Dorothy L. Sayers writes many non-fiction books however among her best fiction is the Lord Peter Wimsey series. I came to this series sort of though the back door. My first taste was the BBC productions with Petherbridge as Lord Peter that can now be found on DVD. So, I read all of Dorothy's books containing the relationship of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. Now it is time to go through the whole series.
Now I watched the one I missed on PBS. The first thing I notice was that Ian Carmichael talks much faster than Petherbridge. And all the people seem older. Of course, Peter was supposed to be older when he met Harriet.
Campbell a local artist is being obnoxious and makes everybody's life miserable. Let's face it Campbell needs killing. You guessed it; he seems to have had an accident while painting. Lord Peter deduces that the so-called accident could only be staged by another painter. Yep, there are six suspects and more if it is not a painter. So that leaves "Five Red Herrings"
As with all Sayers' stories nothing is simple, there are overlapping plots and foolish deeds, as if Peter can not figure them out. On the side, we learn a little about Scottish society and see the landscape.
They took the time to put just about everything relevant from the book into this production. There were a few exceptions but not worth bothering about. The production is complete enough that you do not have to read the book. Yet you will want to for the differences and more dialogs.
I am glad they finally made a DVD version. However, the one I watched was the tape. This item is worth purchasing as you will want to replay it often.
