Lord Peter Wimsey, Dorothy Sayers' aristocratic amateur sleuth, doesn't have quite the same level of name recognition as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes or Agatha Christie's Poirot, but he's a familiar and well-liked figure for mystery fans on both sides of the Atlantic. Lord Peter Wimsey: The Complete Collection assembles all five of the Wimsey adaptations starring Ian Carmichael in the title role: Clouds of Witness, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors, and Five Red Herrings.

Ian Carmichael's portrayal of Wimsey highlights the pun in the name: he's a light-hearted fellow, ready with a witticism, always cool and collected, but never haughty; detecting crimes is his hobby rather than his profession. The imperturbable Bunter (played by Glyn Houston in four of the films and Derek Newark in the other) is the perfect foil for the effervescent Wimsey... and, incidentally, does a lot of the leg-work of the actual detective work.

The Wimsey films have enjoyed a great deal of popularity in the U.S. from their play on Masterpiece Theater, and many readers will be familiar with all five of the films included in this set. Nonetheless, here's a quick run-down on each one:

Clouds of Witness: Lord Peter is faced with a murder investigation in his own family: his sister's fiancé turns up dead, and Lord Peter's brother is a prime suspect.

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club: Lord Peter's relaxing day at his club is interrupted when one of the club's regulars is found dead, apparently of natural causes. But an inheritance turns out to be at stake, and the old man may have had some "assistance" in his passing.

Murder Must Advertise: Lord Peter goes undercover to find out if the death of a copywriter at an advertising agency was an accident, or really a murder committed to hide a deadly plot.

The Nine Tailors: A twenty-year-old jewel theft turns out to be the key to solving the mystery when an unidentified body turns up in the churchyard of a small English town.

Five Red Herrings: When a very unpopular man meets with death, Lord Peter must determine which of the many suspects are merely "red herrings" (false leads) and which one is the real killer.

The Wimsey mysteries are fairly solid entertainment, though not without their faults. One element that can be considered as either a positive or a negative is the fact that the films are very faithful to the original novels. Sayers fans may appreciate the dramatization of every little detail and line of dialogue, but the pacing and development of the mystery doesn't necessarily work the same way on the screen as on the page. Clouds of Witness and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club manage to do the job reasonably well, but both are a bit overly long, especially Clouds of Witness, which has five 45-minute episodes instead of the more usual four.

Pacing problems also crop up, most notably in Murder Must Advertise and The Nine Tailors, both of which have four episodes but would have worked better with only three. In Murder Must Advertise, after an engaging opening in which Lord Peter joins the advertising firm incognito, the second episode focuses on him joining the "party scene," with the plot stagnating until the third episode. The Nine Tailors opens with its weakest episode, which details Lord Peter's incidental involvement in a case of jewel theft. In the overall arc of the story, this material feels unnecessary, and it even drains some of the suspense from Lord Peter's investigations in later episodes, because we have already been shown the events that he is trying to piece together from the evidence at hand. As it happens, in the original novel, this entire "back story" of the jewel thief is narrated to Lord Peter in about a page's worth of dialogue, and the story begins with the events that are shown in the second episode of the program; it's ironic that the one time the filmmakers chose to depart from strictly following Sayers' original story structure, they make a hash of it.

All in all, the Wimsey films are faithful and generally successful adaptations of Dorothy Sayers' popular mysteries; despite some flaws, the films succeed in being intelligent and well-crafted puzzlers. My favorite of the bunch is probably The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, with its clever plot that develops nicely over the course of the film; after that, my next pick is Clouds of Witness, though this one will be more entertaining to viewers who are already familiar with Lord Peter and his family.

The DVD

Each of the five films occupies two DVDs, each in its own plastic keepcase; this means that the Complete Collection is a truly massive ten-DVD set. All ten DVDs are enclosed in a large, very sturdy cardboard communal slipcase: this isn't made of the same flimsy glossy paperboard that's used for the slipcases of the sets when they're sold separately, but is very solid and durable. All in all, it's a classy-looking set.

Video

All of the Wimsey films are presented in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. On the whole, they get good marks for image quality, though the quality is sharply divided between interior and exterior shots. All the indoor shots look great, especially considering that the episodes were filmed in the 1970s. Colors are strong and clear, with contrast and detail solid as well; the print quality is also excellent, with very little noise or flaws. However, any shot that includes natural lighting looks much worse: this includes both fully outdoor shots and some interiors that were most likely partly open (like some of the church shots in The Nine Tailors). Here, a substantial amount of grain and noise is evident in the picture, along with a number of print flaws; the image as a whole is also much more faded and blurry than the indoor shots. Fortunately, in most of the programs, there are very few outdoor shots, and in all of them, the majority of the footage is indoors.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack is satisfactory, presenting the dialogue and effects in a generally clear and natural manner. Some of the dialogue is a little bit muffled on some occasions, but this is minor, and I never noticed any harshness or distortion. It's a solid audio experience.

Extras

The Lord Peter Wimsey DVDs aren't standouts when it comes to special features. Across the five different sets, we get a miscellaneous assortment of trivia, interviews with Ian Carmichael, filmographies, and information on Dorothy Sayers. Nobody will be buying these DVDs for the bonus material, but it's worth a peek once you've gotten the sets.

Final thoughts

For any viewer who enjoyed the Wimsey films in their Masterpiece Theater broadcasts, The Complete Collection affords an ideal way to snatch up all five of the Ian Carmichael productions at one swoop. The films aren't perfect, but on the whole they're entertaining, and will be a nice addition to the collections of mystery fans. Viewers who haven't seen any of these films beforehand would be advised to try out one or two of them individually first, however.