The Mrs Bradley Mysteries

"The Mrs Bradley Mysteries" was a British television drama series, produced in-house by the BBC for broadcast on the BBC One channel. It ran in 1998 and 1999, consisting of five episodes in total; a one-off special in the first year followed by a series of four episodes in the second.

Some co-production funding was contributed by the United States PBS broadcaster WGBH. In the US, the series was shown in PBS's "Mystery!" anthology strand, the host of which was Diana Rigg, who was also the star of "The Mrs Bradley Mysteries". Wearing 1920s clothes, she introduced each episode to the audience:

"Adela Bradley doesn't mince words. And why should she. They are her greatest weapon against fools, cads, criminals...and ex-lovers. Words also came easily to Adela's creator, Gladys Mitchell, who published nearly eighty novels in her long lifetime. Gladys introduced Mrs. Bradley in 1929 in the book "Speedy Death". She endowed her breezy heroine with attributes she herself possessed including an interest in Freud and a passion for all things British: Morris dancing, mayday rituals, and the Loch Ness Monster. Over the course of some sixty mysteries, Adela Bradley married and divorced three husbands, was made a Dame of the British Empire, and a consultant to the British Home Office. She also developed prodigious abilities at pub darts, snooker, billiards, and knife throwing. One thing she cannot do is knit."

Joining Mrs. B. is her handsome confidant and chauffeur, George Moody, played by Neil Dudgeon. Wherever their Rolls Royce carries them, they encounter murders that people are just too embarrassed to report to the police.

Dramatism

"The Mrs Bradley Mysteries" is, in many ways, an archetypal English television whodunit, with Adela Bradley, criminologist and amateur sleuth, solving crimes with the assistance of her chauffeur, George. The distinguishing dramatic device in the series is the regular asides from Mrs Bradley to the camera, which often highlight the comedic elements of the story.

Main cast

*Diana Rigg - Adela Bradley
*Neil Dudgeon - George Moody

Guest cast

1998 TV movie, 90 minutes

*John Alderton - Alastair Bing
*Lynda Baron - Mrs. MacNamara
*Emma Fielding - Eleanor Bing aka 'Mouse'
*Simeon Andrews - Family Doctor
*Tom Butcher - Bertie Philipson
*Tyler Butterworth - Ferdinand Bradley
*John Conroy - Henry Baxter
*Emma Davies - Hermoine Bradley
*Sue Devaney - Mabel Jones
*Tristan Gemmill - Garde Bing
*Andrew Hallett - Constable

1999 series, 4 x 60 minutes

;Episode 1. Death at the Opera
*Peter Davison - Inspector Christmas
*Roy Barraclough - Dr. Simms
*David Tennant - Max Valentine
*James Hurn - Alfie
*Amy Marston - Agnes Delamere
*Annabel Apison - Mona Bunting
*Elaine Claxton - Miss Ferris
*Susan Wooldridge - Mrs. Simms
*Monique DeVilliers - Clementine
*Carli Norris - Plum Fisher
*Ken Oxtoby - Mr. Jenner

;Episode 2. The Rising of the Moon
*Peter Davison - Inspector Christmas
*Meera Syal - Madame Marlene
*Ken Colley - Archie
*Francis Magee - Castries
*Sheila Steafel - Celestine
*Peter Gallagher (British) - Little Bernard
*Nikki McInnes - Lilly
*Big Mick - Tom
*Felicity Montagu - Ruby Larkin
*Richard Baglow - Peter
*James Baglow - Francis
*Nick Woodeson - John Forrester
*Janine Duvitski - Mrs. Cockerton

;Episode 3. Laurels Are Poison
*Phyllida Law - Isabel
*Joanna Roth - Lacey
*Ronan Vibert - Douglas
*Michele Dotrice - Amy Parkin
*Valerie Gogan - Jessie
*Michael Fox (British) - Ronnie
*Kenneth MacDonald - Alf
*Stuart Bunce - Seth

;Episode 4. The Worsted Viper
*Peter Davison - Inspector Christmas
*Pooky Quesnel - Delilah Hicks
*Isla Blair - Myrtle Quincey
*Rebecca Callard - Cecily Moody
*Jason O'Mara - Jake Hicks
*Matthew Burgess - Constable Sharp
*Charlotte Francis - Temperance Baines
*John Bowe - Reverend Baines
*Alex Palmer - Lester Hicks
*Katie Lown - Polly
*Eddie Marsan - Ronald Quincey

Episode summaries

1998 (TV movie, 90-minutes)

;Speedy Death:Mrs. Bradley, with her trusty chauffeur George, arrives at Chayning Court for the engagement party of her god-daughter, Eleanor Bing. Later that evening, Eleanor's fiance is found dead in the bath. The police are called in and conclude that his death was nothing more than a tragic accident. Mrs. Bradley is not so easily satisfied—why was there water on both sides of the bath, why was the window open, and why was the door unlocked? While the rest of the household attends the funeral, Mrs. Bradley launches her own investigation, using her prodigious charm and wit to help the local police catch a killer.

