Filming a television show is not the same thing as putting several cameras in front of a play, usually. Television shows, even though they're sometimes referred to as "teleplays" tend to have a different feel than a play. However, that's not always the case, as the recently released to DVD 1980s British series Time For Murder shows.
The two-disc box set includes all six hour-long episodes of the series, each by a different writer and each featuring a different cast. It is, in the truest sense of the term, an anthology television series. And, much like an anthology series, despite the different characters and plots that exist from one episode to the next, they definitely fit together as a single, cohesive, whole.
The six episodes, "Bright Smiler" (Fay Weldon), "The Murders at Lynch Cross" (Frances Galleymore), "Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay" (Antonia Fraser), "This Lightning Always Strikes Twice" (Michael Robson), "The Thirteenth Day of Christmas" (Gordon Honeycombe), and "Dust to Dust" (Charles Wood), all not only focus on the same theme, but were all quite clearly filmed on the same stage and in the same style. There are embellishments and slight variations here and there, but by and large the similarities are greater than the differences.
Thus, after watching "Bright Smiler," in which a mentally unstable masseuse contemplates murder, one is not surprised when "The Thirteenth Day of Christmas" features a mentally young man actually committing murder. In fact, insanity is a key factor in "This Lightning Always Strikes Twice" and "Dust to Dust" as well.
Do not be mistaken, each episode stands by itself, and having seen one in no way diminishes the audiences enjoyment at watching the next. However, being written and acted by different people, each episode's ability to entertain varies wildly as well. It is great fun to watch the hapless writer struggle with right and wrong in "Bright Smiler" and to watch the guests at the isolated hotel figure out whodunit in "The Murders at Lynch Cross." It is however less enjoyable watching the decent to insanity and murder in "The Thirteenth Day of Christmas" and watching people figure out who the murderer really is in "Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay." The answer to this last one is obvious from the minute the villain firsts sets foot on screen and the audience will question why none of the other characters can figure it out.
Though each episode does feature some similarities, they are all constructed in a different fashion. There are times when it truly is a whodunit, there are times when it is about whether a murder will occur, and there are other moments when the question is not whether nor who, but what will be done about the murder.
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