P.D. James - Death of an Expert Witness

Starring:Roy Marsden, John Vine, Barry Foster, Geoffrey Palmer, Ray Brooks (II), Andrew Ray, Meg Davies, Malcolm Terris, Brenda Blethyn, Fiona Walker, John Bryans, Ivor Roberts, Valerie Testa, Stephen Thorne (II), Wendy Gifford, Annabelle Lanyon, Toby Scopes, Chloe Franks, Kate Lansbury, Jack Carr (III)
Director: Herbert Wise
Studio: KOCH VISION
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard, young for his senior rank and suffering the effects of his own personal tragedy, wades through a complex web of desperation, revenge, blackmail and secret love to solve a series of murders at a government forensic lab.

Description

Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard, young for his senior rank and suffering the effects of his own personal tragedy, wades through a complex web of desperation, revenge, blackmail and secret love to solve a series of murders at a government forensic lab.

Customer Reviews:

Great entertainment.......2006-11-04

Roy Marsden as Inspector Dalgliesh is absolutely wonderful. He is quiet and reserved and a force to be reckoned for any criminal he encounters. These are very cagey mysteries so one must pay attention - but that is not too difficult as they are much too interesting to look away from. I have all of this series and they are all marvelous entertainment. Some of them run a bit long, so be prepared to sit a while - it will be worth it.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE OF THE SERIES.......2006-05-03

because the script is compact and keeps you guessing to the very end. Because the perfomances are top notch: notably, Brenda Blethyn, who has gained such success in recent years, Barry Foster, Geoffrey Palmer, and last but not least, Roy Marsden as Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh. His is a taut and focused performance,and we even get a glimpse of Dalgliesh as a married man, albeit too briefly, as his wife and what appears to be his unborn child die suddenly. While not fully explained in this version, the reason for their deaths is well noted in other Dalgliesh novels and productions.

We have here a government scientific operation. And the setting takes place in the countryside. We have an initial murder, not related to the major case, which brings Dalgliesh briefly to the area. He must return when a major figure at the government house meets his demise. The intricacies of plot begin here, and the characters are more fully developed than in most mysteries, giving the viewer a rather in-depth look into their various relationships, all of which are interesting.

If one is a Dalgliesh fan, Death of an Expert Witness should satisfy. It certainly kept me on the edge of my seat, as well as Marsden's crisp and terse performance.

Death to a hack screenwriter.......2006-01-22

I wasted an hour on this video; fortunately I rented it from my local library. If I'd paid $5 at Walmart, I would have felt cheated. "Daytime Drama" is a kindness to the soaps; "Made for TV" is a kindness to this woodenly acted, cartoonishly written soap opera. Sledgehammers portray emotion more subtly than this rending of the P.D.JAMES novel of the same name. And to think, the Baroness James of Holland Park lived to see this excrescence. It is akin to the butchery to and perversion of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park done by a recent movie. In this "based upon" retelling of "Death of an Expert Witness", every character's sexual, marital and family problem is tossed in, like chopped lettuce, for filler on a two-hour DVD. By the time the deed was done, I was expecting six other characters to get offed, they were at least as deserving as Lorrimer, and wondering who Adam Dalgliesh was, he played such an undistinguished and irrelevant part. Rent this video, if you must, but don't buy it. Better still, pass up this bad soap opera for James's excellent book.

Mysteries like you've never seen!.......2006-01-21

Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is my all time favorite tv detective. The video looks dated, but the stories are great. These mysteries keep you guessing untill the last minute. You better hit the pause key if you leave the room for a minute or ypu'll miss a vital clue... they are very subtle (Unlike some modern mysteries that give you everything in the first few minutes of the show) Watch more than one epesode and you will be hooked.

James hatsis

James1@OconeeAirService.com

Average customer rating:

Ouch !
A good one but not typical
The one that made P.D. James famous
Good story--but a little long
THE ADAM DALGLEISH SERIES

P.D. James - Death of an Expert Witness
Starring: Roy Marsden , John Vine , Barry Foster , Geoffrey Palmer , and Ray Brooks (II)
Director: Herbert Wise
Manufacturer: Lance Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Mystery | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

P.D. James - The Black Tower
P.D. James - Cover Her Face
P.D. James - Shroud for a Nightingale
P.D. James - Original Sin
P.D. James - A Certain Justice

ASIN: B00007KK1W
Release Date: 2003-02-04

Amazon.com

This three-part, 1983 drama remains an honorable and largely captivating effort to adapt the unique structure of a P.D. James mystery novel to television. Despite bizarre production values--including intense lighting (presumably to accommodate the all-video shoot) and a near-absence of tone that often makes good actors look as if they're knocking about between rehearsals--the show holds up where it counts.