1999 (4 episodes, approximately 60 minutes)

;Episode 1. Death at the Opera:...is set at Mrs. B.'s alma mater, Hadleigh Heights Academy for Young Ladies, where she has been invited to give an annual lecture. During the preliminaries -- a student production of The Mikado -- one of the teachers fails to make her stage entrance. She's dead, of course, though whether from murder or stage fright is a mystery. The principal's husband, Dr. Simms, diagnoses a heart attack and sees no reason to call authorities. But Mrs. B. notices signs of a struggle, and she soon turns up no lack of suspects and motives. The victim's lover was apparently art teacher Max Valentine, who is observed at a local nightspot dancing the tango with Mrs. Simms. Then there is deputy principal Mona Bunting who seems to have been having affairs with the victim and Max. Unfortunately, she ends up asphyxiated in the school's kitchen oven. Things look very bad for Max when it is learned he is using an assumed name. Then there is Plum Fisher, the scholarship girl who found the first body. In British murder mysteries, it's always the scholarship girl....

;Episode 2. The Rising of the Moon:...takes Mrs. B. and George to the circus, where the girlfriend-assistant of knife thrower Castries is found dead in a Jack-the-Ripper-style slaying. Castries has a fierce temper and plenty of weapons. But Archie the clown also has a motive, since he lost top billing to Castries when Madame Marlene became circus manager. Archie seals the case against himself when he is caught red-handed standing over Madame Marlene's corpse with a bloody knife. He manages to escape by hijacking George and the Rolls. "Tell me," says George driving off with the fugitive clown, "where do you go when you run away from the circus?" But things are not what they seem, for at this moment, miles away, Mrs. B. is about to become victim number four just as she is discovering victim number three.

;Episode 3. Laurels Are Poison:...involves Mrs. B. and George in a case of pharmacological forensics, supernatural science, and the sociology of underwear. That is to say, the victim has been killed with poison, apparently by a ghost, and the key clue is a missing corset on the corpse. Of the last, Mrs. B. observes: "The tyranny of the foundation garment is one of the major obstacles to the full emancipation of women." The setting is the haunted country manor of Mrs. B.'s old friend Lady Isabel Marchmont. Also in residence are Isabel's pregnant daughter Lacey, grandchild Algernon, and creepy son-in-law Douglas. Strange as it may seem, Seth the gardener has a threatening hold over Lacey and Douglas. Meanwhile, something odd is going on in the pantry between Mrs. Parkin the cook and Alf the chauffeur, leaving the cook's daughter Jessie as the only denizen of the estate untouched by intrigue. Mrs. Parkin is the first corpse to turn up. Seth is the second. A heart-rending subplot involves the World War I experiences of all the men in the story, including George whose family learned of his brother's death from a letter written coincidentally by Douglas. Needless to say, the specter that haunts the manor is called The Ghost of the Soldier.

;Episode 4. The Worsted Viper:...ends the season with a double celebration: Mrs. B.'s esteemed colleague Inspector Christmas is being honored for services to a seaside town; at the same locale, George's daughter Cecily is marrying hotel clerk Ronald Quincey. The festivities are marred when the daughter of Reverend Baines turns up dead on the beach, a worsted viper tied around her neck and her hair roughly shorn. It reminds Mrs. B. of the case of Black Jack Briggs, involving similar murders centered on a religious cult. Another victim with a worsted viper appears, suggesting that this town has more to worry about than smugglers, adulterers, and chicken thieves. Add to that devil worshipers. Piecing together clues from the victims, the parish register, and letters to a local advice columnist called Miss Behavior, Mrs. B. concludes that the risk factors for sudden death are weddings and virginity, which point ominously to Cecily as the next target. In the course of the surprising solution, we learn how Inspector Christmas got his name.

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/programs/mrsbradley2/index.html USA PBS "Mrs. Bradley Mysteries" website]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168079/ "Speedy Death" on IMDb]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167667/ "Mrs. Bradley Mysteries" on IMDb]
* [http://www.jasonomara.net/mrsbradl.html "The Worsted Viper" w/Jason O'Mara - script/caps ]