"The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries" stars the very charming Diana Rigg (of "The Avengers" fame) in the role of Mrs. Bradley, and Neil Dudgeon as her ever-solicitous servant George Moody. A rich divorcée who travels in her own Rolls Royce, writes books about the psychological aspects of crime, and has her own chauffeur as her nemesis.

This second set in the series brings us "Death at the Opera", "The Rising of the Moon", "Laurels are poison" and "The worsted viper". In the first one, Mrs. Bradley goes back to her "finishing school" - "a place where girls go to be finished, literally, if they believe everything they're taught here" to paraphrase Mrs. Bradley's own words. The school's art teacher dies during the rather bore some performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado". A premature diagnosis by the school's Headmaster proposes it to be a heart attack, but the discovery of scratches on the back of the door tell Mrs. Bradley there's foul play involved. She appears to easily go along with the school Headmaster's desire of not calling in the Police until a second death happens. This is where Inspector Henry Christmas makes his entrance into Mrs. Bradley's life and into the series.

The second episode evolves within a community of nomad entertainers - also known as gypsies. A beautiful young woman, who is the target in the knife-throwing act, gets killed...oddly enough, stabbed to death. A call from Inspector Christmas, asking for her notorious psychological advice, interrupts Mrs. Bradley's night on the town. The next morning, she is driven by George to the quintessential English village, where "once the preserves have been preserved, what else is there to do but die of boredom".

In "Laurels are poison", Mrs. Bradley proposes to her chaffeur a visit to a haunted house; which he accepts, on the condition of not having to do the actual haunting. George takes an active part in this and the next episode, when painful memories of his deceased brother really start to "haunt" him. Later his own daughter is in danger for her life during "The worsted viper". This will appeal to mystery fans who are also interested in the occult - luckily the two go together like a horse and carriage. Someone seems to be practicing an old pagan cult that requires a soon to be married virgin to be sacrificed. I must say the ending took me totally by surprise.

Any woman who, upon realizing that she's being checked out by the opposite sex, cannot make up her mind as to whether he is "vaguely fascinating or fascinatingly vague" deserves hats-off. I have found the delightful Mrs. Bradley as my favorite amateur sleuth after Ms. Marple and the utterly humorous Hercule Poirot. The costumes are excellent. I loved Mrs. Bradley's clothes, especially the hats.

I found Mrs. Bradley to be a character with a rare combination of feminine etiquette and male independence. Her downside is her cynicism; however, she is assertive (and almost sensitive sometimes, to the "womanly arts"); yet there is always a man by her side, be it her chauffeur or Inspector Christmas, who seem to be very protective of her.

The DVD includes cast biographies and a virtual tour of the set as a special feature, with details on the settings for the different episodes. The drawings by Edward Gorey for the Mystery! credits are fantastic in their uniqueness, and his ideas have been applied to the decoration of the sets as well.

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Created Jun 22, 2006 at 10:38am • Submit your own review...