The Moonstone

Why are these people going on about the theft of a jewel that was stolen from another culture of people. It didn't belong to them. Entitled selfish people.

I confess I read this novel in middle school many "moons" ago.

The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins is famously the first Detective Novel, while Edgar Allan Poe gets credit for writing the first detective short stories about 25 years previously.

And what a novel it is....a classic.

This five episode series is a fine adaptation of the very long novel.

Highly Recommended.

I felt when I was watching this that it really seemed of the time. I have looked at some of these productions set in the past and they've got too modern a feel. The players seem to more of today than the time it's supposed to be. I didn't find that with this one. Did Wilkie mean for the Betteridges to be of African descent and the maid to be Irish or is that an attempt to make it more inclusive? I'm Irish but I don't remember the maid being Irish. She was very good in the part. All the cast were excellent.

Oh dear but this version drags on, logging in at a whopping 225 minutes. It's not so much telling each person's version as just showing the same scenes several times, going back and forth between the year. Long, long, l-o-n-g mood shots of anguished actors of the do-math-in-your-head school of acting. Crisper editing could have cut at least one episode. I love BBC period dramas but not even I could sit through this convoluted, contrived, overwrought version without fast forwarding.

Wilkie Collins proto-detective novel is regarded as the first detective story and has set a template which exists to this day.

BBC Daytime has taken on the multi-voice narrative by focusing on a different character for each of the five episodes hoping to encourage the younger members of the audience to seek out the book.

John Thomson plays Sergeant Cuff the detective who investigates the theft of the Moonstone diamond. Characters are interviewed in the billiard room and there is subtle use of lighting to distinguish the past and present with hues of blues used for the present day scenes where a gloomy cloud hangs with the loss of the valuable diamond.

It is low budget because BBC Daytime has less money to lavish on dramas, there are less wide shots and more close ups, it takes a while for the drama to kick in but I was intrigued by the end as the culprit is revealed.