Inspector Lynley - Set 1
by Richard Laxton; Kim Flitcroft
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Actor: Samantha Baker; Cherie Lunghi; Nathaniel Parker; Sharon Small; Tim Pigott-Smith; James Hillier (II); June Watson; Shaun Prendergast; Elizabeth Kelly; Joanna Brookes; Richard Syms; Will Knightley; Selina Cadell; Sophie Ward; Katie Blake; Richard Lintern; Lucy Scott; David Ellington; Sarah Easton; Fred RidgewayDirector: Richard Laxton; Kim Flitcroft
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 360 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-11-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: WGBH BOSTON
DVD Reviews of Inspector Lynley - Set 1
DVD Review: Inspector Lynley Mysteries Set 1
Summary: 1 Stars
After loving Inspector Morse and Inspector Jack Frost, we thought we'd try another British Mystery and bought Lynley. This is horrible soap opera and we were very disappointed. Couldn't watch the last disc it was so bad. If you like wierd soap operas get it. Otherwise save your money.
Fred in New York
DVD Review: A rare occurrence of the film version trumping the book
Summary: 4 Stars
I read one of Elizabeth George's books (For the Sake of Elena) and it happens to be one in the first set of Lynley episodes. I was not overly impressed with the book, to be honest, and was a bit wary about watching the show. But all of the issues I had with the books were neatly and wonderfully resolved with the magic of television.
I never had a problem with the storyline or plot of the book - the mysteries are good and solid and translate well into television. My issues were with the writing (descriptive, not dialogue) and mostly with the character of Havers. I think you're supposed to like her in the books, or at least not hate her, but the mental image the descriptions brought to my mind were revolting. She just seems completely unlikeable and annoying, and I really could not understand her interactions with a lot of the other characters. Even her physical description was hard for me to wrap my head around.
In the series, though, the questions about her appearance are put to rest and she seems a lot less irritating. The character on the show is a little offbeat and prickly, but in a likable way. Perhaps if I've kept reading the books I would have eventually come to like her character, but from the first episode of the show I enjoyed her and Lynley and their interactions.
I still probably won't read any more of the books, but will definitely be checking out the rest of the series. Anyone who likes British police/detective shows (Midsomer Murders, Hamish MacBeth, Murder in Suburbia, Foyle's War, etc) should check this one out.
DVD Review: Code of Silence
Summary: 4 Stars
"We live by codes, Lynley thought. We call them our morals, our standards, our values, our ethics, as if they were part of our genetic make up. But they are only behaviours that we have learned from our society, and there are times to act in defiance of them, to fly in the face of their conventions because it is right to do so."
- Inspector Lynley (Well Schooled in Murder)
The setting of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley mysteries is England and this story is set at a private boys school called Bredgar Chambers School. The code of silence may be reminiscent of the military; but it is alive and well at this boys school where a murder of a 13 year old boy takes place. Why was a boy from a working class family murdered and who was culpable is the case that Inspector Thomas (Tommy) Lynley of Scotland Yard is called by his former boyhood friend to solve. Lynley is played by Nathanial Parker; and is a rather posh inspector who is also an earl. His sidekick is played by Sharon Small (Sergeant Havers) and she is from a diametrically opposed background from a working class family. She is not terribly good with authority and has a bit of a chip on her shoulder.
Some of the same actors from The History Boys are cast in some of the roles and the acting is very well done.
Though only boys, there is the grim undercurrent of rules being broken and bad behavior being covered up leading to the ultimate cover up - a murder of a 13 year old boy.
The cover ups unravel and more than one death occurs in the sinister image conscious environment of this upper class English boarding school; possibly more concerned with its image, reputation and funding versus uncovering the cause of death of one of its students; who as it turned out marched to a different drummer and followed his principles and conscience; because these were his standards and his personal codes.
Interesting character study of Lynley created by American mystery writer Elizabeth George.
Recommended B+
Bentley 2008
DVD Review: a delicate character study
Summary: 5 Stars
This series has great writing. However, a lot of the plot is what Hitchcock would call the "maguffin" -- the 'whatever' on which to hang the script.
