Lord Peter Wimsey: BBC Radio Drama Collection, Vol. 1

by Dorothy L. Sayers, Ian Carmichael (Narrator), Peter Jones (Narrator)

Ian Carmichael stars as Lord Peter Wimsey in these definitive BBC radio dramatisations of Dorothy L Sayers' classic crime novels

Aristocratic amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey was the master creation of Dorothy L Sayers, widely acknowledged as one of the four original ‘Queens of Crime’. These full-cast adaptations – first broadcast on BBC radio in the 1970s, and presented here in their entirety – are admired by fans of the genre worldwide.

Whose Body? is the tale that first introduced Lord Peter to the world, and sees him investigating the case of a corpse in a Battersea bathtub and a vanished oil millionaire.

In Clouds of Witness, Lord Peter’s eldest brother stands accused of murder. In collaboration with Inspector Parker, Wimsey slowly uncovers a web of lies and deceit within his own family...

Unnatural Death finds Peter probing the mysterious death of an elderly lady. He suspects foul play, and with the help of the indomitable Miss Climpson, sets about his investigations in deepest Hampshire...

Produced by Simon Brett (author of the ‘Charles Paris’ series), these acclaimed dramas also feature Peter Jones, Patricia Routledge, Miriam Margolyes and Garard Green.

Duration: 10 hours 30 minutes approx.

Genres: Audiobook, Mystery, Crime, Classics

11 pages, Audible Audio

Published September 11, 2017

About the author

The detective stories of well-known British writer Dorothy Leigh Sayers mostly feature the amateur investigator Lord Peter Wimsey; she also translated the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri.

This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.

Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...

Reviews

[Alba Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

{5 stars}

This was a brilliant radio dramatisation from the BBC of 3 Dorothy L Sayers books, Whose Body? Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death. The leading actor, Ian Carmichael, did a great job bringing the voice and character of Lord Peter Wimsey to life, and the 3 books (each between 5-8 episodes long) were very entertaining. In fact, I looked forward to doing chores or gardening just so I could listen to it!

In volume one, we have three books. Whose Body? is Sayers' first novel, and it centres around the story of a man who wakes up one day to find a dead man he's never seen before in his bathtub! No one knows who this fellow is... and Lord Peter is on the case. He's interrupted in this task by the news that a well-to-do gentleman has gone missing.

The beauty of the dramatisation is that the voices and characters really come to life, and the music and noises used really make you feel like it was the 1920s. Instead of merely reading a letter or listening to someone tell Wimsey about something, we get the full cast first person perspective, which is more fun and engaging.

Clouds of Witness was the longest (8 episodes) and my least favourite. It was a bit more complicated, and as I was listening to a good bit of it while biking, I lost track of the story a bit in the middle. The story takes place at a large country house in which a Peter Wimsey's brother stumbles over a body in the night - who turns out to be Peter's sister's fiancé. Much drama ensues, secrets come out, they talk an awful lot about some jewelled cat, arrests are made, and Peter tries to clear his family's name. I found this one a bit less interesting, and as usual, the fact that crime relates to the family of the detective makes it less interesting to me (I prefer it when the crime and the detective are separate).

The last story, Unnatural Death, was my favourite. This seven episode story is about an old lady who died - of "natural" causes of course - leaving behind a large fortune to her great-niece, her only known family. Peter Wimsey is suspicious though, because he suspects something funny is going on in regards to the will - or lack there of. But - she died of natural causes.

So, he pokes at it a bit more, and starts knocking over more dominoes, finding more deaths that are natural but suspicious, trying in vain to convince the police that a crime has even been committed!

This story is more of a "howdunit" and less of a "whodunit" as Wimsey is pretty certain who has killed the old woman from the beginning (though there are still a few suspects in the mix) but no one can figure out the crime - if crime it be - was even committed. This story was well-plotted and fun, despite the fact that it had all the stereotypical elements of the Golden Age mysteries in it! (country house, old lady, missing wills, missing heirs, family secrets, dramatic deaths, the whole lot).

I've been reading more Golden Age mysteries/cosies recently (thanks to an online class on the subject I'm taking for fun - its inspired me to finally spend some time with Sayers, Christie, Mitchell, Greenwood, as well as Poe and Conan Doyle, and probably others too) and am finding this a great way to get out of my reading slump! In fact, I am declaring the slump officially over.

