BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

martin-intercultural This show has a number of sexy ingredients - English countryside, 1930s glamour, grand mansions and stately homes. Yet on balance, I found it less satisfying than other literary adaptations from this era. In seeking to be faithful to the original written stories, it picks up quite a bit of baggage that seems to speak to now-dated, prewar female sensibilities. This includes the central character's 'privileged' yet unexplained background. I'm sure 80 years ago, the very notion of a mysterious do-good aristocrat opting to fight crime would leave the ladies with a tingling sensation in their undergarments; not so much nowadays. There are other scenes, and twists and turns, which feel bookish and just packed in for good measure; they may have worked at the time, and especially on paper, but contribute little to the TV version. Mr. Campion himself fits the bill well - after all, avoiding to cast any remotely dashing male characters has been de rigueur in portraying 30s England. But after a while, his eternally goofy grin gets tiresome, particularly as there is not much else we learn about his background, childhood, career, personal life or romantic entanglements. The same applied to Lugg -- yes, the acting is amazingly realistic but after two episodes, the expression 'one-trick pony' will come to mind. All in all, a nice show to spend a quiet Saturday evening with, without getting shaken and stirred in the process.

blanche-2 Peter Davison is perfect as "Campion" in these mysteries from 1989-1990.If I were to compare this series to Inspector Alleyn, the difference is in the personality of the detectives. The Campion episodes are more lively, as Campion rubs elbows with both the low and the high classes with ease. He also is very whimsical.I believe this is a take-off on Lord Peter Wimsey, more of one than the Inspector Alleyn mysteries. Campion has his manservant, Lugg, who is devoted to him and obviously from the streets. Brian Glover is great in the role.Campion always looks very dapper and wears wonderful horn-rimmed glasses. The episodes are brighter in look than the Alleyn mysteries, and, like the Alleyn mysteries, they have high production values. Campion's background is a mystery. He's obviously well-educated. In the books he's supposedly related to royalty and cut off from his family, and he's not using his real name.High quality mysteries, very well acted, with a lovely song which Peter Davison sings at the beginning which sets up the series perfectly: lyrical, tuneful, and bright.

lfisher0264 Peter Davison is an excellent Campion and Brian Glover perfect as the lugubrious Lugg. I've just watched Look to the Lady. The adaptors had the sense to stick to the book with all its weirdness and ghosts that aren't - or are they? Additional dialogue by Alan Plater might have been improvised by Campion himself (I love the bit about not being about to find eye of newt at Fortnum's or Harrods). All the actors are good, and the stately home plus ruined monastery is perfect. My only gripes: poor Beth is forced to wear some of the dowdiest outfits I've ever seen on an actress. All in shades of mud, lacking any shape and with awful additional frills, capes etc. And Professor Carey's last line is changed to the cliché'd quotation "There are more things in heaven and earth..." I think in the book he says "My very dear young man, it doesn't do to think too much about these things." Barbara Jefford is good as Mrs Dick, but some of her dialogue revealing her true horribleness is cut. Read the book - it'll send shivers down your spine. It's one of Margery Allingham's best.

junk-monkey I have fond remembrances of this show from when it was first broadcast on the BBC. It is well above the usual costume detective dramas of the period and later. Campion is a real human with faults and failings and has the best sidekick ever in Lugg. I recently watched "Death of a Ghost" on VHS from the first series of this show. The VHS I watched was released in the UK by WH Smiths in 1991 and has been butchered.The story as originally screened ran for two 50 minute episodes, but the run time on this tape is 81 minutes. Allowing for a duplication of credits I still reckon 20 or so minutes was very obviously and clumsily chopped out. There were gaps in the narrative and If you are looking to buy this series check the running times on the back of the case before you buy. Each story should run at 100+ minutes.