklace was pinched. Where it was stored for save keeping I can not say. It looks like the perpetrator was winged by a well placed shot. We get the inside story and know the truth.

All in the first chapter we see the crime and the fait of the perpetrators. We also get a first hand view of the meeting and growing relationship and Wimsey and Bunter (Glyn Houston.) As fait would have it Lord Peter finds him self once again in Fenchurch St. Pauli again. This time as providence would have it just in time to replace a sick bell ringer on New Year's Eve.

Three months later a body is found in and Lord Peter is invited to the inquest.


This film is based on a Dorothy L. Sayers novel of the same name with the screen adaptation by Anthony Steven.

At first you are not sure that this is the same peter Wimsey when you see the blond hair and mustache. However if you look close they made little attempt to cover the wrinkled face.

If you have an opportunity to view this film before reading the book you will not be distracted by the deviations and omit ions form the written story.

Jewel Thieves and Bellringers
This is one of my favorite Wimsey mysteries. I thought this was excellent-the country and village setting is very well done. Plenty of suspense and an interesting plot, that focuses on a long ago theft that devastates a family. Bunter was very enjoyable. However, I thought Wimsey seemed much too middle aged in the 1917 scenes-he was supposedly a young soldier but he acts and looks like he is 50! I think the age issue needs to be straightened out. Otherwise, the drama was full of old fashioned charm. I watched this a few months ago but this is worth seeing twice.

Great British mystery but buyer beware
I love this series a lot and enjoyed the first half of this particular mystery however there was a problem with the disc. This is a two disc set and while the second disc is correctly marked, it is actually a duplicate of the first disc! This is obviously a mistake in the factory but it is highly frustrating since it happened not once, but twice. It's quite frustrating to be left on a cliff hanger and then have the second half of the mystery be unavailable. By all means, buy this wonderful mystery but note that there are some defective sets floating around. I have ordered my third set and hope to finally see the ending. All I can say is, Buyer Beware, check both discs right away so you can return it promptly if you need to.