Rating: 
Summary: Mrs Bradley Mysteries - A Triumph
Review: The BBC Mrs Bradley Mysteries series was a truely marvellous and spectacular success for the BBC and,as always,lived up to expectations of the quality that is a hallmark of British classic television drama that has led the way and been a bench-mark standard for others to aspire.Dame Diana Rigg is superb in her portrayal of Adela Bradely giving not only the neccessary background in her asides,but giving the viewer the flavour and essence of the 1920s,along with her relationships and manner of detection.Any detractors have proved suspiciously biased as we expect where a truely great actress/actor take up a role through choice rather than necessity in their prime.Given the usual expected criticism of all the great performers of the dramatic arts,in particular this finest RSC actress,we are given a consummate performance without fault,which is brillantly supported by her co-star and the BBC costume,location team and others who have teamed up to give us the most enjoyable and evocative portrayal of a female detective in the glorious,heady 1920s.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is Gladys Mitchell?
Review: The Mrs. Bradley mysteries, adapted from the books by Gladys Mitchell? Complete and utter rot, and probably the greatest lie since Loki went out of business. Mrs. Bradley is elderly, ugly, small and shrewd. She is described on her first appearance, in SPEEDY DEATH (1929), as being "dry without being shrivelled, and bird-like without being pretty. She reminded Alastair Bing, who was afraid of her, of the reconstruction of a pterodactyl he had once seen in a German museum. There was the same inhuman malignity in her expression as in that of the defunct bird, and, like it, she had a cynical smirk about her mouth even when her face was in repose. She possessed nasty, dry, claw-like hands, and her arms, yellow and curiously repulsive, suggested the plucked wings of a fowl... "Strange to say, her voice belied her appearance, for, instead of the birdlike twitter one might have expected to hear issuing from those beaked lips, her utterance was slow, mellifluous, and slightly drawled; unctuous, rich, and reminiscent of dark, smooth treacle." Rather than Sian Phillips or Gina McKee, we have Diana Rigg flouncing around in paisley dresses, outlandish costumes and flummery and syllabub hats. She is Agatha Christie's Tuppence Beresford grown old, rather than the superhuman, wealthy and often frighteningly malevolent old witch (an ancestress of hers narrowly escaped burning in the reign of James I, and she herself can lay claim to occult powers--c.f. THE DEVIL AT SAXON WALL [1935] and TOM BROWN'S BODY [1949]) she should have been. Her secretary, Laura Menzies (later Gavin), is nowhere in sight, absent from LAURELS ARE POISON (1942), an "adaptation" of the novel which introduced her; instead we have a romance with her chauffeur, George. For God's sake! Have the producers of this miserable offering never read any of the books? Mrs. Bradley may have outlived three husbands, but have they read PRINTER'S ERROR (1939), in which Mrs. Crocodile beds but does not sleep with the hero? And who on Earth is Inspector Christmas? The villain of THE WORSTED VIPER (1943) is not "Inspector Christmas," but Inspector Os, brother of Amos Bone (presumably the producers thought that the audience would be frightened off by the "unfamiliar" language of French! Have they such a low opinion of us?) As for the plots, the least said, the better. Mitchell's world is extremely rich and complex, and should have made films at least three hours long. (Imagine trying to convey the subtleties and complexities of DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (1947), DEAD MEN'S MORRIS (1936) or THE DEVIL AT SAXON WALL (1935) in fifty minutes!) The producers have chosen to pay lip-service to the works: take the book's title, one character or a setting, and rework them completely. Round objects. The homicidal Brides-in-the-Bath Smith type Helm and his saltwater baths, the pandemic of suspicious drownings across England, and the true significance of DEATH AT THE OPERA (1934) are missing from the film--indeed, they've even got rid of the murderer and the motive which so splendidly justify the title! THE RISING OF THE MOON (1945) is a serial killer story told from the perspective of two boys; the circus is only involved in the first chapter, and the emphasis is on the atmosphere of a small town seen through the eyes of a child about to lose his innocence on the threshold of adolescence (an approach she would repeat with less success in LATE, LATE IN THE EVENING [1976], her fiftieth novel). THE WORSTED VIPER is set in Norfolk, and involves Mrs. Bradley tracking down a coven on the Broads, with much messing about in boats. As for LAURELS ARE POISON... This is where I see red. The book is set in a teachers' training college, introduces Laura Menzies, and is full of hijinks and japes in the manner of Dorothy L. Sayers's GAUDY NIGHT (1935), with a skeleton popping up in inopportune places rather than a malevolent poison-pen. The only element used from the book is the cook and her corsets, and she is poisoned, rather than being drowned! Let us pray that they never make another episode from this series again until they recast and bother to read the original works.
