''Lord Peter Wimsey'' is a series of full cast

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

drama adaptations of

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

Lord Peter Wimsey Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey (later 17th Duke of Denver) is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers (and their continuation by Jill Paton Walsh). A dilettante who solves mysteries fo ...

detective novels broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

between 1973 and 1983, with a further adaptation of ''Gaudy Night'' mounted for BBC Audiobooks in 2005 to complete the full sequence of Sayers' novels, all starring

Ian Carmichael Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE (18 June 1920 – 5 February 2010) was an English actor who worked prolifically on stage, screen and radio in a career spanning 70 years. He found prominence in the films of the Boulting brothers, including ' ...

in the title role.

Cast and crew

The series stars

as aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. Carmichael played the role concurrently in five BBC Television adaptations beginning with ''Clouds of Witness'' in April 1972. Peter Jones played Wimsey's loyal

valet A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, valet de chambre was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "valet ...

and assistant

Mervyn Bunter Mervyn Bunter is a fictional character in Dorothy L. Sayers' novels and short stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Literary Background Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) wrote a number of novels and short stories concerning the adventures of ...

in all original adaptations, and also dramatised ''Clouds of Witness'' with Tania Lieven. Gabriel Woolf featured as Inspector Charles Parker, Lord Peter's friend and contact at Scotland Yard (later brother-in-law) in three adaptations. Mystery writer Harriet Vane was played by

Ann Bell Ann Forrest Bell (born 29 April 1938) is a British actress, best known for playing war internee Marion Jefferson in the BBC Second World War drama series '' Tenko'' (1981–84). She was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, the daughter of John Forrest ...

(''Strong Poison''),

Maria Aitken Maria Penelope Katharine Aitken (born 12 September 1945) is an English theatre director, teacher, actress, and writer. Early life and career Aitken was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Sir William Aitken, a Conservative MP, and Penelo ...

(''Have His Carcase'') and

Sarah Badel Sarah M. Badel (born 30 March 1943) is a retired British stage and film actress. She is the daughter of actors Alan Badel and Yvonne Owen. Life and career Badel was born in London to actor, Alan Badel and actress, Yvonne Owen. She was educ ...

(''Busman's Honeymoon'') in the original sequence and

Joanna David Joanna David (born Joanna Elizabeth Hacking; 17 January 1947) is an English actress, best known for her television work. Life David was born in Lancaster, England, to Davida Elizabeth (''née'' Nesbitt) and John Almond Hacking. In 1971, she ...

in ''Gaudy Night''. The first six productions were directed by

Simon Brett Simon Anthony Lee Brett OBE FRSL (born 28 October 1945 in Worcester Park, Surrey, England) is a British author of detective fiction, a playwright, and a producer-writer for television and radio. As an author, he is best known for his mystery s ...

, who became a crime writer himself following his involvement with the series, with the next four directed by Martin Fisher. ''Gaudy Night'', missing from the original sequence, was directed for BBC Audiobooks in 2005 by Enyd Williams and was later broadcast on

BBC Radio 7 BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...

in 2010.

List of adaptations

Reception

Caroline Crampton reviewing a 2016 repeat of ''Have His Carcase'' in the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' notes that "Ian Carmichael is Peter Wimsey...Somehow, the Hull-born Carmichael inhabits the character of Wimsey – the Eton and Oxford educated younger son of a Duke who turns to mystery-solving after traumatic experiences in the First World War – better than any of the others who tried over the course of the twentieth century...Just as Wimsey’s buffoonish, aristocratic utterances conceal a vulnerable, perceptive intellect, so does the old-fashioned style of this drama hide a darker, more difficult story." David Hepworth in ''The Guardian'' notes that Carmichael "was put on this earth to play two great heroes of popular fiction:

Bertie Wooster Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a fictional character in the comedic Jeeves stories created by British author P. G. Wodehouse. An amiable English gentleman and one of the "idle rich", Bertie appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligenc ...

and Lord Peter Wimsey." Director and producer

credits the series with inspiring him to become a crime novelist and his actor-sleuth character Charles Paris. He recalls:

References

External links

{{BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 programmes Lists of radio series episodes Detective radio shows

Cast and crew

List of adaptations

Reception

See also

References

External links