Le mystère de l'étoile Polaire

This is not at all what I expect from "Mystery!" Unless intended as farce, in which case it did not succeed either, I found the production far-fetched, and fraught with 21st century sensibilities and laxity.

Why did Sally only wear a hat to visit the villain? Was it 1875 when she was investigating, but 1970 or later in the rest of the story? I would have expected her to cover her head whenever she went out, with the exception of emergency.

And though very funny (*Was* it an attempt at farce?), during the scene at the Patent Office, I wasn't sure whether the Anglo-Asian clerk was befuddled by Sally because she was a woman or ineptly flirting with her.

To quote Sherlock Holmes, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." This production eliminated none of the impossible, and so we are left wallowing in disbelief at what we are expected to accept as the "truth" of the story.

Not being a reader of Pullman, I cannot comment on how true it is to the book on which it was based. Perhaps Mr. Pullman deserves the blame for my incredulity?

Story by Philip Pullman

It starts off with a white woman marrying a black minister. Maybe I am wrong but I did not believe interracial marriages happened way way back then and all seemed to be kind of on the rich side and all getting along. It seemed phony

Billie Piper is very good in this, she is Sally Lockhart. She is trying to get finances back to a customer she has that lost money through a certain company. Her character works hard to get information to help her clients and is not stopped by threats or physical harm which she receives many times during this movie

There a number of people that seem to live in the same house as her all having different jobs. An old photographer, a detective, and a young photographer named Jim live in the same house has Sally and exchange information. Mr Bellman has an invention that he is pouring his money in to. I don't quite understand what it was it is important to this movie.

There are many characters in this story, a spiritualist, a magician and even a beautiful big dog that is Sally's.

At times it is very confusing who is who. There is one character named Isabelle that is in love with the magician. Her name is Lyndsey Marshal who is excellent in Garrows' Law.

It a good movie with good actors but to me much of the content is unbelievable.

The Sally Lockhart mysteries proved to be a mild disappointment. They are not up to the usual BBC period drama standards - or rather they haven't gotten the period drama treatment. The story relies heavily on a Victorian atmosphere, but you rarely get this in the film adaptations. First of all, Miss Piper, lovely and talented as she is, has the least Victorian beauty imaginable. She is so much AD 2000 that every scene with her in it loses every kind of credibility. One can argue that women were born with different features in olden days - but they pretty much tried to rearrange their facial muscles to imitate the accepted standards of any given era. Where today's actresses try to make their lips appear lush and succulent, every Victorian girl would have subconsciously made every effort to make her mouth appear as a tiny rosebud. The same goes for eyes, hair, posture, gestures. Miss Piper walks straight out of 2007 and makes everything around her 2007.

Watching the adaptations, one also gets the impression that the Victorian society was very welcoming to different races and accepted them into the society with open arms. Almost in every single shot featuring the London society, there are Asian, Caribbean and Black people, the latter even boosting rasta hairstyle on one occasion. The golden truth however is that representatives of these races only got into contact with The Society as footmen and servants, and never ever mixed with them.

My overall impression was that these adaptations were meant for a young viewer who cares little for the authenticity of a traditional well mounted BBC period piece production. If you want some moderate tension and a fairly watchable entertainment with some good moments, don't hesitate to view these films. I don't regret sitting through them at one go, I only wish I would have been totally overwhelmed.

Someone in the forest.

Blood on the snow.

He is still there, all in a glass coffin.

Bells, bells...the Bellmann.

There's a shadow in the north.

Now that Sally has lost a father and gained a family, she is ready for the next adventure.

Sally is now an investment counselor. JJ Field and Jim tailor give up their old professions and become detectives.

Again, there are several overlapping spooky problems including lost funds and murderous sward play. We are allowed to speculate and kibitz. About halfway through the movie most of the mysteries start to make sense. Now all we have to do is hope there are not any last-minute twists. Closed Caption helps with some of the mumbling.

Based on a novel by Bill Pullman (author of "The Golden Compass") you can see the Pullman pattern in the story. Pullman always has strong-willed women. Adrian Hodges wrote the screenplay, the same person that wrote the screen play in the first episode and kept the essentials while making it more palatable as a film.

Many people watched the BBC production because Sally (Veronica Lockhart) is well played by Billie Piper of "Dr. Who" fame. Yet all of the other actors most pretty well known in their rights helped make this an excellent presentation. Jim Taylor (Matt Smith) returns from the first episode and has a bigger part.

Strange what you remember and forget so I had to watch it again nearly two decades later.

I have only recently read the books, and if anything my admiration for this adaptation actually grew having finished it. It would have been easy to veer away from the book, but it's such an accurate adaptation.

Piper shines once again as Sally, she is joined by a terrific cast, some real talent on display here, Julian Rhind Tutt, Richard Clews and of course Jared Harris.

I'm so glad this was adapted, the first was lucky enough to have a masterclass from Julie Walters, this one relies more on the story, action and humour.

The action scenes at the end are terrific, the humour comes from Dona Croll, who is so funny.

Terrific production values, it looks sensational, some of the costumes used here are tremendous.

Overall, I loved it, 9/10.