Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a fictional character in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers. He is the main character in those works, in which he solves mysteries — usually murder mysteries. The tales all take place in a setting contemporary to when they were written, from the 1920s to the 1940s. Lord Peter's London address is 110A Piccadilly. He is described as a man in early middle age, of average height with a vaguely foolish face (reputedly his looks were patterned after academic Roy Ridley).

Stage, movies,television and radio

The novel Busman's Honeymoon was originally a stage play by Sayers and her friend Muriel St. Clare Byrne.

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Some of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels were made into two very successful television series by the BBC. Lord Peter Wimsey is played by Ian Carmichael during the seventies series of five novels and by Edward Petherbridge in the later series of three, in which Harriet Vane is played by Harriet Walter. Both series are now available on videotape and DVD.

Related Topics:
Television - BBC - Ian Carmichael - Edward Petherbridge - Harriet Walter

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Ian Carmichael also starred as Wimsey in radio adaptations of the novels made by the BBC, some of which are available on cassette and CD.

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There was a 1935 British movie of The Silent Passenger in which Lord Peter solved a mystery on the boat train crossing the English Channel, but the film does not seem to be available on videotape, at least in the United States. Sayers disliked the film; James Brabazon describes it as an "oddity, in which Dorothy's contribution was altered out of all recognition."

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The 1940 movie The Haunted Honeymoon (American) or Busman's Honeymoon (British), starring Robert Montgomery and Constance Cummings as Lord and Lady Peter, is available on videotape in generic boxes on the secondary market; any resemblance of its characters and events to those in Busman's Honeymoon is more than coincidental but less than satisfactory to Sayers's fans. (In the film Murder Must Advertise, a movie poster of Robert Montgomery is prominently visible on the wall in the secretaries' office.) Sayers refused even to see this movie.

Related Topics:
1940 - Robert Montgomery - Constance Cummings

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