Episode #1.1

Sandy Campbell is an antagonistic artist with a high opinion of himself and his work, and low one on others. He hits the self destruct button falling out with all around him, losing his golf membership, rude even to Bunter, unsurprisingly he's found dead.

It's a cracking start, a fine mystery, with some great humour, wonderful production values and of course some terrific acting. One thing Sayers certainly did was create a wealth of suspects, Sandy goes out of his way to upset everyone.

Kenny Ireland is very memorable as Sandy, it's a shame he's only in the one episode, talk about charisma, he's excellent. Carmichael as always is a joy as Lord Peter, he is wonderful here.

A wonderful start. 8/10

This is good sound Wimsey; Carmichael carries off the characterization to my complete satisfaction, and the digitization is acceptable given the age of the original. Glyn Houston and the rest of the cast do quite well, and the script was faithful enough (unlike _Strong Poison_) not to conflict with my (admittedly not recent) recollection of the book, with the obvious exception necessitated by the change of medium.

One recommendation for viewers of the DVD set(s): The packaging suggests watching the books in production order; I'm watching them in the order the books were published, which entails watching this after the Edward Petherbridge _Strong Poison_. (Which I also recommend, despite the initial attempt at sensationalism in the screenplay. Petherbridge is obviously a more distinguished actor, though his characterization is darker—more lord and less whimsy, as one reviewer noted.)