Lord Peter Wimsey (TV series)

• Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey
• Glyn Houston as Mervyn Bunter (Clouds of Witness, The Nine Tailors, Five Red Herrings)
• Derek Newark as Mervyn Bunter (The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club)
• Mark Eden as Inspector Charles Parker (Clouds of Witness, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors)
• Rachel Herbert as Lady Mary Wimsey (Clouds of Witness, Murder Must Advertise)

All episodes are based on the corresponding novels written by Dorothy L. Sayers.{{Cite web |title=Lord Peter Wimsey, Clouds of Witness, Episode 1 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014fkhg |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202113423/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014fkhg |archive-date=2 February 2020 |access-date=25 April 2024 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}

{{Episode table |background=#C38884 |total_width = |overall= |title= |titleR= |director= |directorR= |writer= |writerT=Adapted by |writerR= |airdate= |airdateR= |episodes={{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 1-5

| RTitle = Clouds of Witness

| DirectedBy = Hugh David

| WrittenBy = Anthony Steven

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1972|04|05|df=y}}—{{End date|1972|05|03|df=y}}

| ShortSummary = Lord Peter's amateur sleuthing hobby ends up closer to home, as he finds himself with only weeks to save his own brother, the Duke of Denver, who is due to be tried by his peers of a murder in Yorkshire.{{Cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/31d8d4c5751042c4a1e192bb7d1f2326 |title=Clouds of Witness |date=5 April 1972 |website=BBC Genome |access-date=16 August 2020}}

| LineColor = C38884

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 6-9

| RTitle = The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

| DirectedBy = Ronald Wilson

| WrittenBy = John Bowen and Anthony Steven

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1973|02|01|df=y}}—{{End date|1973|02|26|df=y}}

| ShortSummary = On Armistice Day, a retired general is found dead at the Bellona Club, a London club for war veterans. A complicated will means any number of people may have a motive for murder.{{Cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b797f7d43a8d4c3fba766378f2a5dbed |title=The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club |date=1 February 1973 |website=BBC Genome |access-date=20 October 2019}}

| LineColor = C38884

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 10-13

| RTitle = Murder Must Advertise

| DirectedBy = Rodney Bennett

| WrittenBy = Bill Craig

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1973|11|30|df=y}}—{{End date|1973|12|21|df=y}}

| ShortSummary = An unpopular copywriter is found dead at Pym's Publicity under suspicious circumstances. Lord Peter goes undercover as "Death Bredon" and uncovers a tangled web linked to the London drug-smuggling underworld.{{Cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9e457388730445daa93b2490b90a9872 |title=Murder Must Advertise |date=13 May 1987 |website=BBC Genome |access-date=20 October 2019}}

| LineColor = C38884

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 14-17

| RTitle = The Nine Tailors

| DirectedBy = Raymond Menmuir

| WrittenBy = Anthony Steven

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1974|04|22|df=y}}—{{End date|1974|05|13|df=y}}

| ShortSummary = Stranded in the Fenland village of Fenchurch St Paul on a snowy New Year's Eve, Lord Peter finds himself drawn into the lore of bell-ringing. But the discovery of a body in a freshly-dug grave finds him uncovering a conspiracy involving a stolen set of emeralds, swapped identities and a First World War deserter.{{Cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/17fad09d8f6347759094ae43ba2ca346 |title=The Nine Tailors |date=22 April 1974 |website=BBC Genome |access-date=20 October 2019}}

| LineColor = C38884

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 18-21

| RTitle = Five Red Herrings

| DirectedBy = Robert Tronson

| WrittenBy = Anthony Steven

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1975|07|17|df=y}}—{{End date|1975|08|13|df=y}}

| ShortSummary = Lord Peter's fishing holiday in Galloway is disrupted when a talented but quarrelsome painter is found dead. Any one of six fellow artists may have committed the crime.{{Cite web |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/6bbb76579b7c4426943fb489f971514e |title=Five Red Herrings |date=17 July 1975 |website=BBC Genome |access-date=20 October 2019}}

| LineColor = C38884

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}}

The adaptations star Ian Carmichael as aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, the second son of the Duke of Denver. Not wanting for money, charm or intelligence, Wimsey takes up detective work as an amateur pursuit, using his connections and social status to assist the police in their investigations.

