Part Two
Harry Lloyd stars as Dorothy L. Sayers’ aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. With Clare Corbett as Harriet Vane, and Celia Imrie as the ever-resourceful Miss Climpson.
Lord Peter Wimsey is the archetypal British gentleman detective of the Golden Age of Crime Fiction. Created by Dorothy L. Sayers, he first appeared in the 1923 novel, Whose Body? In Strong Poison – the fifth book in the series - he meets the love of his life, Harriet Vane.
Beneath his carefully cultivated exterior of a frivolous, monocle-wearing dandy, lies a devastatingly sharp intellect, a photographic memory, and a profound moral conscience. He is ably assisted in his exploits by Bunter – his fiercely loyal wartime sergeant turned valet - and by Chief Inspector Charles Parker, his pragmatic friend from Scotland Yard.
London, 1930. Free-spirited crime novelist Harriet Vane (an idealized self-portrait of the author herself) outrages conventional society by living with a man to whom she is not married – fellow writer, Philip Boyes. When he is poisoned with arsenic, however, society takes its revenge and she is arrested for murder.
Among those attending her trial is Lord Peter Wimsey, the amateur detective, who, impressed by her intelligence and strength of character, becomes convinced of her innocence. He also finds himself falling in love with her. When the trial collapses, a new one is ordered, and he determines to identify the real killer. But time is not on his side. There are now only eighteen days left to gather the vital evidence to save Harriet Vane from the gallows.
In this episode, Miss Climpson (Celia Imrie) and Miss Murchison (Fenella Woolgar) show incredible resourcefulness and ingenuity, as they attempt to unearth the evidence Lord Peter so desperately needs.
Written by Dorothy L. Sayers
Dramatised by Stephen Sheridan
Lord Peter Wimsey……Harry Lloyd
Harriet Vane…………...Clare Corbett
Miss Climpson………...Celia Imrie
Miss Murchison……….Fenella Woolgar
Bunter………………….Richard Attlee
Mr Urquhart……………Jonathan Keeble
Chief Inspector Parker…Nicholas Boulton
Bill Rumm……………...Ben Crowe
Nurse Booth…………… Karen Ascoe
Mr Pond………………...Nigel Anthony
Freddy Arbuthnot……….James Joyce
Attorney-General……….Zeb Soanes
Harmonium played by Carol Kelly
Producer / Director: David Blount
Sound Design: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Nina Semple & Dawn Williams
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
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- Sun 15 Nov 202615:00BBC Radio 4
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