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?

i did love the anna maxwell martin suggestion. i think she is wonderful

I agree. She is wonderful and would be perfect for Harriet.

I think I would put up with Lawrence Fox, because he'd be so right in other ways - he's not typically handsome, he's quite slight, and (though I've never noticed before), actually, Hathaway isn't a million miles from Wimsey as a character, in doing a good 'I'm such an idiot doncha know, here are my fancy connections' bit.

How old is Peter at the beginning of things? In Gaudy Night he's only forty-something, right? 23 years since he fed the ducks?

I may be strange but I can imagine Rebecca Hall making something of Harriet.

And (while usually relatively immune) I thought Benedict C. perfectly lovely as a portly blond in Parade's End. Skinny and blond and nervy would be - heavenly.

I vaguely remember him as 20 years out of university and Harriet 10 years?

So they must be early 40s and early 30s respectively at that point? At that time I don't think people kept so much to school years/ages so he might have been a bit younger, but definitely no younger than 40?

Good call on Rebecca hall zero - did you watch it repeated over Christmas too?

(I love how we have done this with the archers and DLS all in one week!)

Oh, I don't know of her at all, but googling, she looks as if she could be Harriet. Maybe a bit too pretty? (Though that feels very rude, as I think HW is extremely pretty, but she's also very characterful, the way Harriet's looks are described).

We still don't have much for Bunter, do we?

I noticed in the TV version, presumably EP couldn't ride, as Bunter does that oddly protracted gallop and a lot of the driving.

Peter definitely no younger than 40. Also need a good for suggestion for the Dowager.

Oh ... I just realized, did he go to Oxford before or after the war? If it was after, yes, he'd be a good bit older. I think it was before, though.

I think Maggie Smith would get cast as the Dowager, but I wouldn't be wild keen. I think she's more away-with-the-fairies than that.

It was before, because he fell in love with the flighty blonde who broke his heart, leading to the string of opera dancers. The dates are in the Paul Delagardie introduction thing, but I don't have a copy handy.

Definitely Oxford before war - so yes, he would be just over 40 in Gaudy Night.

Ah, yes, thanks both. I'd forgotten the flighty blonde.

holly, just checked Gaudy Night's bio, and he was born in 1890.

We are all sitting here lusting after a Victorian, aren't we?

Petula Yes! I watched it first time round on iPlayer - grumbling about all the cuttings out, and then happened to be in a house with a TV when they did the whole thing at one sitting. Was magnificent.

I thought Jeanne that someone might say Ms Hall would be too beautiful for the part. But she does seem to be able to act so could do "lack of belief in own attractiveness." And anyway, if they gave her the truly terrible hair that Harriet had in the eighties ...

Ah, and the book takes place in 1935. So he's 45, and therefore either:

• the duck-feeding took place during a maturer, more seasoned undergrad career, maybe after a quick tour of Europe.

• the duck-feeding took place while Peter was honing his habit of preying on younger academic women (sorry, but he does have this habit. And I'm a darn sight younger than him, so I rely on it ).

• Dorothy Sayers can't do chronology any more than J K Rowling.

YY, born in 1890. 45 when he married Harriet ("suddenly marrying, at the age of 45, a highly unsuitable woman")

The Dowager is not that old. JPW mucks up her age a bit and puts her at 65 when Peter is 45 (but Gerald is five years older and Mary five years younger) - but I think she certainly was married by 20.

zero - that was terrible hair! But then, I think that bad perm look was quite trendy in the 80s, wasn't it?

I don't actually think Harriet does lack belief in her own attractiveness, does she? It's one of the things l like - that she's not stunning, but she's mostly perfectly happy with it and knows she dresses nicely.

It pisses me off actually when Uncle Paul is referred to as 'indecently ancient' as he's the Dowager's brother!

Well, I suppose he's 'ancient' to be perving over Harriet, though!

I have to say, I think he's one of Sayers' really crap characters. I hate getting to the end of the book and thinking I have a nice thick 5-6 pages left, to find it's his wittering on.

It may seem an odd choice, but I'd like to see Pauline Collins as the dowager.

Mmm ... But her looks are not what she trades in. (HV, not the actress.) Harriet Walter is HV for me. If Ms Hall had the part she might have to give the character a slightly different slant.

i have it in my head that there were 5-7 or so years between HV and LPW meeting and their getting married, is that right? If so she was prob mid-20s when they first met?

Slow typing! I rather liked Uncle Paul's reminiscences. (Though they perhaps had a slight air of the Marquis de Sade ...)

In Paul Delgardie's biography at the end of most of the books, it says Peter went up to Oxford in 1909 after spending a couple of years in Paris with Uncle Paul. Which would mean he would finish a 3-year degree in the summer of 1912, just 23 years before the punt trip.

Not sure, but maybe Jack Ellis for Bunter? I've never seen him do the smooth, Butler-ish side of it all, but I think Bunter meant to be someone who is good at chatting up women and getting along with men over a pint (which is the bit of RM's Bunter that was totally implausible!). And we're not meant to think he was trained up as a valet, are we? I think he just attached himself to Peter after the war.

IN Gaudy Night, isn't her 32nd birthday a matter of months away,. or some such phrasing, around the Pomfret incident?