Rating: 
Summary: Presenting Diana Rigg as Diana Rigg
Review: There is something basically wrong with Diana Rigg's portrayal of Mrs. Bradley which explains why this series has languished in obscurity. Diana Rigg appears altogether too much as herself.
The character never gets realized as an individual separate from Ms. Rigg. The sarcasm, the outfits, the smug self-satisfied attitude are all simply a continuation of Ms Rigg's personality as she introduces the Mystery Series. Mrs. Bradley has nothing new to offer.
Ultimately, the job of any actor is to realize the charcater. That means she has the obligation of imagining how this person might have existed in real life. Diana Rigg never transcends herself in this series, and so her character becomes a scizophrenic representation of her own personality instead of a fully independent being.
You may blame the director or the producer, but ultimately it is Ms. Rigg's who has taken on the obligation of making the character real. She doesn't and the series suffers. Ms. Rigg is a fine actress, but this is not her finest moment.
For all that, these programs are fun. The settings are classically British and the costumes are fresh. The dialogue is a bit lame, but that is not the most basic problem. The main character never really emerges from the figure of the actress who struggles to portray her.
Rating:
Summary: Presenting Diana Rigg as Diana Rigg
Review: There is something basically wrong with Diana Rigg's portrayal of Mrs. Bradley which explains why this series has languished in obscurity. Diana Rigg appears altogether too much as herself. The character never gets realized as an individual separate from Ms. Rigg. The sarcasm, the outfits, the smug self-satisfied attitude are all simply a continuation of Ms Rigg's personality as she introduces the Mystery Series. Mrs. Bradley has nothing new to offer. Ultimately, the job of any actor is to realize the charcater. That means she has the obligation of imagining how this person might have existed in real life. Diana Rigg never transcends herself in this series, and so her character becomes a scizophrenic representation of her own personality instead of a fully independent being. You may blame the director or the producter, but ultimately it is Ms. Rigg's who has taken on the obligation of making the character real. She doesn't and the series suffers. Ms. Rigg is a fine actress, but this is not her finest moment. For all that, these programs are fun. The settings are classically British and the costumes are fresh. The dialogue is a bit lame, but that is not the most basic problem. The main character never really emerges from the figure of the actress who struggles to portray her.
Rating:
Summary: "Mrs Peel" at her campy best!
Review: These are a series of stories that are part mystery and part "camp". Some of the dialog is tongue-in-cheek and humorous....especially when she turns to the camera in an aside and offers up a usually sarcastic comment about the present company. Very good mysteries if you don't take them too seriously and don't expect them to be a "Poirot" or a "Midsomer". Ex "Mrs Peel" at her best!!
Rating: 
Summary: Psychiatric Nightmare
Review: These four detective stories portray an inverted moral world created by the author of the novels written in the 1930 time frame. Everyone who appears successful is shown to be incompetent and have despicable skeletons in their closets. People who appear to be lower class end up with heroic values. Mrs. Bradley is endowed with all intelligence virtues and modern views. This includes psychological skills in the Freudian school of psychology. This was before Freud was discovered to have faked his research results. Mrs. Bradly relies mostly on betraying people's trust by entering their unlocked rooms and snooping amongst their private property. The writing is very poor. Totally unrealistic situations that would never occur in the real world abound. One example is four sets of people showing up in the same out of the way place at the same time. Another is Mrs. Bradley being described as having talents instead of her showing them by her actions. She is artificially made to look smart by having everyone around her look stupid. Readers of Sayers or Christie will have their intelligence insulted. After 40 years of dramatizing works of written fiction, the British are really scraping the bottom of the barrel to get new material. The elderly and overweight Dianna Rigg is miscast in the role of Mrs. Bradley that calls for a 40 year old skinny flapper.
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