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DVD Information about
Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime - Tommy & Tuppence, Set 1
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Tommy and Tuppence Beresford show up rarely in Agatha Christie's books, but when they do, one thing's for certain: both they and the readers will have a good time. The same is true, for the most part, in this set introducing the adventure-seeking couple who take over a London detective agency. Oddly, Tommy and Tuppence made their television debut before Christie's better-known crime solvers, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. The video quality of the second two tapes (whose four episodes take place chronologically after the first tape, but were produced earlier) betrays a low budget, and the acting occasionally verges on farce--especially when it comes to Tuppence's obsession with hats. But then, the couple were always a lighthearted counterpoint to the more serious sleuthing of Poirot and Miss Marple. The lovely Francesca Annis (seen more recently in Wives and Daughters) is disarming as Tuppence, masking her shrewd eye with dippy charm; she may get the bellboy's name wrong every time, but she can spot the criminal faster than her straight-man husband. As Tommy, James Warwick expertly melds dinner-party suavity with bumbling boy-next-door charm. The pair are at their best in the two-hour feature "The Secret Adversary," which comprises the first tape. This tale of kidnapping and political intrigue reunites the childhood friends, thus beginning their life as Partners in Crime. --Larisa Lomacky Moore
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Customer Reviews for
Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime - Tommy & Tuppence, Set 1
Fun adaptation of Christie's lighter detectives
I read The Secret Adversary and the "Partners In Crime" anthology of short stories long ago, and they became some of my favorite Christie novels. Fun and lively, not meant to be serious literature. In the short stories, Tommy took on a "persona" of a popular detective for each story--Christie was having fun with the detective genre as a whole when she wrote these. I wish the tv adaptation had included more of that quirk (they do a little but quickly drop it). That said, it's a fun watch, well costumed, and I'm happy to add both volumes to my DVD library.Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime - Tommy & Tuppence, Set 1
A Lovely Couple of Detectives
I really enjoy these two. They seem to enjoy themselves. I do recommend the first CD first. Really enjoyable. I like all of Agatha Christie's stories.Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime - Tommy & Tuppence, Set 1
British TV productions from the 1980s with style, style, style
In 1916, Agatha Christie almost idly mentioned to her older sister that she would like to write a novel. The sister bet her that she couldn't do it. The result was Christie's first novel, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," which introduced Hercule Poirot into the world. After collecting a handful of rejection slips, the book was published in 1920 and achieved sufficient success (although Christie earned no more than a meager 25 pounds from its first edition) for her publisher to request a second book.
That book, featuring Tommy and Tuppence was published in 1922. The first book had been a classic mystery, one heavily influenced by the Sherlock Holmes series. Poirot, himself, might almost be regarded as the Anti-Holmes, while Captain Hastings was very much in the mold of Watson as Poirot's chronicler and, incidently, the complete fool that Watson never was. The second book, "The Secret Adversary," was a thriller of the E. Phillips Oppenheim variety, although with comic touches. Christie, being Christie, tossed in some elements of mystery, too.
Prior to the beginning of "The Secret Adversary," handsome and dashing young army officer Tommy Beresford had been wounded in action during the Great War. He had woken up in hospital to find himself under the care of an absolutely spiffing young woman named Prudence Cowley (who preferred to be called "Tuppence.") Shortly after War's end, so presumably in 1919, they meet again, both now in civilian life, unemployed and fast running out of money. Tommy and Tuppence are true creatures of the 1920s, "bright young things" who might have gone partying after an opening night with Noel and Gertie or enjoyed a weekend at Blandings Castle while carrying out a mission for the Drones Club or joined with Virginia and the rest of the Bloomsbury set in some pointless prank. In "The Secret Adversary," almost before you can say Bob's your uncle, they're on the British government payroll (sort of) and in hot pursuit of a master criminal.