Carmichael played the role concurrently in a series of BBC Radio 4 adaptations from 1973, which eventually completed the whole sequence of Sayers's novels. In The Radio Detectives (1999), Carmichael recalled that he had hoped to continue with further television adaptations, but acknowledged that by 1975 he was too old to play the part onscreen for the sequence of more romantic novels featuring crime writer Harriet Vane.{{cite web |date=18 May 1999 |title=The Radio Detectives: As My Whimsy Takes Me |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e352f29d1fe44ffcb24643b9831cab85 |access-date=26 July 2020 |website=BBC Genome}} He felt that as a result of a technician strike, production of the fifth adaptation under a new producer, Bill Sellars, was not as successful, after which the series was not renewed. Three later television adaptations of the Harriet Vane stories were produced as A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery with Edward Petherbridge as Wimsey in 1987.{{cite web |date=2 October 1987 |title=Mystery! presents Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/02/arts/tv-weekend-mystery-presents-dorothy-sayers-s-lord-peter-wimsey.html |work=New York Times}}

Glyn Houston played Wimsey's loyal valet and assistant Mervyn Bunter in three adaptations{{cite web |date=8 July 2019 |title=Glyn Houston obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jul/08/glyn-houston-obituary |website=The Guardian}} and Derek Newark in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (the character does not appear in Murder Must Advertise). Mark Eden played Inspector Charles Parker, Lord Peter's friend and contact at Scotland Yard in four adaptations.

The series was recorded in the then-standard format of videotape for studio sequences (recorded at Television Centre, London and Pebble Mill Birmingham from the second serial){{cite book |last=Fairclough |first=Robert |title=This Charming Man: The Life of Ian Carmichael |date=2011 |publisher=Aurum Press Ltd}} and 16mm film for exterior location scenes.

Locations included St Peter's Church, Walpole St Peter and Terrington St John, Norfolk for The Nine Tailors{{cite web |title=History |url=http://www.walpolestpeterchurch.org/history |access-date=16 August 2020 |website=Walpole St Peter's Church}}[https://lowlandrambler.com/2016/09/24/in-search-of-st-pauls-church-fenchurch-st-paul/ In Search of St Paul’s Church Fenchurch St Paul]. Retrieved 25 September 2023 and Kirkcudbright, Galloway in Scotland for Five Red Herrings, the latter almost entirely shot on film due to a technician strike, with only a few studio sequences taped in studios in Glasgow.{{cite book |last=Carmichael |first=Ian |title=Will the Real Ian Carmichael: An Autobiography |date=1979 |publisher=Macmillan |page=383}}

The 1930s-style theme tune was written by Herbert Chappell. The BBC record of Herbert Chappell's theme tune featured a second track, "Size Ten Shuffle", which in rearranged form was used as the theme for FilmFair's Paddington (1976–1980).{{cite web |title=Boyfriends – Lord Peter Wimsey Theme |url=https://www.discogs.com/Boyfriends-Lord-Peter-Wimsey-Theme/master/1013483 |accessdate=2 May 2020 |website=discogs.com |publisher=Discogs}}{{cite web |title=RESL 7 |url=http://www.45cat.com/record/resl7 |accessdate=2 May 2020 |website=45cat.com |publisher=45cat}}

The New York Times's John J. O'Connor reviewed the serial Murder Must Advertise, which aired on PBS from 6 to 27 October 1974. O'Connor believed that, despite being an interesting novel, the serial did not transfer itself to television successfully, and was critical of the double role that Carmichael was required to play, believing that "that is where suspension of disbelief, however willing, collapses". However, O'Connor believed that the serial had "more than enough shrewd mischievousness to satisfy the devoted" and felt that it had an "ample quota of delightful moments".{{Cite news |last=O'Conner |first=John J. |author-link=John J. O'Connor (journalist) |date=7 October 1974 |title=Lord Peter Wimsey is Back in Mystery |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/07/archives/tv-review-lord-peter-wimsey-is-back-in-mystery.html |access-date=26 January 2025 |work=The New York Times |page=71 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

{{reflist}}

• {{BBC Programme}}

{{Lord Peter Wimsey}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}

Category:1972 British television series debuts

Category:1975 British television series endings

Category:BBC television dramas

Category:British English-language television shows

Category:1970s British drama television series

Category:Period television series

Category:British crime drama television series

Category:BBC mystery television shows

Category:Television series set in the 1930s

Category:British detective television series

Category:Lord Peter Wimsey