Sayers etc are great palate cleansers, great escapism, and just so cosy and fun that I definitely recommend them whether you're in a reading slump, looking for something fun and different, or want to puzzle over a quick mystery. And this dramatisation is really good if you want an audio version!

[Tuesdayschild · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relisten.
The BBC's dramatised adaptations of Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries are favourites and to listen to them back to back like this makes for delightful escapist listening.

[Tirzah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully British. The accents, the music, Wimsey’s witty comments, they’re all so good. The first book in this three book dramatization is ‘Whose Body’ is not my favorite. I find it quite boring, actually. However, the latter two books, ‘Clouds of Witness’ and ‘Unnatural Death’, are very good. And Ian Carmichael is the perfect person to play Lord Peter. Wonderful!

[langana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Šiaip nemėgstu sutrumpintų knygų, bet smagiai išklausiau. Puikiai padaryti radijo spektakliai. Dinamiški, gerai suvaidinti. Klausysiuos ir kitų dalių

[Justice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun ensemble cast, probably the most British thing I’ve ever read

[Helen Cairns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Annoying music, which gets stuck in your head for days , but still the best. It is impossible for me to separate Peter Wimsey and Ian Carmichael. A wonderfully comforting experience.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely delightful audiobook. Witty, clever dialogue & excellent narration.

[Smitchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable dramatised version of 3 Dorothy L. Sayers books. If you enjoy Agatha Christie these are definitely worth a look. My only issue is the sounds levels - the characters are sometimes soft so I have to trun the volume WAAAY up and then the title music starts and I get deafend - If someone in the audio department could sort the sound levels out I'd really appreciate it.

[Mattie]

Didn't relisten to 'Whose Body?' since I listened to it on the actual radio not so long ago, but this was my first time either reading or hearing 'Clouds of Witness' and 'Unnatural Death'.

I've listened to a few Wimseys on the radio now, and I pretty much always enjoy them. My favourite so far has got to be 'The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club', and my least favourite probably 'Five Red Herrings' (how the hell am I supposed to remember which Scottish artist is which?).

If I were helming a new adaptation of 'Wimsey' (and they should let me!), I think I'd probably start with 'Clouds of Witness' instead of 'Whose Body?'. Yes, 'WB?' has some good stuff about Peter's PTSD and a bit of sociohistorical interest in terms of Jewish representation, but 'Clouds of Witness' is a great introduction to Parker and to Peter's background and lifestyle. It also sort of makes sense, from a character point of view, to rewrite history so that this is Peter's first case and where he catches the detecting bug, since otherwise it's a bit of an improbable coincidence that the brother of a detective should just so happen to get accused of murder (though of course this is exactly the kind of improbable coincidence which crops up all the time in Golden Age detective fic). I would also tone down the anti-socialist stuff pretty considerably.

As far as casting goes, I've been watching 'The Great' recently and I think Nicholas Hoult would be absolutely brilliant as Wimsey. Not so sure about Parker, but unlike the casting here he shouldn't be a posho—an actual northerner with an actual accent would be nice. I have no idea about Bunter—he's played as a Londoner here, but I don't know if that's explicit in the books. I'm also not sure exactly how old he's supposed to be—older than Peter, I think, but by how much?

'Unnatural Death' is a lot of fun; Sayers premieres her own version of Miss Marple before Agatha Christie got around to it (though not by much—Marple originated in a short story which was published in December of the same year). There's a thinly-veiled lesbian villain, and there's a slightly patronising but progressive-for-the-era depiction of a Black man. If I were designing an academic course on crime fiction (and they should let me!), this is probably the one with the most meat on it.

Ian Carmichael is wonderful as ever as Wimsey, and these are always solid adaptations (though I agree with others that the sound mixing is off). Just wish my library had more of these!

