Death of an Expert Witness

I got in a little snooze while waiting for something to happen in this tedious production and woke to find that in the meantime, little had happened. Direction is pretty bad overall and it's not just in comparison to "today's standards." I don't remember any other show from this era dragging like this. Do I finish Part 2 of this DVD or cut my losses?

Nobody knows mystery and drama better than the British, and this 1983 miniseries is first-rate British drama. As a fan of BBC drama/mystery (but unfamiliar with author PD James), I was completely unaware of the plot when I first watched this, which made it all the more riveting. From the start, the viewer is plunged into an interconnecting plot with lots of clues, suspects, red herrings, forensics, and all the usual stuff that mystery lovers love!

Roy Marsden is superbly natural as detective Adam Dalgliesh, portraying a man who is both charming and hardcore (a little like Sherlock Holmes, and his assistant, played by John Vine, as a kind of Watson). The supporting cast features such familiar BBC players as Geoffrey Palmer, Brenda Blethyn (long before her Academy Award nomination), and wonderful Barry Foster (who still impresses me with his incomparable performance of Kaiser Wilhelm in Fall of Eagles). The rest of the characters are well played (ignore the reviews that say otherwise; this is British mystery, remember, and a little theatrics is expected). Since juvenile actors are never mentioned in reviews, another minor but featured supporting player is Annabelle Lanyon, a terrific child actress who appeared in a bunch of BBC shows around this time (a notable performance being the Marchioness in The Old Curiosity Shop; she is still recognized today in the cult classic arena for playing Oona the fairy in Ridley Scott's Legend).

Remember that this was filmed in the early 80s, so it is shot on video rather than film, which gives it a little less visual style. But this was true of most of the BBC shows of the time, and once the story gets moving, you forget all about camera techniques and find yourself fully engrossed in the twisting, turning plot.

A great experience for mystery and drama fans, and especially for fans of classic BBC productions, which, granted, were thin on action and technique, but big on acting, characters, dialogue, and plot!

This was the first of the adaptations of the P D James books of Adam Dalgliesh, which is unfortunately unavailable to the public in video. If it come again onto your local television station, it is a must see!

Roy Marsden makes a perfect Dalgliesh! Tall, mysterious Dalgliesh is the best man available and is picked by New Scotland Yard to investigate murder and intrigue in a highly sensitive government department.

Jowly Geoffrey Palmer plays a part far different from the relaxed comedy parts of late, and Barry Foster cuts a dash as Dr Maxim Howarth. The plot twists and turns and the viewer will be kept literally guessing 'Who done it' until the last scene! A great night of entertainment for mystery fans. Well worth a look!

The first of the Dalgliesh detective series will surely put intelligent viewers off. First, at four and half hours long it is about 300 percent as long as it should have been. What seems like endless scenes of cars arriving, departing, and moving down roads, and of Dalgleish sitting and thinking to himself are just two of the ways the script is padded almost beyond belief. If this is being down in the first two parts of this three part series to establish an air of realism all this is thrown to the winds in part three when the major characters act in a downright silly way. Clichés abound. With a murderer on the loose, a young girl, who hitherto would faint at a frown, decides to take the shortcut home through the dark woods, announcing her reason for doing it to the audience as if the justify so silly a behavior in the mind of the viewer. The final coup de gras in this respect is when Superintendent Dalgliesh and the confessed murderer go for a walk alone in the countryside while the murderer explains the reasons for his criminal behavior. As someone who has just finished teaching the mystery as a part of a course in Modern Drama I count myself among the great fans of the dramatized mystery story. However, I fell asleep more than once trying to get through this one. 'Nuff said. Unless you are ready for your nap skip this one and go to 'The Black Tower' or one of the other later programs in the Dalgliesh series.

British mystery at its absolute finest. Death of an Expert witness is long, but loaded with rich content, compelling characters, and fine performances, a masterclass from lead actor Roy Marsden.

Some will find the direction and pacing too laden, but it's that pace that allows the story to develop, the characters to grow, and the resulting conclusion to come as a big surprise.

It's very much a product of the elegant eighties, with Lesbianism something of a taboo subject, and Stella referred to as a friend, rather then partner, and of course we get some eighties glamour, in the form of Domenica, who genuinely looks dazzling at times, a fine performance from Meg Davies.

Marsden stands out of course, but he's in good company, Fiona Walker and Geoffrey Palmer shine, only Andrew Ray feels somewhat wooden as Bradley.

It's a great story, from a book I'd highly recommend, but this is a fantastic adaptation, and very faithful. This is the best of the PD James adaptations, and I must at this point highlight the sublime music, the score is one of television's greatest.

A truly great watch. 9/10.