Murder Most English (1977)

[Bobj]

Does anyone remember this series starring Anton Rodgers and a young Christopher Timothy. All I can remember is that it was a rather dark comedy and they played rural police officers investigating a rather bizarre murder or series of murders.

[aphra]

This was a brilliant series. It went out as the BBC2 Serial on seven successive Sunday evenings in May/June 1977. The stories came from the novels of Colin Watson and are immensely quirky and enjoyable. The supporting cast reads like a roster of great British character actors of the time - Moray Watson, John Comer, Brenda Bruce, John Carson, Peter Sallis, James Grout, Basil Dignam, John Normington, Barbara Hicks and so on. The series is long overdue for release on DVD; it was never repeated by the BBC as far as I am aware. The author, Colin Watson, died shortly afterwards and the plays' producer, Martin Lisemore, was killed in a car crash. His I, CLAUDIUS is being shown nightly at the moment on BBC4. I often think the series sank without trace because there was nobody around to fight for it...

[Modular]

Out on DVD (from Acorn) on the 9th of June 2008.



Click!

[PeterC]

name='Bobj']Does anyone remember this series starring Anton Rodgers and a young Christopher Timothy. All I can remember is that it was a rather dark comedy and they played rural police officers investigating a rather bizarre murder or series of murders.

Glad to see it is coming out on DVD by Acorn in June 08. The series was a good fit with Colin Watson's Flaxborough Chronicles it was derived from. Anton Rodgers (a sad loss in Dec 07) was an exellent DI Purbright or Mr Purbright as Chief Constable Chubb (Moray Watson) always called him. Christoher Timothy was probably slightly younger than the books DS Sid Love.



It will be great to see it again as it was one of the best TV detective comedy dramas. At the end of 'Hopjoy was Here Purbright' has a great line (which almost causes Pumphrey from 'The Funnies' to have 'a gastric seizure' " Time wounds all heals, as Marx sufficiently put it, oh no not Karl , Groucho" he said patting Pumphrey's arm kindly



The series had about 6 ? episodes Hopjoy was Here/Flaxborough Crab/Coffin Scarcely Used/Lonelyhart 4122 come to mind

[batman]

There's an episode listing here ....



BFI | Film & TV Database | MURDER MOST ENGLISH



I don't remember this at all!

[aphra]

name='batman']There's an episode listing here ....



BFI | Film & TV Database | MURDER MOST ENGLISH



I don't remember this at all!

Then you are in for a great treat. I have just e-mailed Acorn and the date seems to have been put back to 7 July. However, so long as it really materialises before the end of the year I will be happy.

[batman]

name='aphra']Then you are in for a great treat. I have just e-mailed Acorn and the date seems to have been put back to 7 July. However, so long as it really materialises before the end of the year I will be happy.

Cheers Aphra, I'll keep my eyes peeled for it.

[ican]

Does anyone know if this series was shot on film?



Many thanks

[winsfordtown]

name='Bobj']Does anyone remember this series starring Anton Rodgers and a young Christopher Timothy. All I can remember is that it was a rather dark comedy and they played rural police officers investigating a rather bizarre murder or series of murders.

The one I remember was from 1978 called 'Murder at the Wedding' broadcast on ITV starring James Hazeldene and I think Liza Goddard