James's extensive, pre-murder set-up survives a script translation, and the terrific cast infuses urgency into the story of a forensic scientist (Geoffrey Palmer) bludgeoned to death by any one of many suspects: among them a hostile ex-lover (Meg Davies), her brother and the victim's boss (Barry Foster), and an angry cousin (Brenda Blethyn) living as "a friend" with the deceased's ex-wife. So many possibilities, and the rather dour but thorough Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh (Roy Marsden), burdened by the recent death of his wife, sifts through them all with deceptive impartiality and quiet self-disapprobation. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Ouch !.......2005-03-28

Low budget, bad camerawork, bad acting, rotton production all around. I'm sure the story is terrific but the show is just so awful that you have a hard time getting past all the flaws. Someone else said this one was the worst produced one adn the rest are better; well they'd have to be! Really, only get this is you've alreay seen other examples because this one is enough to put you off the series for life.

A good one but not typical.......2005-03-03

If this is the 1st ITV PD James adaptation that you see, keep in mind that it is a bit slower, a bit more 1980s-ish, a bit more choppy and the acting (excepting Marsden) a bit more caricature-ish than many of the others. So don't decide the Dagliesh series isn't for you just based on seeing this one. "Death of an Expert Witness" IS a great story and this does a good job with the story, but it definitely feels low budget relative to others.

My favorites among the other adaptations include "Shroud for a Nightengale" and "A Taste for Death" both of which include a bit faster pacing and some excellent acting by supporting cast members.

The one that made P.D. James famous.......2005-01-12

Death of an Expert Witness was, I believe, the first Adam Dalgliesh book adapted for television. The novel, which appeared in 1976, made James famous in Great Britain and well known in the U.S. There are good reasons why this one, of them all, should have had such success: the brooding atmosphere of the Lab and the Fen country; the plot, complex but not ridiculously so; the essential care and fairness towards each character. Later mysteries often feature extended social statements and preaching by James, with Dalgliesh acting like the Angel of Judgment. This shows an earlier, more empathetic side of both author and detective. For those of you familiar with more recent P.D. James mysteries, this one bears some resemblance to "Devices and Desires", which I think of as a companion story. Please note that the editorial review contains a spoiler, so don't go back and reread it!

Now to the DVD-- At 295 minutes it is leisurely enough to do justice to the book. It features a rather long set up- it is nearly an hour and a quarter before murder strikes- but it rewards the wait. Filmed in 1983, it is sufficiently old that I have never seen it on American television. The video techniques are a bit more primitive than today's, but I was pleasantly surprised, after reading the editorial review above, at how good everything looked. The strong lighting and pale features of the cast tend to make all the characters look blotchy and not quite well-- but that's how people can look in real life as well. The performances are good. The success of this video led to all the subsequent Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, and one can see why.
The combination of length and age mean that you are unlikely to find "Death of an Expert Witness" on television, or at the library, or at your local vidoe rental. This makes it a perfect dvd for you to buy, own, and view at your leisure. It can, of course, be purchased as part of an omnibus set including many, but not all, of the other P.D. James mysteries. One caveat: the back of the dvd case simply fell apart the day after I received it and is now held together with rubber bands. Be very gentle!

Good story--but a little long.......2004-02-03

First off-I'm a great fan of British detective stories. While this is not the "best"--it is a good story and despite it's length-nearly 5 hours--it remains interesting. Roy Marsden portrays Scotland Yard's Adam Dalgliesh-a rather droll investigator-not quite as likeable as John Nettles portrayal of Inspector Barnaby in Midsomer Murders but more pleasant than John Thaw's "Inspector Morse"-and this story involves his investigation into the murder of a Laboratory supervisor--that nearly everyone has reason to dislike and possibly wish dead. His unpopularity alone makes nearly everyone suspect--and at various times almost everyone seems like the likely killer.
I recommend this dvd strongly--although considering the cost-I would recommend "The Essential P. D. James" instead--this is a 12 disc set that contains all 7 of the Dalgliesh storys-and costs roughly the equivelant of two of the longer storys bought individually

THE ADAM DALGLEISH SERIES.......2002-11-11

I'VE SEEN THE WHOLE ADAM DALGLEISH SERIES WRITTEN BY P.D. JAMES -WHO INCIDENTALLY, LIVES IN NORFOLK, U.K., STARRING ROY MARSDEN AS INSPECTOR DALGLEISH...THEY WERE ALL FILMED IN NORFOLK VILLAGES, WHICH IN THEMSELVES ARE VERY PICTURESQUE....MANY OF THEM IN THE OLDE WORLD SETTING WITH THE VILLAGE-GREEN IN THE CENTRE OF THE VILLAGE. TO GET BACK TO MY REVIEW OF THE SERIES - THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY GRIPPING, AND U DON'T KNOW WHO THE KILLER, MURDERER, WHATEVER U WANT TO CALL THE PERSON WHO COMMITS THE CRIME UNTIL RIGHT AT THE END. I HONESTLY BELIEVE THAT EVERYONE WHO WATCHES THE SERIES WILL ENJOY IT & BECOME QUITE ADDICTED TO
IT, AND ALSO WANT TO READ THE BOOKS. IM NOT QUITE CERTAIN BUT I THINK THERE WERE 6 OR 7 TITLES...ENJOY!

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