Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Matthew Rhys, Anna Maxwell Martin, Matthew Goode, Jenna Coleman, Trevor Eve, James Fleet, Rebecca Front, Eleanor Tomlinson, Philip Martin Brown, Nicola Burley, Kevin Eldon, Tom Ward, Oliver Maltman, James Norton, Penelope Keith, Louisa-Mai Parker, Lewis Rainer, Tom Raven, Tom Canton, Teresa Churcher, Jennifer Hennessy, Oliver Rix, Joanna Scanlon, Kelly-Marie Autumberg, Pamela Ashton, David Blockley, Lee Bolton, Grant Crooks, Michael Dawson, Mark Tristan Eccles, Katya Greer, Kevin Knox, Steve Mack, Mark Mathieson, Stuart Matthews, Liam Merrigan, Bianca Rudman, Pete Szoradi, Ernest Vernon, Patricia Winker, Kelly Wood.
You don’t have to have been a fan of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to enjoy P.D. James’ murderous sequel Death Comes to Pemberley but it might help.
In amongst the nostalgia of both a by-gone age on which they tried to resurrect a second wave of chivalry where a man’s word was his bond and honour and the setting of the seemingly idyllic country estates, P.D. James’ fertile criminal mind turned to matters of what happened to Mr and Mrs Darcy after the happy ever after. Only P.D. James could perhaps come up with making their lives even less proud and even more prejudiced as they come to terms with a murder on their doorstep.
The three part mystery may not have had the clinical dogged detective work of modern day criminal affairs but that is the point, the detail of the work, to bring together one of the 19th Century’s great couples into a world that seemed more in keeping with the idea of Heathcliffe from Wuthering Heights being investigated for all manner of wrong-doings, was pure genius and to give it the setting which turned so many hearts of television viewers over the years must have been one of great joy both for the writer and for the crew who produced the television adaptation.
There were some excellent performances in what was an entertaining three part programme including the brooding presence of both Matthew Goode as George Wickham and Matthew Rhys as the much coveted Fitzwilliam Darcy, two men who had been childhood friends but who over time had become unlikely brother-in-laws and seemingly intolerable of each other. Although playing against type of recent times, Jenna Coleman managed to convey the irritating flighty, almost drama queen like stature of Lydia Wickham with great appeal, in other hands a role that continues to grate, and yet somehow was one that captured the imagination well.
Included in the praise must be Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Darcy, the wonderful Eleanor Tomlinson, who continues to impress after her performances in The White Queen, and Trevor Eve as Sir Selwyn Hardcastle, an actor who surely somewhere can be given once more his own lead drama.
Death Comes to Pemberley might not have been the highlight of The Christmas/New Year television schedules but it was well worth the effort of sitting through the mystery created by the redoubtable P.D. James.
Ian D. Hall