This is the usual Murder, She Wrote fare with Jessica Fletcher solving a mystery that the authorities are seemingly incapable of fathoming. What makes this different, and why I was interested in watching it, is that it is set in London.
As per most US series filmed in the UK, there are the usual "look where we are" shots of Big Ben and the Changing of The Guards etc to set the scene. However, from here on in, that is where the actual filming in London must have stopped. And on this occasion, the use of US back lots were the most obvious I had seen for a long time!! Apart from the fact the cast and extras were either dressed in Bowler Hats and talked like the Royal Family or were a friend of Mary Popping's Bert, there were obviously American cars used in the streets and totally unconvincing tenement like buildings that you would never find in the UK.
What surprised me was that this was filmed, not in the 60's when this sort of portrayal was commonplace, but in 1992!! Even the London based Columbo episode from the 70's was a bit more convincing!! I sometimes wonder what the British actors in these episodes (for example in this, Trevor Eve and real life wife Sharon Maughan) make of these stereotypes but I guess they know where they're bread's buttered!
The story was the usual Murder, She Wrote plot with the added MI5 / Spy conundrum - and it made a change that it wasn't one of Jessica's friends that was murdered / accused. On the whole, I enjoyed it but that was from the giggling at "London" and from trying to guess which actors were actually British and which were not! And probably the most quintessential British actor of them all when you think of Bedknobs & Broomsticks was in fact Angela Lansbury herself playing the quintessential American crime solving wonder Jessica Fletcher!!
As per most US series filmed in the UK, there are the usual "look where we are" shots of Big Ben and the Changing of The Guards etc to set the scene. However, from here on in, that is where the actual filming in London must have stopped. And on this occasion, the use of US back lots were the most obvious I had seen for a long time!! Apart from the fact the cast and extras were either dressed in Bowler Hats and talked like the Royal Family or were a friend of Mary Popping's Bert, there were obviously American cars used in the streets and totally unconvincing tenement like buildings that you would never find in the UK.
What surprised me was that this was filmed, not in the 60's when this sort of portrayal was commonplace, but in 1992!! Even the London based Columbo episode from the 70's was a bit more convincing!! I sometimes wonder what the British actors in these episodes (for example in this, Trevor Eve and real life wife Sharon Maughan) make of these stereotypes but I guess they know where they're bread's buttered!
The story was the usual Murder, She Wrote plot with the added MI5 / Spy conundrum - and it made a change that it wasn't one of Jessica's friends that was murdered / accused. On the whole, I enjoyed it but that was from the giggling at "London" and from trying to guess which actors were actually British and which were not! And probably the most quintessential British actor of them all when you think of Bedknobs & Broomsticks was in fact Angela Lansbury herself playing the quintessential American crime solving wonder Jessica Fletcher!!