Rating: 
Summary: Christie lite
Review: The Tommy and Tuppence mysteries are frothier and lighter than the Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot mysteries, but it's their lightness that makes them unique. They're well translated into film in this delightful threepack of the first five mysteries."Secret Adversary" is the only movie-length episode: Tommy and Tuppence, childhood friends, reunite post WW1 in financially tight circumstances. To drum up some money, they decide to become adventurers. But their lighthearted venture becomes deadly serious when they become enmeshed in an international situation involving a packet of secret documents, a mysterious girl named Jane Finn, an American millionaire and an elusive mastermind called only "Mr. Brown." "Affair of the Pink Pearl" takes place a while after "Adversary," and is definitelty frothier. Tommy finds the cure for Tuppence's boredom: a detective agency, which they take over and inject new life into. Soon they are called on to retrieve a stolen pink pearl. "The House of Lurking Death" is the destination of T&T, when an appealing young woman comes to tell them that someone in her house sent her poisoned chocolates. At first it seems to be a straightforward case -- but nothing is as simple as it seems. "Finessing the King" is a little more gruesome than its predecessors. Tuppence drags Tommy to a costume ball and then to the restaurant "Ace of Spades," where they find a woman in a Queen of Hearts costume, stabbed on the floor. All evidence points to her lover, including her dying words, but of course nothing is so simple. "The Clergyman's Daughter" comes to T&T with her problems: She thinks that her house may be haunted, by a poltergeist that is scaring off the paying guests she has there. The two travel to the house to find out exactly what the source of the mayhem is. If you are expecting the same level of complexity as a Poirot/Wimsey/Marple mystery, you will be disappointed. With the exception of "Adversary," these mysteries were all based on short stories, and so they can't afford to be too complex. Nevertheless, they are enormous fun and some of them will definitely keep you guessing. There's plenty of wry comedy in this series, including Tuppence's turn as a weird spiritualist, her array of hats ("there are... NUANCES to them!"), and Albert's obsession with movies. (His dying gangster act is especially funny) Francesca Annis is enormous fun as Tuppence, with a delightfully flaky charm that covers a brain as brilliant -- if not more brilliant -- than Tommy's. Her 1920s wardrobe is definitely eye-catching; she is also one of the few women I've ever seen who could make Audrey Hepburn look buxom. James Warwick is as noticeable in a quieter way as Tommy, with his cute smile, delightfully confused attitude, and attempts at Sherlock-Holmesian suavity and brilliance. Reece Dinsdale is flawless as Albert, the loyal sidekick with a weakness for Rudolph Valentino movies. Some of the secondary actors are not quite as good; almost the entire cast of "House of Lurking Death" (except the fanatic) is about as expressive as pine boards with painfully civil dialogue, the girl playing Lois overdoes the breathy damsel act, and the Esther actress is hammy, period. The title character of "Clergyman's Daughter" also has an annoying habit of starting every sentence with a strained "oh." The other supporting actors are very good, though. This is a delightful collection, and well worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: Nice work if you can get it
Review: Think "Remington Steele" rather than "Hercule Poirot" for these, primarily, Art Deco stories. Tommy refers to mystery writers rather than movies but the idea is the same--well-dressed amateur pretending, comically, to be a professional private detective. In this case his partner, Tuppence, is even more expensively dressed, and hatted, and another complete novice. Upper crust Tommy has a background in Intelligence in WWI, when Tuppence, a clergyman's daughter and Tommy's childhood chum, was a nurse. It is true some of the mysteries aren't very mysterious but the series is impeccably staged, T & T are highly watchable and seem very much in love, young Albert is a lot of fun, and you get to imagine what you would do with a detective agency and a steady stream of money from your family. (You can also try to spot Britcom actors in the casts, or the times Britain's alleged xenophobia is brought up.) "Secret Adversary" is a puzzle to me. I've read the book and studied the period but I can't imagine what unsigned treaty with the US when we were neutral, if it turned up some six years later in the UK, would be inevitably cause a general strike and a revolution. (The Atlantic Charter didn't do that in WWII.) And it's unsigned so why not just deny, deny, deny? Throughout the T & T series in the spy stories Christie hints but doesn't give us enough information to understand, all these years later and an ocean away, the gravity of the situation. Apparently Christie felt the UK was teetering on the brink of a Communist coup. She may have been warning the British public,--which is odd, really, in a book that spun off short stories that are lighthearted and humorous.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved the Series - Hated the Sound!