The real center of this series is the contrast of class. The two central characters have an unexpressed love for each other which subtly supercedes and cancels out any other relationships that they try to form. It is not a love of bump and grind, but rather a deep respect, a reaching out past class distinctions, and a primary need to see each other every day. Occasionally one will reach out to the other, only to be gently rebuffed. The excellent writing allows them barriers which they tentatively reach across.
DVD Review: Inspector Lynley set 1
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought that Inspector Lynley was truly a masterpiece when the series was shown on Masterpiece Theater of PBS. And I am again happily validated of that opinion in watching this series again. Truly great acting, great plots and intelligent viewing! This series is better than any of the detective shows currently on TV!
Description of Inspector Lynley - Set 1
Love, life and murder. Just a few of Inspector Lynley's mysteries.The Inspector Lynley Mysteries feature the most celebrated British detective duo in years: Inspector Thomas Lynley (Nathaniel Parker) and Sergeant Barbara Havers (Sharon Small). Over the course of more than 10 intriguing Elizabeth George novels, beginning with A Great Deliverance, Lynley and Havers have won millions of loyal fans. It's no mystery why.
Decidedly uppercrust detective Lynley and his partner Havers endure a marriage made at police headquarters. Lynley is suave, sophisticated, and the eighth Earl of Asherton. Havers is rumpled, resentful, and working class-with an inborn dislike of the highborn. Despite their differences, the sleuths evolve into a potent team, employing their cunning, intuition, and street smarts to unravel some of the most heinous-and suspenseful-crimes.
Well-Schooled In Murder When a student from prestigious Bredgar Hall is found dead under bizarre circumstances, Lynley receives a call from an old school chum asking for help. The Inspector and Havers soon discover hints of impropriety among both masters and students and race to crack the case before more students come into harm's way.
Payment in Blood A playwright is murdered in her sleep on the eve of her new play's debut, forcing Lynley and Havers to select from an entire cast of suspects. The mysterious drama is further complicated by Lynley's deepening feelings for a woman involved with the play's director, who is himself a prime suspect.
For The Sake Of Elena The fog lifts over the green hills of Cambridge, revealing the lifeless body of a prominent professor's daughter, a young woman admired for being fun-loving, popular, daring-and deaf. The mystery is far from academic as Lynley and Havers discover fatal twists that sealed the fate of one dysfunctional family.
Missing Joseph A rural vicar is the victim of hemlock poisoning. Lynley and Havers discover that everyone from the local herbalist and her troubled teenage daughter to the local constable has a motive. The duo combs the countryside sifting for clues, and finally uncovers the secrets behind the murder.
Special DVD features include: virtual tour of the Mystery! studio; Q&A with Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small; selected cast filmographies; selected cast list; biography for Diana Rigg, host of Mystery!; bibliography for Elizabeth George; selected cast list; link to the Mystery! Web site; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.
On fourDVD9 discs. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: Letterboxed.
As Diana Rigg, the host of Mystery!, the venerable PBS series which premiered these films, observes, Inspector Lynley gives his partner, Barbara Havers, class, while she gives him nothing but grief. That's not quite the case, although by the final episode in this four-part series, they can be heard bantering like David and Maddie from Moonlighting. And what is that tentatively wistful look on Havers' face while Lynley regards his relationship with an unrequited love? The Inspector Lynley Mysteries reunites author Elizabeth George's mismatched partners first introduced onscreen in A Great Deliverance. Nathaniel Parker (Eddie Murphy's ghostly host in The Haunted Mansion) stars as Lynley, Oxford-educated detective, and eighth earl of Asherton. Sharon Small costars as Havers, a working class cop. Their class differences and personal prejudices are well delineated in "Well Schooled in Murder," set at a posh boarding school where a young student has been slain, and "For the Sake of Elena," which investigates the death of a Cambridge Universty professor's deaf daughter.
The other two cases are more intriguingly personal, as Lynley is reunited with lifelong friend Helen Clyde. In "Payment in Blood," she is one of a cast of suspects when a playwright is slaughtered. In "Missing Joseph," she returns as a profiler, who assists Lynley in the case of a poisoned vicar. We also see the softer side of Havers as she deals with her increasingly senile mother. While fans of George's books may regret the abridgements necessary to bring each episode in at 90 minutes, mystery buffs will enjoy the contemporary spin on classic genre conventions, and Lynley and Havers' prickly relationship, which is at the heart of the series. --Donald Liebenson
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