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

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

I wasn't sure where to put this thread, but it feels as if it'd be more at home here that the TV threads. I love Dorothy Sayers. MN introduced me to her. I wish they'd do another adaptation, but the 1980s ones are surprisingly good.

The wonderful sconerhymeswithgone showed me the existence of these on youtube. (The link is to Gaudy Night, because that's what I'm watching, but there are lots of earlier ones).

What do you think? I liked the casting, but I have quibbles. And the ending to Gaudy Night is a travesty, right?

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.

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

yonic

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...

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).

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.

Oh god, I got absolutely none of those clues!

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

Whose Body? - get her started!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.)

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.

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.

Scone Scottish pronunciation quite often flummoxes me.

You're probably right Nine Tailors is certainly the better novel - 5RH is an acquired taste, perhaps. But I am quite a sucker for anything set in Scotland.

DH was a bit bemused by it all, especially Glentrool and the Minnoch - "Why are we going to this place?"

It's where the body was found in 5RH"

"So we're visiting an actual place where in a book a body was found." He actually did look like

That's funny. I was trying to explain similar to DH and my brother and SIL, whose first trip to Scotland it was. This was after making them go with me to Moy Castle on Mull, which can only be reached on foot (and it was pouring rain) on my I Know Where I'm Going film pilgrimage.

In honor of this thread, I just spent some of my Amazon Christmas gift card loading up Wimsey books (already had Gaudy Night) so I'm ready for some binge re-reading.

Ooh, another 'I Know Where I'm Going' fan? One of my all time favourite films.

But your poor family We literary fans can be hard work for our travelling companions. I dragged poor old DH to many literary landmarks over the years. He never really understood quite why I was so keen to visit, say, Coleridge's Cottage. But he very tolerantly went along with it all.

Doesn't it always rain on Mull? I think we had rain every single day when we were there. Beautiful place, though. Even with the horizontal rain.

I love Mull. We even stayed in the Western Isles Hotel.

My family did like the Oxford Bar in Edinburgh, where I left a message with the barman to tell Ian Rankin to please bring back Rebus. DH is convinced that this is the reason for Rebus's reappearance.

Come to think of it, there is a link there. I had never read any mystery novels until The Nine Tailors and then all of the Wimsey novels in quick succession. So it was Dorothy Sayers who introduced me to detective fiction, which is an enduring source of pleasure.

Just read through the whole thread - I'm currently re-reading HHC having rediscovered my copy in a lost book box

Have the DVDs of the 80s adaptations. I really like the major characters, but find some of the minor character actors rather wooden. Or perhaps just a bit set up - they turn up against some background, deliver their witness statements in odd accents then vanish again.

One thing I don't think anyone mentioned - according to the "making of" interview with EP in the DVD, they made Bunter do the riding bit as they were trying to set him up with a bit of sex appeal, the producers felt Wimsey might be a bit too academic to appeal to some viewers. Missed the point rather there then. Haven't watched it for a while but seem to recall EP sounding slightly miffed about it.

I find the JPW continuations interesting if not quite right. I'm sure she's right about class boundaries being broken down somewhat during and after the war, but the way she does it doesn't ring true. I didn't realise she'd done another one, that's one for the xmas book token then!

When I found out that JPW made LPW the Duke of Denver, I knew I could not read the continuations. That is just so wrong.

uh, oh. Hope that wasn't a spoiler.

Did you read TAE. Scone?

One thing I don't think anyone mentioned - according to the "making of" interview with EP in the DVD, they made Bunter do the riding bit as they were trying to set him up with a bit of sex appeal, the producers felt Wimsey might be a bit too academic to appeal to some viewers. Missed the point rather there then.

That is hilarious. Yup, definitely missed the point.

scone - hmm, oddly, it isn't too bad. The way she sets it up, it's plausible.