Dorothy Sayers' Whimsey novels - do you know the (1980s) TV adaptations?

Several years ago on a visit to Scotland, I also insisted we spend a night in Kirkcudbright for the same reason, LadyGlen. That, and that as an American, I like to show off that I know how to pronounce it.

But, I'm not sure that if I had read it first instead of The Nine Tailors, I would have then promptly devoured the Sayers canon in a few short weeks.

I'm a bit late to this party but I'm a huge Wimsey fan.

I know 5RH usually comes in for a hammering but I'm rather fond of it. A couple of years ago I forced took my family to visit Kirkcudbright, Gatehouse and Glentrool just because of that book.

I always think MMA is a bit daft with all that Harlequin stuff. I know lots of people think highly of it so I'm (probably) being unreasonable.

I think that I would probably suggest Strong Poison or maybe The Nine Tailors for an introduction to LPW.

I love both Harriet Walter and Edward Petherbridge as actors. I first saw him as Vershinin in Three Sisters and he was an excellent Newman Noggs in the RSC version of Nicholas Nickleby but I wasn't thrilled with those adaptations. Too many liberties were taken.

IIRC, in the interview with EP on the DVD extras, he talks about the ride across the beach and it sounded as if he was a bit miffed when he discovered that Bunter was to do it.

Definitely give her the Dodie Smith first.

The heroine is a great preparation for glorious Harriet.

And there's quite a natural progression from I Capture the Castle to Strong Poison (She could go back to Whose Body afterwards.)

Murder Must Advertise is the best standalone, I think, and probably the most "modern".

Thanks folks.

I can't remember which one I started on: I'll see if my lovely book shop can get me Strong Poison or Murder Must Advertise.

I'd start with Strong Poison, or maybe Murder Must Advertise - Sayers is just finding her way with Whose Body? and it's much less funny and human than the later ones.

Oh, I went to see BH on the stage right after the TVseries finished. I was 17 and so in love with the books and the show. It was ok but it really missed Harriet Walter. I reread several over Christmas and I don't think even EP and HW live up to the books. I've never invested in the DVDs as they're pretty expensive and some of it a bit cringe worthy.

Whose Body? - get her started!

Right - I want to buy a book for my 14 year old niece. Do I buy her Whose Body or Dodie Smith's I capture the castle?

Thank you

Oh god, I got absolutely none of those clues!

I meant in the book - I don't remember the scene in the Tv series very well, I haven't watched it again yet. My paperback copy of HHC has letters scribbled into all the squares where I was following Peter's exposition bit by bit...

Though I did find the crossword in Uncle Meleager's Will a bit too much - I have the feeling that Sayers would have liked to go through it clue by clue and was only restrained by her publishers pointing out that if she did it would be the longest 'short story' ever.

I think the code scene Just goes on a bit long, Rusty.

I do like 5RH but the timetable stuff gets confusing (and is part of proving the solution rather than solving the crime, ultimately).

Am I the only one who actually likes the code scene in HHC? And I'm quite fond of 5RH too.

I must be very dull...

yonic

Do you ever wonder if she wished she'd called it the 3RH instead?

Yes most of the rest of us at some time realise that real life love and romance is never going to live up to literature. Not many of us get to create a Wimsey by writing so well in so many books.

Yes, I've read that too re 5RH - but it's such a long way from her strengths. I've read a few train timetable type inter war crime novels and they're all pretty dull.

Of course DLS had rather a complicated and painful private life, so that may have affected her novels too. Wimsey is such a wish fulfilment, really.

Yes, me too - I feel as if Gaudy Night is where she wanted to get to, writing it, and HHC was the necessary one in the way.

It's odd, because in lots of ways it's very well written, but the romance doesn't work.

Agree with you about settings/characters.

I wonder how much she was juggling deadlines and committments? Maybe that would explain it.

Didn't she set out deliberately with 5RH to write a "jigsaw puzzle sort of mystery"?

I really want to get hold of a BH script someday and see the difference. I like the vicar in BH.

I think you're right about conveying the feelings.

I understood HHC the book better after having read Gaudy Night, where Harriet recalls the whole episode with both insight and embarrassment.

Agree the code scene is deadly, and also the characters apart from Harriet and Peter are not very engaging. DLS is oddly uneven, as a writer - sometimes she really pulls off the wider setting and characters of her crime novels (Nine Tailors, Murder Must Advertise, Gaudy Night) and sometimes it just doesn't work (e.g. Five Red Herrings and Busman's Honeymoon).

Oh, god, yes, the code scene!

I think it also worked because in the book, I didn't really get why Harriet and Peter were arguing, if you know what I mean? I could see she was trying to convey how Harriet feels, and how they miscommunicate, but it didn't quite come across.

Yes, that was a good edit.

I wonder if it's so good because it was spread across 4 episodes and cut that dull code scene right down

Yes, on the whole, I liked it all better than the book, which I didn't find terribly memorable really.

I also loved the detail of Harriet sitting in the driving seat of the car, and just staring Peter down when he comes back to it expecting to drive. I don't think that's in the book!

Ok! Then I can say I thought the TV ending was better than the book!