Partners in Crime – Vol.2 [VHS] [1983]
First broadcast in the early 1980s, Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime stars James Warwick and Francesca Annis as the husband-and-wife team of detectives Tommy and “Tuppence” Beresford. Together they zoom around 1920’s England in a very posh car and solve all kinds of high-society crimes, from forgery at an exclusive nightclub to the mysterious disappearance of an Arctic explorer’s fiancée. The show benefits from two charming lead performances and some wonderful period details–Annis seems to
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Sparkling as champagne!,
What a glorious romp this series is! We’ve watched it a few times already and it never palls. Based on Agatha Christie’s series of short stories of the same name, in which the irrepressible Tommy and Tuppence Beresford set up a detective agency and investigate all kinds of crimes and misdemeanours, this is totally in the Christean spirit–intriguing, ingenious, witty, clever and sparkling as champagne. All the actors are brilliant, especially the fabulous Francesca Annis as Tuppence and handsome James Warwick as Tommy(a bit handsomer than in the book, methinks, but that’s no hardship!) The production values as always in British period drama and crime are absolutely brilliant, with the 20’s wonderfully recreated in faithful detail. Watch out for all of Tuppence’s terrific hats!
Highly, highly recommended.
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|An enjoyable romp through the swinging 1920s’ London.,
“The Secret Adversary” and the short story collection “Partners in Crime” (both from 1922) were Agatha Christie’s second and third-ever book, but their quirky protagonists, Tommy and “Tuppence” (Prudence) Beresford, were not to share the eventful career of their colleague Hercule Poirot, who had debuted two years earlier with “The Mysterious Affair at Styles;” nor that of Christie’s almost equally well-loved (and personal favorite) village sleuth Miss Marple, whose first adventure (“Murder at the Vicarage”) would not be published until 1930. Christie only authored three more Beresford mysteries: 1941’s “N or M?” (a WWII spy thriller set in a coastal guesthouse), 1968’s “By the Pricking of My Thumbs” (where a visit to a nursing home prompts them to track down the real-life object of a painting, only to find themselves hunting for a child murderer) and “Postern of Fate” (1973), the last book written by Christie (although not the last one published); more a postscript to the superior earlier stories.
Not as eccentric as Poirot and Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence are nevertheless immediately likeable, and perfectly cast in this 1980 – 1982 TV series with Francesca Annis and James Warwick, reprising their successful collaboration from the 1980 realization of Christie’s “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” Taking its title from the second entry in the Beresford cycle, originally only the short stories contained in “Partners in Crime” were developed for television; “The Secret Adversary,” although set earlier in the literary originals’ sequence and providing critical background information on the couple’s friendship, was only adapted as a feature film two years later. (Fortunately, the original order is restored in this video and DVD release.)
Although “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” had already proved Christie to be a writer of exceptional talent, her first Tommy and Tuppence adventures – penned for financial reasons as much as out of a desire to write – still show her style as a work in progress, sometimes lacking certainty as to what exactly works in terms of characterization and storylines. While she succeeds, like in the first Poirot mystery, to immediately draw in her audience, and the Beresfords are presented in as much detail as the little Belgian with the many gray cells, the plotlines – particularly that of “The Secret Adversary” – sometimes stretch credibility and have a whiff of the kind of story that Arthur Conan Doyle could get away with 20 years earlier, but which Christie herself (wisely) only took up infrequently later (and generally with more solidly constructed plotlines and often with Poirot as the main character). Thus, if the televised versions of these early Tommy and Tuppence stories appear somewhat less convincing than the subsequent, more acclaimed adaptations of Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries, this is at least partly owing to the literary originals themselves: The creators of the TV series reproduced the mysteries’ “swinging Twenties” setting successfully and with a fine eye for detail; and Francesca Annis and James Warwick give terriffic performances as the vivacious, hat-loving Tuppence and her (almost) equally witty, slightly more settled husband.
Tommy and Tuppence’s boisterous young assistant Alfred is portrayed by Reece Dinsdale (best known, since, as Guildenstern in Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” and D.I. Scott in the mid-1990s British cop show “Thief Takers”); and there are recurrent appearances by British TV regular Arthur Cox as Detective Inspector Marriott, in the televised version chiefly responsible for establishing the couple as owners of Blunt’s International Detective Agency (in the books, the agency is a cover for the Beresfords’ spy activities), who informally continues to consult them whenever he feels that Scotland Yard’s official capacities have reached their limits.
“The Secret Adversary” sees Tommy and Tuppence after the end of WWI, both out of work (Tommy has been an intelligence officer, Tuppence a nurse) and looking for adventure. That opportunity presents itself when, as a result of two newspaper ads, they are sent on the hunt for a lost treaty which, if published now, would cause a general strike and throw the country into turmoil, thus playing into the hands of a mysterious criminal known only as “Mr. Brown,” and set on nothing less than the attainment of absolute power. The key to the treaty is believed to lie with a young American woman named Jane Finn, who has likewise disappeared and whose cousin Julius P. Hersheimer (or is he really?), Tommy and Tuppence learn, is “the third richest man in America.” – Further notable appearances here include those of Alec McCowen (influential barrister Sir James Peele Edgerton), Gavan O’Herlihy (Hersheimer), Peter Barkworth (intelligence chief Carter) and Honor Blackman, as well as George Baker of “Inspector Wexford” fame, as members of “Mr. Brown”‘s gang.
The shorter “Partners in Crime” mysteries have…
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|A rarely seen Agatha Christie classic Series,
Adapted from the Tommy And Tuppence stories of the 20’s, and 30’s, Partners In Crime, first screened in 1983 by London Weekend Television with production filming taking place between June 1982, and March 1983 saw Francesca Annis, and James Warwick play Christie’s detectives to wonderful effect. The series starts off with a flyer with, “The Secret Adversary”, the last one to be filmed has a lot going for it, particulary Gavan O’Herilly, and one of the final appearances of Welsh actor Donald Houston, who sadly died in 1985. O’Herilly’s, Julius Herscheimer is an episode highlight as he uses every action sequence to his advantage, and there are excellent performances from Honor Blackman, Peter Barkworth, George Baker, and Alec McCowen, as well as first-class directing by Tony Wharmby. Other great episodes are : “Affair of The Pink Pearl”, “Unbreakable Alibi”, “Clergymans’s daughter”, “The Crackler”, and, “House Of Lurking Death”.
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