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The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries is a British detective television series, broadcast on BBC1, which was adapted from nine of the novels by Dame Ngaio Marsh, featuring the character Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. The pilot episode was shown in 1990, with Simon Williams playing the part of Alleyn. Two series followed in 1993 and 1994, with Patrick Malahide replacing Williams in the title role.
| The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries | |
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| Genre | Crime drama |
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| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 9 (list of episodes) |
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| Running time | 90 minutes |
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| Release | 23 December 1990 – 29 August 1994 |
In the pilot episode, the character of Alleyn was played by Simon Williams. William Simons was cast as Alleyn's right-hand man and "Dr Watson", Detective Inspector Fox, and Belinda Lang starred as painter Agatha Troy, Alleyn's love interest. When a full series finally came to screen three years later, Simon Williams was unavailable, and the role of Alleyn was filled by Patrick Malahide, while Simons and Lang reprised their roles. Over the course of two series, eight episodes were broadcast, each focusing on a separate novel in the series. Both Malahide series were released on DVD in 2007, via Acorn Media.[1] In 2011, Acorn acquired the rights to the pilot, and in 2012, issued a repackaged version of the set containing the Williams pilot.[2] This set was also released in Australia.[3] Unlike the original novels, whose first story takes place as early as 1934, after World War I, the pilot and thus all subsequent episodes take place after World War II, with "Artists in Crime" being set in late 1948.
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- Simon Williams as Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn (pilot only)
- Patrick Malahide as Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn
- William Simons as Inspector Fox
- Belinda Lang as Agatha Troy
- Tim Dutton as D.S. Bailey
- Sandy Welch as D.C. Robinson
- Leslie Schofield as A.C.C. Connors
- Mark Penfold as Doctor Curtis
- Derek Benfield[4] as Alfred Belt
- James Aitken as James
Pilot (1990)
| Episode # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Year of Source Novel | |
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| 1 | "Artists in Crime" | Silvio Narizzano | Trevor Bowen | 23 December 1990 | 1938 | |
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After an artist's model dies in a suspicious incident, Alleyn and his down-to-earth assistant Fox investigate. Matters get complicated with a houseful of suspects, blackmail, another death, and Alleyn's growing attraction to the painter Agatha Troy. | ||||||
Series 1 (1993)
| Episode # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Year of Source Novel | |
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| 2 | "A Man Lay Dead" | Sarah Pia Anderson | Barbara Machin | 18 April 1993 | 1934 | |
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Alleyn cancels his holiday with Troy to investigate a murder connected to a stolen chalice, but he's called when a second murder occurs at uncle's estate. | ||||||
| 3 | "The Nursing Home Murder" | Silvio Narizzano | Kevin Laffan | 25 April 1993 | 1935 | |
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A member of Parliament who has taken controversial stands on Palestine and A-bomb development is murdered during a routine appendectomy. | ||||||
| 4 | "Final Curtain" | Martyn Friend | Hugh Leonard | 2 May 1993 | 1947 | |
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An egotistical Shakespearean ham actor gathers his dysfunctional extended family in his mansion on his 75th birthday for the reading of his will. | ||||||
| 5 | "Death at the Bar" | Michael Winterbottom | Alfred Shaughnessy | 9 May 1993 | 1939 | |
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During a display of dart throwing in a Cornish pub a man's hand is impaled by a dart, and he dies shortly afterward from cyanide - although no one can explain how. | ||||||
| 6 | "Death in a White Tie" | John Woods | Ken Jones | 16 May 1993 | 1938 | |
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Alleyn enlists the help of his friend Lord Robert "Bunchy" Gospell to uncover a society blackmailer. After Lord Robert is killed, a murder hunt follows among the world of titled heiresses, gamblers and adulterers. | ||||||
Series 2 (1994)
| Episode # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Year of Source Novel | |
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| 7 | "Hand in Glove" | Martyn Friend | Ken Jones | 10 January 1994 | 1962 | |
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A divorced and disliked man living in a nobleman's estate is found in a sewer ditch after someone rolled a concrete pipe on his head. | ||||||
| 8 | "Dead Water" | John Woods | Trevor Bowen | 1 April 1994 | 1964 | |
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Alleyn's old French teacher, the landlord of an idyllic Scottish island, is receiving death threats because she's blocking its development as a health spa. | ||||||
| 9 | "Scales of Justice" | Jim Goddard | Cyril Williams | 29 August 1994 | 1958 | |
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The publication of a war hero's memoirs and his dispute with a neighbouring fisherman about poaching leads to a murder. | ||||||
The series aired in the United States on PBS's 'Mystery!' and later on Amazon Prime.[5][6]
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