Murder on the Home Front

In 1940, in London, a prostitute is found dead in her room in a boarding house with a swastika carved on her tongue. The rookie pathologist Dr Lennox Collins (Patrick Kennedy) is summoned by Detective Freddie Wilkins (David Sturzaker) to investigate the crime scene. They meet the snoopy journalist and aspiring writer Molly Cooper (Tamzin Merchant) in the spot and Lennox invites her to be his assistant. Then they interview the Anglo-German Wilfred Zeigler (John Heffernan), who found the body and collect cards of women photos. After the autopsy, they discover that the woman had gone to the Metropol night-club and they decide to visit the place with Wilkins. Three men do not have alibi and become suspects. When two other women are murdered in the same modus operandi, Wilkins accuses Zeigler with circumstantial evidences only. When the gay actor Ronald Terry (John Bowe) is found dead apparently after committing suicide, Lennox and Molly believe the murders are connected. Lennox is not convinced that Zeigler is the serial-killer and proceeds with his investigation. Who might have killed the women and the actor?

"Murder on the Home Front" is a promising TV Movie about murders in wartime that could have been better and better. The odd story is interesting but the rushed conclusion is not satisfactory and disappoints. The chemistry between Patrick Kennedy and Tamzin Merchant is worthwhile watching with funny moments and dialogues. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Assassinatos em Tempo de Guerra" ("Murders in Wartime")

This an odd sort of film. There is nothing specially good about it. The acting, the production, the effects and even the plot are all somewhat mediocre. Yet it has its moments. Setting a Jack The Ripper sort of story against the London blitz is unique in itself. But the intriguing aspect is that they have combined some pretty gory scenes with an offbeat sort of humour. I'm not sure whether it's a war movie, a murder mystery or a comedy. Maybe a bit of each. Not a great film by any means. Yet it's something different and we enjoyed it. Was this perhaps inspired by Foyle's War? It also had the look of a pilot for a planned TV series that never happened.

Not without it's charm, but overall quite flat, and join-the-dots in nature.

Felt as though I was watching a wartime Midsomer Murders.

Pleasant enough viewing but ultimately shallow, contrived and a bit hackneyed.

Don't believe the reviews posted by the media snobs, this show is fun to watch, well done and is period accurate. The only thing that is stretched a bit is the sophistication of the forensic knowledge, but it's easy to overlook.

If you're into rock-em, sock-em action then this is not the show for you. It mostly appeals to those who are accustomed to the pace of British shows and their propensity toward utilizing the English language rather than smacking you across the head with the obvious in the form of splashing, flashing video imagery.

I loved this show, and I hope there are more in our future.

Not a lot of info on this one on IMDb, probably because it began as a British TV movie. It's on netflix now. Set during WW II, we follow the "Molly", who works with detectives and forensic scientists as they try to track down a prostitute's murderer. Then another murder. They must try to find the bad guy as the clues and crime scenes are all getting erased by the German bombs. It's actually quite good. Moves along slowly but surely. And of course, opium must be involved, since the original writer had also studied opioids. Some clever blending of scenes... at one point, they talk about knives, and we fade into someone carving a hunk of meat. Another time, we start by looking at a mirror ball in a dance hall, which turns into the bright, full moon. The murder victims all have some things in common, and we don't really have any obvious suspects. We plod along, following the slow progress, but it's pretty entertaining. Also the usual wartime issues, such as fifth column spies, homosexuality, woman's lib.

Directed by Geoffrey Sax, who has done a mix of British TV series and films. Looks like he worked exclusively in TV from the 1970s until about 2005, when he made a few films. This seems to be the memoirs of Molly Lefebure, who was a writer... lived from 1919 to 2013. Apparently she wrote about 20 books, among them studies on Coleridge and his family. Quite an interesting write-up on wikipedia. She actually DID work with a pathologist, and worked in a mortuary, no doubt gathering knowledge for her novels.