{"id":16131,"date":"2021-12-09T19:23:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T00:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=16131"},"modified":"2021-12-09T19:23:32","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T00:23:32","slug":"watching-lord-peter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=16131","title":{"rendered":"Watching Lord Peter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m having a blast<\/strong> binge-watching the old BBC Lord Peter Wimsey series, with Ian Carmichael. It occurs to me that these adaptations are now far older than the original books were when I first watched these things. Life is cruel that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The philanthropist who posted the videos on YouTube<\/a> (you can buy the DVDs here<\/a>, but the price they want is extortionate) posted them in the wrong order, so I had to rearrange them for my own perusal. I watched \u201cClouds of Witness<\/a>\u201d first, as God intended, and then \u201cThe Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m happy to report that they hold up extremely well. The scene design and costuming are unmistakably 1970s (hairstyles are always a giveaway), but within those parameters they\u2019re very well done. Nowadays a lot of that stuff can be faked with CGI, but the BBC did well with real props and settings as they existed at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best part of the productions, of course, is Ian Carmichael\u2019s portrayal of Lord Peter. He was, as he himself admitted, a little too old for the role. This creates awkward moments, especially in energetic scenes, or when his double chin makes itself too apparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet he does the role so brilliantly. He\u2019d already played Bertie Wooster, who\u2019s essentially the same character without the brains. The mannerisms are the same. But there\u2019s a gravity underneath it all, and his human sympathy resonates with the viewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But my favorite character, I truly believe, is Mervyn Bunter, Lord Peter\u2019s valet (think Jeeves) as portrayed by the Welsh actor Glyn Houston (another actor plays him, sadly, in \u201cThe Unpleasantness,\u201d but fortunately that error was corrected in later series).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houston is splendid in a layered performance. On the surface, his Bunter is the perfect gentleman\u2019s gentleman, discreet, dignified, and proper in speech. But his extremely expressive eyes and delivery manage to convey all this pair\u2019s unspoken history \u2013 how he saved his master\u2019s life in the war, and has since nursemaided him through numerous bouts of shell shock and depression. Lord Peter will forever be in his debt, but it\u2019s a matter they never speak about. Words would make it maudlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or Magdalen (though Wimsey was a Balliol man, as I recall).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m having a blast binge-watching the old BBC Lord Peter Wimsey series, with Ian Carmichael. It occurs to me that these adaptations are now far older than the original books were when I first watched these things. Life is cruel that way. The philanthropist who posted the videos on YouTube (you can buy the DVDs … Continue reading Watching Lord Peter<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[286,1704],"class_list":["post-16131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-bbc","tag-lord-peter-wimsey"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16132,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16131\/revisions\/16132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}