"The Inspector Lynley Mysteries" Well Schooled in Murder (2002)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Robert Young

Writers:

Elizabeth George (novel)
Simon Block (screenplay)

TV Series:

"The Inspector Lynley Mysteries" (2001)

Original Air Date:

8 April 2002 (Season 1, Episode 2)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

When an old school friend contacts Lynley about a missing schoolboy, the inspector soon has to launch a murder inquiry.

Plot Keywords:

Friend | Schoolboy | Boarding School | Dead Boy | Children

Cast

John Sessions	...	John Corntel
Lisa Stevenson	...	Patsy Whateley (as Lise Stevenson)
Curtis Woodruff	...	Matthew Whateley
Paul Herzberg	...	Barry Summers
Glyn Grimstead	...	Mr. Whateley
Nathaniel Parker	...	Thomas Lynley
Sharon Small	...	Barbara Havers
June Watson	...	Mrs. Havers
Anthony Mark Barrow	...	Uniformed Officer
Alex Giannini	...	Mike Canerone
Henry Cavill	...	Chas Quilter
Bill Nighy	...	Lockwood
Martin Jarvis	...	Cowfrey Pitt
Samuel Barnett	...	Brian Byrne
William Mannering	...	Clive Pritchard

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:15 | USA:TV-PG

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Movie Connections:

Followed by "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: For the Sake of Elena (#1.4)" (2002)

Unschooled

I see a lot of movies, and many of them are mysteries, or advertise themselves so.

I'm particularly attracted to these because I believe they are a sort of sketchpad for experiments in storytelling, how narrative can be boogered around to challenge and engage us. Those that adapt Christie and the Holmes stories particularly interest because they are film adaptations of something that works. How the adapters succeed or fail in working with the narrative tricks, tells me a lot about film works, how my mind works, and to some extent how I make stories about how the world works.

If the project is a BBC production, I am universally disappointed. And that's not just mysteries. If they start with a book that has depth, they trammel all the important achievements of the author. "Bleak House," "Middlemarch," "Pride and Prejudice" are all successful entertainments in their TeeVee incarnations with amusing characters. But these were born with souls and the BBC production factory rips that soul out and replaces it with what they believe is modern storytelling that works — or at least brings viewers back.

I don't get so upset when the original book is by a secondary talent, as is George. But she IS a talent. Her mysteries use the form as the merest of familiar skeletons on which to hang all sorts of internal thoughts. The secrets in her stories aren't who did the murder. There's some revelation in why, of course. But the main secrets are those carried by her two detectives and how they "uncover" them using the detective form of discovery and encounter. Its a worthy thing.

Now this. It is the first I have seen of the series. It has that once-ironically lovely, now dreadful, dreadful woman introducing it, to tell us what it is "all about." As if it were about characters.

So okay, we plod through the story: a murder, procedurals, disclosure. The lives of the detectives hardly matter. The working class woman partner does have her challenge with her folks. But its shoehorned in as a background issue. Its story, you see and they couldn't jettison it even though they ripped out all the connection to discovery.

My. We celebrate that we have publicly funded broadcasting that respects intelligent material in the face of vulgar market needs and general dumbness. Oh yeah?

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.