Review: This was an email I had to send to AcornMedia, the publishers of the DVD. I noticed that not one review mentioned the awful sound quality? I will followup this review when I check the DVDs at work..but...
Greetings!
I need to complain about the quality of your release of Tommy & Tuppence - Partners in Crime.
I recently rented Volume 1 from set 1 from Netflix, but noticed that on the episode of Affair of the pink Pearl, the volume for the program is very low - very unwatchable, but Secret Adversary for sound was good.
Thinking this might have been a Netflix issue, I recently bought this from an online vendor and noticed the exact same issue.
On Volume Two - the same issue House of Lurking Death -- volume was recorded at a low level, yet the other two episodes were perfect.
Whoever mastered these DVD's did an absolutely terrible job, and I will have no choice but to return my purchase, sadly, I loved this series when i was growing up watching it on PBS - but I cant watch it with the volume issue!
Are there any plans to reissue with the CORRECT audio volume?
Rating: 
Summary: great fun but poor sound quality
Review: Tommy and Tuppence are Agatha Christie light. Good fun and not heavy handed. But the dvd sound quality on two of the episodes is dreadful. To hear the actors the volumn must be turned very high and then there is background static. What a shame to ruin this as the picture quality is better than some Acorn productions.
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to the Other British Mystery Series
Review: We love the different British mystery series such as Miss Marple, Inspector Morse, Poirot, & Midsomer Murders, but Tommy and Tuppence just aren't as good. Entertaining? Yes, but not worth owning. We recorded them off British TV, and after watching the series, recycled the tapes.
Rating:
Summary: Get Poirot, Marple, Wimsey instead
Review: We really, really enjoy almost every British mystery there is: Hercule Poirot (David Suchet), Miss Marple (Jane Hickson), Lord Peter Wimsey (both sets, Ian Carmichael and Peter Petherbridge/Harriet Walters), Sherlock Holmes (both sets, Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone), Maigret (Michael Gambon.) Because of this, we ventured into a never-seen-by-us Tommy & Tuppence. Unfortunately, we're sorry we spent the money on these.
We've watched the pilot movie and two episodes. The pilot movie was as long and dullish as Agatha Christie's "Why Didn't They Ask Evans" long and dullish movie with the same two Tommy & Tuppence actors of Francesca Annis and James Warwick (and we don't recommend this movie at all either.) (1) In "T&T," I can't stand the way Annis as Tuppence just acts like such a childish ditz. (2) I can't stand how they always pretend they're someone that they aren't; ie, they're not the Beresfords, but they're "Mr. Blunt and his...uh-hum...assistant Miss Robinson." Ummm, what's the point of that? (3) I can't stand how unbelievable and stupid the characters are: For instance, in the episode "The House of Lurking Death," almost all the people in a household eat from a box of chocolates that arrives by messenger, and they don't have the vaguest clue who they are from. Wow! What profound stupidity. Throw that stuff out, or at least maybe report it to the police as suspicious activity. If that isn't bad enough, Tommy & Tuppence not once but twice walk by, just inches away from, a frothing-at-the-mouth, snarling, growling Rottweiler who is roaming free at the front door/gate of this household. Ummm, have you ever heard of being attacked or bitten by a dog who is snarling and growling at you! It's just plain unbelievable that people would be this stupid, in all these instances. Furthermore, it's insulting that either "Dame" Agatha Christie or the screen adapters would write this ludicrous behavior into a murder mystery that we're supposed to find believeable and enjoyable enough to watch.
But, I'm ranting a bit. I'm just really disappointed that this is such garbage, and overpriced garbage. I reluctantly give it two stars because it's light-hearted mystery and the costumes (even though a bit overdone) and countryside scenes are pleasant.
Avoid this; it's not worth the money. But if you like British mystery, you probably should try to watch it somehow just to compare it for yourself. It's a good exercise in critiquing, especially of Agatha Christie.
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