The Moonstone

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.

The mini-series started out well enough. But about midway through episode 3 I had had enough (but I stuck it out). My 2 main issues were - 1. The Diamond was stolen from India and brought to England. It seemed like a silly thing to get so worked up about, especially when it should have just been returned. All of these people arguing and 'steal in' another county's jewel. And 2. The pace of the story was atrocious. Rather than having 5 45 minutes episodes, they could have easily had it done in 3. A lot of repetitiveness in different sections of the story.

Some reasonably good acting. But very drawn out.

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.

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 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.