Wimsey on DVD: An Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
A different Bunter from Clouds of Witness--Derek Newark, whom I rather liked. He and Peter have a wonderful scene as they prepare to begin questioning the denizens of the Bellona Club about the General's death; Newark manages to look quite offended when Ian Carmichael tells him he's too tidy to be a journalist, a comment that's borne out later on when we meet Salcombe Hardy.
Though Marjorie Phelps was left out of the Clouds of Witness adaptation, she's present here to great effect, played by Phyllida Law! Anna Cropper gave a nuanced performance as Ann Dorland.
I haven't much to say about this one. As usual with the Carmichael adaptations, it sticks fairly close to the actual novel. The main difference was that the tv version is more direct in pointing up the World War I experiences of George Fentiman and of Peter, and actually shows George wandering around in a "shell-shocked" fit. Also, a poppy in the lapel becomes an important plot point, a poppy which does not exist in the novel. I suspect this was to make things clearer to a modern television audience. [Edit: the poppy IS in the book. I just blanked on it.]
Though Marjorie Phelps was left out of the Clouds of Witness adaptation, she's present here to great effect, played by Phyllida Law! Anna Cropper gave a nuanced performance as Ann Dorland.
I haven't much to say about this one. As usual with the Carmichael adaptations, it sticks fairly close to the actual novel. The main difference was that the tv version is more direct in pointing up the World War I experiences of George Fentiman and of Peter, and actually shows George wandering around in a "shell-shocked" fit. Also, a poppy in the lapel becomes an important plot point, a poppy which does not exist in the novel. I suspect this was to make things clearer to a modern television audience. [Edit: the poppy IS in the book. I just blanked on it.]