Well, technically, they enlisted Martin Clunes (who, incidentally, is Jeremy Brett's cousin) to play him, but they didn't have to invent the story, because Conan Doyle really did investigate the case of George Edalji and the Wyrley Rippings. Playing on the upsurge of interest in the world's favorite consulting detective, ITV enlisted his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to do a spot of investigating on his own. Narrator Bill Wallis takes something amusing and makes it a riot. As she observes: "Hypocrisy is the cement that glues us all together."īut you really must find the audiobooks. She's a splendid dose of irreverent common sense. Much of the time, we agree - and are meant to agree - with Jack's assessments of the wishy-washy.
But Jack - a hard-drinking, hard-cursing, traditionalist bisexual (don't hear that one every day, do you?) - isn't merely a bizarre relic to remind us how far we've come, unless it's in the wrong direction. Much like Gene Hunt (of Life on Mars), she's the extreme fringe character who comes to dominate the narrative. The real star of the show, however, is Baroness Troutbeck, commonly known as Jack. Additionally, there's Milton's sergeant, detective fiction expert Ellis Pooley, and Amiss's girlfriend, Rachel.
He's quite lost amidst murder and mayhem, but when it visits his life (frequently), he joins forces with his friend Inspector Jim Milton to get to the bottom of matters. Robert Amiss (Ay-miss) is a civil servant. Ruth Dudley Edwards uses a sequence of entertaining murders to satirize political correctness, social conservatism, puritanical liberals, traditional Muslims, priggish reactionaries.in other words, pretty much everyone.
This series isn't so much about mystery as it is ideas. Two seasons, eight episodes (nine, if you count the first, which featured a different actor as Alleyn). Several episodes have extremely memorable side characters, particularly the bizarre Final Curtain. It's really too bad they only made eight episodes it's one of the best. The noir music and Fox's and Alleyn's crooked fedoras give it a sort of Sam Spade feel, but the content rests firmly in the Golden Age of detective fiction. Agatha Troy is the love interest, a feisty, slapdash contrast to Alleyn's fastidiousness, and she often gets caught up in cases, occasionally doing a bit of investigating on her own.
His sidekick, Inspector "Brer" Fox, is the classic working class foil to the aristocrat detective, but he's interesting enough to hold his own, and there's a companionable respect between the two. The two are still similar: Alleyn's an elegant and levelheaded sleuth, a dapper dresser, and extremely conscious of social propriety (he’s mortified when he falls asleep in an arm-chair at a lady’s house). Alleyn is a gentleman detective, but since it's actually his job, he's more business than Peter Wimsey.
I've only read one of the books (by Ngaio Marsh), but all eight of the TV adaptations with Patrick Malahide are pleasant, Golden Age mystery material. Alleyn Mysteries Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard.