Review of Lord Peter Wimsey: The Nine Tailors

Introduction

As per-usual, I found myself coming into a review having no pre-conceived idea of what I was actually about to experience. LPW is touted as being a "classic & wonderful drama" on the box-art, hence me being slightly hopeful of a decent viewing through-out the total 200+ minutes duration. However, my aspirations were short-lived as soon as I saw the BBC logo brandished on the cover. I hate BBC. The only BBC-related programme I`d ever shown any remote interest in & followed was Dr Who back in the early 90s, ever since then I`ve swayed away from all of their visual-drivel. But once again my DVD reviewing duties has lead me into territory I thought I`d never venture onto ever again, so with that said.......

So I scoured the net & compiled what information I could, as I`ve no idea how you go about an introduction to a tv-series without having any knowledge of the subject in question at all.

Ok, Lord Peter Wimsey is an adaptation of the Dorothy L. Sayers novel “The Nine Tailors". This particular 2-disc compilation gives viewers the origins of how Wimsey and his assistant Bunter first met in the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War. Despite their many differences & deep-conflicts in social class, Wimsey and Bunter both share the same mind. With this the foundation of the story, Bunter pays a visit to the aspired-detective & requests employment, aided with the incentive that he saved Wimsey from certain death in the war. As the story starts to un-fold, we realize that it`s more than mere mutual-respect & a working-relationship between these two, but more a friendship of intellect.

While the re-united friends are on vacation visiting Wimsey`s brothers, they both suffer an unfortunate car-accident which leads them to the village of Fenchurch. Here the both them engage themselves into discovering the mystery of the nine tailors, which refer to the haunting bell-tolls that sound out around the village. Things get serious when a mutilated body crops up, and here the mystery really begins.

Video

The picture quality is fantastic considering the source-material, you can tell that time has aged the print slightly, with some scratches as well as a somewhat disjointed picture visible at times. But apart from this, the image quality is admirable.

Audio

Oddly, there are no subtitle or captions encoded on to the two discs. There are no apparent problems with the audio however, the terrific dialouge is crisp & clear through-out

Features

The first DVD features a short-videotaped interview with lead-actor Ian Carmichael, who is quite candid regarding his own feeling of his range as an Actor and his own interest in this episode in the Wimsey series. There are filmographies for some of the Actors who appear in this installment. There is also biographical information of Author Dorothy L. Sayers as well as a list of her books and information on the “Dorothy L. Sayers Society.” A ten-question trivia game wraps up the extra features in this DVD set. The menus on both DVD-Videos are standard interactive still frame menus that are easy to navigate with the main menus having some slight animation and the theme of the series playing in the background.

Conclusion

All in all, not a bad addition to anyones collection, especialy if you`re a fan of great British dramas, which this evidently is. I`m by no means a fan of LPW, but I enjoyed it for what it was, and I thought the conclusion of the series was absolutley brilliant. The video & audio presentation is as good as it could have been, and the extras are interesting enough. Great drama at a well-worthy price.