Customer Reviews
Great period detective series - By: YAOWO, 01 May 2008 
I agree with previous reviewers; I had not even heard of the series but thoroughly enjoyed it - light-hearted, usual BBC quality of period houses, cars, furniture, etc, & Diana Rigg on top form.
seriously good stuff... no really, seriously...good...stuff! - By: U.K., 03 Mar 2008 I can't begin to understand how I missed this show when in was on the BBC in the late 90's. It is sooooo good. I've always loved anything to do with Poirot, Mrs Marple & alll that stuff... but I feel Mrs Bradley might be in a class of her own, you can't help but loving her.
A snooping old lady, quite different from Christie's Marple, Mrs Bradley is a rich & confident woman, a feminist avant-la-lettre. Diana Rigg is excellently cast as the intellectual Adela Bradley. She carries the role very well. The costumes, the settings, the ambiance,... it's alll very much what one would come to expect of a BBC production.
I blame myself that there have never been more episodes of this gem. Apparantly the ratings wheren't quite alll that so it ended after just five shows. If I had just watched it, I could have made a difference. Maybe if we buy enough of the dvd's they'll change their mind & make a new series?
Shame there are only 5 - By: Pandora, 31 Dec 2007 
This is a tremendous series. The characters & settings are wondeful. If you like Marple & Poirot... a great addition
Beware Duplication - By: A. J. Bradbury, 11 Sep 2007 As the two previous reviewers have said, this is a great series for those who like period mysteries such as the Poirot & Lord Peter Wimsey productions. But beware - there are only 5 episodes in total:
1. Speedy Death
2. Death at the Opera
3. The Rising of the Moon
4. Laurels are poison
5. Worsted Viper
In the UK (i.e. Region 2), the BBC have released alll five episodes on this two-disk box set (with no extras).
In America the first, feature length, episode - Speedy Death - was released separately. There are therefore TWO US boxed sets - but still only the same 5 episodes:
Qne is callled "The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries," but it only includes episodes 2-4 inclusive plus a few extras.
The other is callled "The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries Series 1", which includes "The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries" plus "Speedy Death" on a separate disk (and the same extras).
"Scary biscuits!" says a character after a murder in a bath tub. Thank goodness we have Diana Rigg handy - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 26 Aug 2007 "The countryside? A place where the birds & animals wander about uncooked." That's Mrs. Adela Bradley speaking. The mystery is titled Speedy Death, the first of five in this set. The place is an English country manor home. The time is the 1920s. And the who include an old friend of Mrs. Bradley, the wealthy Alastair Bing; his daughter Eleanor, who is Mrs. Bradley's god-daughter, confined to a wheelchair since an auto accident two years earlier & who will come into a fortune when she marries; Eleanor's fiancee, Everard Mountjoy; his son, Garde; Garde's best friend (who was driving when Eleanor was crippled), Bertie Philipson; & Garde's house guest, Dorothy Manners. Of course, there are assorted servants as well as Mrs. Bradley's chauffeur, George Moody (Neil Dudgeon). George is big, capable man who dislikes boredom as much as Mrs. Bradley does.
Adela Bradley (Diana Rigg) is a wealthy woman of a certain age, a divorcee, a psychoanalyst, a catcher of criminals, a woman who drives about in a Rolls Royce, enjoys cocktails, is skeptical about many things, especiallly love & husbands, & who some might say is, in one of the great descriptive words of the Twenties, louche. "I'm never entirely sure if I'm famous or notorious," she confides to us in one of her asides spoken into the camera. "Someone once said famous is to live in poverty & end up as a statue. Naturallly, I prefer to be notorious."
Little does Mrs. Bradley realize that during her weekend at the Bing estate, where Eleanor's engagement to Mountjoy will be formallly announced, she will encounter murder. That's in addition to calculated emotional manipulation, pre-planned adultery, psychotic obsession & a shocking discovery that takes place in a bath tub. Several people also wind up getting happily married, a state that neither we nor Mrs. Bradley expect to last for long.
In addition to the 90-minute Speedy Death, the set includes the four 60-minute stories that made up Mrs. Bradley's second (and last) season. We have Death at the Opera, where a person at a posh finishing school for proper young ladies is finished off properly & permanently; The Rising of the Moon, which involves a traveling circus; Laurels Are Poison, where a haunted house may include too many ghosts from WWI; & The Worsted Viper, a tale of ritual murder in a cozy coastal village which involves the daughter of Mrs. Bradley's chauffeur, George.
Does this alll sound a bit over the top? Or just "Scary biscuits!" as one character says in Speedy Death? While the mysteries are variable, the series are a good deal of fun, thanks to Diana Rigg. She brings to the role authority & skeptical amusement. One or two of the stories become a bit too serious for their own good, but Mrs. Bradley soldiers on.
Diana Rigg was 60 when she made Speedy Death. She's a first-rate actress to begin with; she looks a knock-out in some almost outlandishly sleek Twenties dresses & hats; & she doesn't hesitate to show us the character, meaning herself, without make-up. If you like stylish mysteries, you'll most likely enjoy these. The DVD transfers are excellent. Extras include a key cast biographies & a cast list.