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was delightful fun! I listened to these BBC adaptations of Dorothy Sayers' novels a while back, and they were wonderful. The actor they got to play Lord Peter Wimsey is a hoot, so good--Ian Carmichael, I think was his name. Now I did manage to get rather lost while listening sometimes, as the BBC versions are much shorter than the books, and I don't know, maybe I wasn't paying enough attention occasionally, but the sense of fun in these three adaptations was alive throughout all of them. Whose Body had a wild and wooly setup with a random dead body showing up in a fellow's bathtub, but I liked the progression of the mystery, with Wimsey finding lots of clues on the state of the body. The second story was fine, lots of intrigue around a killing and various romantic escapades--though Wimsey's sister is terrible! Finally, I had read Unnatural Death (or listened to it) before, but the full novel and not this adaptation. So I knew most of the story before going in, and I think this was the longest of the three adaptations. It still works pretty well, and the villain this time is particularly dangerous--I think this was the first one with multiple murders.

[cardulelia carduelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've finally found the cosy old-timey radio dramatization crime thriller to accompany cleaning and long walks before bed. Sayers's Lord Peter Whimsey is dashing, smart, and fantastically sarcastic.
While I didn't care too much for Whose Body, the latter two stories Clouds of Witness and Unnatural Death were excellent.
The former involves Peter's brother and sister and a terrific marsh in the moors. The latter is a spicy thriller where Peter is convinced there is a crime.

The dramatization is top notch. Ian Carmichael is a sensational lead and the rest of the cast don't let him down. Can highly recommend this and will be listening to the rest of the series.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

We originally picked this up as road-trip listening, along with Poirot's Finest Cases Eight Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations. We've continued listening to both at home, but I have to say I prefer Lord Peter; the Poirot cases themselves are generally more interesting, but the Wimsey characters are utterly delightful. The dramatization is excellent, with the minor complaint that I have to turn the volume down quickly whenever the music starts; it's much louder than the voices, sometimes painfully so. On to Volume 2!

[Patricia Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful audio drama collection of the first three Lord Peter Wimsey novels. I absolutely love audio dramas like this because it is exactly like listening to a tv show. However, it should be noted that like a tv show, you miss out on the great descriptions to be found in Sayers’s novels. Some things are also condensed to make it fit in a couple episodes, so it’s not a full unabridged reading. That being said, it’s such a fun way to listen to books! Especially ones I’ve read before to hear them in a new light on a re-read!

[Robert Nagel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked this radio play vis-a-vis an audio book. The 3 books were good but I liked the characters speaking the words as an opposed to a narrator just reading them . It gave the opportunity for each character to react to the sentence spoken by another character. I’ll look for more radio plays rather than audiobooks. You don’t get the same feeling when they do a tete-a-tete between characters as when a narrator just reads the script

[Lady Wesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This delightful collection of radio programs from 1975-1981 is just perfect for me. Ian Carmichael's voice IS Lord Peter for me, as my introduction to Lord Peter came via the television series in which Carmichael starred.

I've read all the books multiple times and think that these adaptations are excellent.

[Michele Abrams Lehn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh how fun! Throw back to the old days of listening to stories on the radio. Well acted. Light mysteries. Warm cozy feeling. Set in England in the 1920’s the stories take you back to another interesting era. A more modern day Sherlock Holmes. Looking forward to listening to the next episodes in this compelling BBC series. Highly recommend.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hesitated logging this here since these BBC radio dramas really aren't audiobooks at all. But for the sake of my poor memory, here we are.

I still haven't been able to get into Wimsey novels, but these radio productions hit the spot. Lovely to hear Patricia Rutledge as Wimsey's mother, and the voice acting is great across the board.

[Linette · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much fun in listening form.

I say! What, what, old chap.

[Noah Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solved only 1 mystery out of 3 😥.

[AFMasten · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a pleasure to be in LPW's company while doing dishes, walking, and riding the train.

[India (IndiaReadsALot) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whose Body? - 3 stars
Clouds of Witness - 4 stars
Unnatural Death - 5 stars

I gave a boost up with the star rating because I enjoyed it that much!

[Sandrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice dip into Britishness but rather dated already in comparison to Sherlock Holmes who just resists the age of times.

[A.A.B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abridged and simplified, but the performances are excellent and well worth it.

[Catherine Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothy L Sayers is just perfect and this is an excellent dramatisation of a set of short stories ... loves it!!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well done, enjoyable full cast, radio productions of Whose Body, Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death, with Ian Carmichael playing Lord Peter Wimsey