Now consider Archibald and Agatha Christie. Agatha had married a handsome and dashing young army captain who had transferred to the Air Force during the war and had come out as a colonel. During the war, while Archie was away, Agatha had worked in a hospital. Archie and Agatha were bright young things at the beginning of the 1920s, but not at all well-supplied for money. Agatha wrote a letter to a friend at about this time in which she moaned about being so short of funds that she and Archie could afford only two servants(!)
I think that Tuppence is a consciously intended self-caricature. She is the kind of bright and outgoing young woman that the bright but perpetually shy Agatha might have wished herself to be. Tommy is Archie, but less successful in his military career (because of his wounds, of course) in order to justify his taking up life as an adventurer instead of following Archie's course and disappearing into the stuffy world of Business in the City.
A few years later, Archie proved to be a bounder as far as Agatha was concerned and their marriage collapsed--quite spectacularly, as a matter of fact, but that's another story. Tommy, however, persisted in Agatha's mind and writings, forever the man that Archie Christie should have been.
Christie never abandoned the Beresfords. During World War II, the middle-aged pair got involved with counter-intelligence operations and then with more domestic adventures in the post-War era. Christie's very last and posthumously published novel featured the Beresfords in a mystery.
These dramatizations feature the astonishingly beautiful Francesca Annis as Tuppence and the lightweight but dashing James Warwick as Tommy. True to their printed sources, there is precious little substance in them but they have practically endless amounts of style (for which the costume department ought to get equal billing with the two stars.) A running gag throughout the series is that every time the Beresfords journey out of London, there is an enormous pile of leather suitcases lashed down at the back of their car.
"The Secret Adversary" was shot as a feature-length production, on film and often on location. As in the book, it is set in 1919 or 1920, as can be seen from the automobiles and even more clearly from Tuppence's many outfits. The film of the novel clearly served as a pilot for the series that dramatized the short stories.
The series, "Partners in Crime," commences almost immediately after the novel and should therefore be set in 1920. However, the TV episodes were shifted into the mid-1920s (thus matching their initial publication dates of the stories.) This change allowed them to take on a crisp Art Deco look and for Annis to wear some truly eye-popping proto-flapper styles. And hats! Tuppence's hats start at astonishing and then go wild. They make Myrna Loy's giddy lids in the Thin Man series look positively conservative by comparison.
The 1980s vintage of these episodes exerts a distinct effect on their appearance. They preserve the peculiar English television production habit of shooing exteriors on 16mm film, but interiors on videotape. With the sharp images available from DVDs, the transitions from film to tape and back to film are almost painfully obvious and simply must be accepted as a given. Also, the fashion of the time was to build interior sets, which seemed adequately convincing at the time but now seem wonderfully stage-bound.
Equally stage-bound are the scripts and performances. For those accustomed to the more recent British series featuring Morse or Frost or even Miss Marple, "Partners in Crime" will seem highly artificial. To those accustomed to live performance in a theater, "Partners in Crime" will seem bursting with energy and intensity seldom to be found on the screen.
This is a superb set which has the misfortune to be marred by some sound problems. On viewing a set a couple of years ago, I had complaints about the sound that match those outlined in previous reviews. On the other hand, another set that I watched recently on different equipment seemed satisfactory enough.
I give "Partners in Crime" five well-deserved stars--less one for the necessary buyer beware warning.Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime - Tommy & Tuppence, Set 1
"Jolly Good Show!"
Tommy and Tuppence are certainly my favorite Agatha Christie crime stoppers, and Francesca Annis and James Warwick give wonderful portrayals of the fun and brilliant pair.Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime - Tommy & Tuppence, Set 1
Amatuer to Professional
I watched this series on PBS originally and had fun watching in again. This set includes the pilot for the series and I had not seen it before. It gave a nice introduction to the two title charactors. The series starts out with the two taking over a defunct detective agency to help the British government catch a war criminal. They find after this case is cleared up that they enjoy the detecting business and the series goes on from there. Tommy and Tuppence handle each new challenge with verve and penache.Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime - Tommy & Tuppence, Set 1
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