(Untitled)

[queensjoy]

So I have this ongoing discussion with my dad about the fact that the BBC needs to finally get in gear and make a complete Lord Peter Wimsey series with the same actor from beginning to end. Meaning, 1923 with Whose Body all the way up to the newest books by Jill Paton Walsh which actually take place post-WWII.

Please don't get me wrong, I love Ian

Comments

[darth_tigger]

Ooh, good call!

Well, given that you've said it'll be ten years before this comes to the screen, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) for Harriet. In ten or fifteen years time I think she could handle the role.

For the Dowager Duchess, Miriam Margolyes. I think she could do the seamless flow of seemingly-inconsequential chatter perfectly. (She'll be getting on a bit by then, but I'll just get Amy Pond to fetch her in the Tardis ;-)

I shall keep thinking about the others, and get back to you!

[darth_tigger]

St George - Leonard di Caprio when he was younger. If he could do the accent. Or Tom Felton, if he doesn't get the Lord Peter gig.

[queensjoy]

The discussion my dad and I were having last night was about Harriet. I suggested Emma Watson. But he reminded me that Harriet isn't "pretty". She's striking and it's her voice that people notice about her. Harriet Walter was SO perfect, I think it's going to be hard to find someone who can really pull it off. What about Julie Walters as the Dowager?

The other thing is the age difference - Peter is ten years older than Harriet in the books.

[kyttenfae]

Only person I've come across who could do Harriet justice of the younger gen would be http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0830556/ Rachel Sterling. She's got the perfect deep voice and can do the Harriet Walter eyebrow thing to perfection. I've yet to see anyone who could do Peter to my satisfaction lol, but I'm picky.

[queensjoy]

Hmm. Diana Rigg's daughter, you're right, she's got the look. Rigg would have made a pretty amazing Harriet as well. It's the age thing again... She's 31 right now.

[soniag]

I've always wanted to see JJ Feild play Peter. He's the right age now, which means he'll be too old by the time some TV producer gets a clue and decides to adapt the books again.

[miss_eponine]

Ooh. He could be a good Peter.

[amelia_eve]

Oooh, good call on Tom Felton. I liked him in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. When he's not sneering, he can appear quite sensitive. And he certainly has the upper-class twit ability.

I'd suggest Hailee Steinfeld for Harriet. She was quite gutsy in True Grit, and is in the correct age range.

Considering that the Potter franchise seems the most obvious source for young British actors, what about Matthew Lewis for Bunter? And Emma Thompson for the Dowager Dutchess?

[nineveh_uk]

Peter - Paul Bettany with his legs cut off mid-calf. He's a bit too good-looking (give him a false nose!), but he's a talented actor who has excellent chemistry with male co-stars, important for Peter.

Bunter - Colin Firth (if he weren't too old, which he is). Tall, dark, and with the Darcy legacy, he'd break the concept of Bunter as Jeevsian in the bone as opposed to putting it on.

Harriet - I don't know. Someone who like Harriet Walter who is distinctive-looking, but not at all "cute", and who though a lot younger than Peter is obviously a grown-up. Harriet must not be prettified (I know Sayers does it, but people _do_ look better when happy and well-fed and wearing expensive clothes and jewellry and not on trial for murder under cheap light bulbs). Helen McCrory, like Firth, is too old for the part, but I'd go for someone along her lines.

[nineveh_uk]

Also, yes, there really ought to be a no-holds-barred* set of adaptations of all the books (but not the Paton-Walsh ones!), but please, please let them be done by people who understand what they are doing and not getting things wrong all the time...

*It strikes me as very unfair that the Campion and Alleyn adaptations done in the wake of the 80s Sayers got far more spent on them, once the Wimsey adaptations had proved there was an appetite for such things.

[queensjoy]

What we need is another Jeremy Brett - who walked around set with a copy of whatever book they were working on and yelled at the producers when they got too out of line. :)

[antisoppist]

We do have Walter and Petherbridge to thank for the fact that Gaudy Night wasn't far far worse. I'd heard Petherbridge say that they put their feet down and refused to have the proposal in the punt scene, rewriting the end themselves in a props cupboard, but I hadn't realised they were responsible for getting the codebreaking into Have His Carcase as well.