DVD Review: Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime: The Tommy & Tuppence Mysteries

This week sees Acorn Media's release of Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime: The Tommy & Tuppence Mysteries. Originally aired on television in 1983 the series was based on Agatha Christie's "other detectives" - 1920s-era Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. The DVD set includes all 11 mysteries from the series on three discs, with a approximate total running time of over 620 minutes.

The first mystery on the DVD is The Secret Adversary, a feature-length film which introduces sleuths and adventurers Tommy (James Warwick, Lillie, Bergerac) and Prudence 'Tuppence' Cowley (Francesca Annis, Lillie, Cranford). The always stylish and clever Tuppence and the ready-for-anything Tommy team up to solve a series of mysteries, all of which keep leading them inevitably to a formidable adversary - the mysterious Mr. Brown. As Tommy and Tuppence grow closer, Tuppence also considers a marriage proposal from their friend Julius (Gavan O'Herlihy). Also appearing are Honor Blackman, George Baker, and Reece Dinsdale as Albert.

The Secret Adversary introduced Tommy and Tuppence to 1980s television audiences and was quickly followed by the Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime series. In Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime, Tommy and Tuppence are now married, and together run the Blunt Detective Agency. The fun-loving duo solve a variety of cases, sometimes adopting the mannerisms of other well-known detectives, such as Sherlock Holmes. The episodes, which all run around 50 minutes in length, include:

"The Affair of the Pink Pearl" - A bored Tommy and Tuppence take on the first case for the Blunt Detective Agency when they try to find a stolen pearl. Graham Crowden and Charles Shaughnessy costar.

"The House of Lurking Death" - A poisoned box of chocolates is the pair's first clue in what may be a series of murders.

"The Sunningdale Mystery" - Tommy and Tuppence must solve the murder of a man on a golf course.

Article Author: xoxoxoe

My name is Elizabeth Periale. I am an artist, blogger, and culture critic. I write about movies, books, television, pop culture—old and new—with a feminine/feminist perspective.

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