We watched the first few episodes of Father Brown and gave up on it. The whole conflict with the police thing didn’t work for me. Sister Boniface works with the police, at least. Of course I am biased.
I watch it on my Roke enabled TV, and no problems at all so far.
Uncredited. But they did a great job condensing my finding and explaining it in 3 lines of dialog. I get the impression from the other shows that they are good at reaching out to experts in various fields to check that their information is correct.
The initial cause for suspicion does get dropped: what it turns on in the longer term is permission to retire early on full pension, which requires permission from the higher-ups. It’s just a plot device for “awkward relationship with bosses”, which is a very common trope.
Interesting…no hard freezes watching BritBox through our fire stick, but the voice and video misalign fairly frequently, particularly on Poirot. Maybe one out of every two episodes I end up having to reverse out of the video, and then resume it.
Another older series mention - are you aware of the Lovejoy series that started way back in 1986? They are loosely based on the books by Jonathan Gash and star Ian McShane as the titular character, an antiques dealer with a nose for the authentic article but no qualms about exploiting peoples gullibility and greed. The books are darker in tone than the shows, Lovejoy generally manages to either kill, or arrange serious injury to, at least one person per novel. The author worked in the lower end of the antiques business to help support himself while attending medical school in London, he is extremely and amusingly scathing in his description of the seedy side of the trade.
I love the television series Grantchester. It’s set in a nice village near Cambridgeshire, and there’s a lot of cozy scenery. A vicar helps his buddy the village constable solve crimes, and for a sweet little English village, there are a heck of a lot of murders going on.
For those of us who like to look at good-looking guys, the actor who plays the vicar Sydney Chambers is pretty dishy. He’s replaced later on in the series by another actor who’s nearly as easy on the eyes.
The two are nearly upstaged by the character Leonard Finch, a deeply-closeted assistant vicar (deacon?). The actor portraying him is brilliant.
I watched Grantchester mainly for the mysteries and Tessa Peake Jones – although I liked Leonard, too – and the scenery. I just got so tired of vicar number one mooning over his lost love. She was rather a bitch, and I wanted to slap both of them. Vicar number two was a little bland (a lot less dishy IMHO), and I just stopped watching.
Wanted to let everyone know (you were all waiting to hear, right?), but we’ve watched about 3/4 of the first season of Pie in the Sky and enjoying it. My sister actually initiated our watching our latest ep last night. And it was fun to see an actress show up who was in a Poirot we watched a couple of weekends ago.
Diagnosis Murder is on Hallmark Mysteries. Pretty non-violent and not too dark, plus Dick Van Dyke is so likeable. Just try to avoid the early ones with Scott Baio.
But make sure you watch the hilarious 2 hour episode set in the world of television programmers. If you can freezeframe the fall schedule you can see series names like “Lifeguards from U.N.C.L.E.” Plus Stephen Cannell had some classic lines.
That’s the thing with old TV and movies - you’ll see a series of familiar faces, some of them then just in the early years of their career (in the case of Pie In The Sky, Nicola Walker, for one), or demonstrating their versatility (Phyllis Logan - aristocratic love interest in Lovejoy, much more recently the stolid housekeeper in Downtown, does an episode as a hard-bitten careerist in Pie In The Sky).
Coming back to the point about verisimilitude: it’s not that realistic that someone of Richard Griffiths’s bulk would be in that sort of job in the first place. Come to think of it, the whole concept of “cosy” mysteries is a bit at odds with brute reality. One just sits back and enjoys (or not) the interplay of the characters and the “light relief” comedy elements.
Has larry block ever had anyone show an interest in making the “burglar” books into a movie series? ( The op needs to read the series also)
I know about 10 years ago be made a few more cause people wanted them but I don’t know when the last one was made … I always thought they would have made a great hallmark type of tv series … (although hallmark wouldn’t touch them because they can get a tad racy)
After the disaster that was Burglar (Whoopi Goldberg as Bernie Rhodenbarr!), it’ll be a long time before anyone in Hollywood has the guts to try it.
Of course, it’s been 35 years now, and you’re absolutely right: in the proper hands it could become a very enjoyable cozy mystery series. So who do we cast as Bernie? Twenty years ago I would have suggested Saul Rubinek, but he’s little long in the tooth now.
(Disclaimer: I love Block, and his Burglar series in particular, and I think Whoopi is an extremely talented actor whom Hollywood has rarely used to her full potential. Neither of them was responsible for the trainwreck that was Burglar.)
Oh, I didn’t like his Peter Wimsey at all. My recollection is that it was much too robust and loud. Peter’s physicality is deceptive, not in your face, and he talks quietly and obliquely. I much preferred the Edward Petherbridge’s version.
I’ve gotten very found of the Aunt Dimity series, which involves a literate ghost. They’re mysteries because something is mysterious, but they’re not MYSTERIES in the sense that a crime has to be solved. (Usually. There are a couple were it’s sorta kinda crime adjacent.)
Also, the author includes a recipe for whichever delicious baked good is made much of in the book. The blondies are to DIE for (not literally, or even in the book).
I liked Carmichael’s Wimsey, but it was probably the first series of this type that I ever saw – not more than a few years after it was made. I always felt he was slightly old for the role, but he didn’t seem loud or overly robust to me. I thought he was rather sly…especially in Murder Must Advertise..
But they did a great job condensing my finding and explaining it in 3 lines of dialog. I get the impression from the other shows that they are good at reaching out to experts in various fields to check that their information is correct.