The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: A Great Deliverance

As the story begins, "The Yard" has been called in by the Yorkshire police on a particularly nasty case - a farmer has been found brutally murdered in his barn along with his sheep dog; his traumatized sixteen-year old daughter is found mute, unable to tell investigators what has occurred. To make matters worse, allegations of local police corruption have just surfaced.

This is not going to be an easy case, especially as Lynley and Havers arrive on the scene in Yorkshire each encumbered with a steamer trunk full of emotional baggage.

Lynley has just been the Best Man at the wedding of the love of his life, Deborah, to his best friend Simon St. James. Upon arriving in Yorkshire, he finds that one of the local police officers assigned to work with him is one Sergeant Nies, whom he'd previously had a run-in with and Nies is still nursing a grudge against him. As if these problems weren't daunting enough, Lynley has to deal with Havers.

Havers, who has a well deserved reputation at the Yard of being difficult to work with, resents Lynley for being rich, well-educated, well-connected, handsome and charming - in short, everything she isn't. Her obvious resentment of Lynley becomes so tiresome, that at one point, he stops the car in the middle of the road one evening and says, "You are exhausting, you are permanently on the defensive." Later, he exclaims, "take away your prejudices and who's Barbara Havers?" Havers, however, does have some very real problems to deal with; while Lynley is trying to cope with his loss of Deborah, Havers is spending every spare moment on the phone trying to get help from Social Services for her parents - a father in the last stages of emphysema and a mother suffering from what appears to Alzheimer's.

Yet in spite of their personal problems, Lynley and Havers quickly get down to the business of investigating the murder. That they do so - in the face of local police hostility and foot-dragging, witnesses who tell them only half-truths, plus a few red herrings thrown in along the way - is a testament to their skill and professionalism.

This BBC production of "A Great Deliverance", based on the book by Elizabeth George, is well adapted and perfectly cast. Some Elizabeth George fans may object to casting a dark haired actor in the role of Lynley, whom George conceived of as a blonde, but that's a trivial issue. First, actors frequently bare little physical resemblance to the authors' original descriptions of the characters they play - case in point, P.D. James' Adam Dalgleish. James always described Dalgleish as "dark", something Roy Marsden isn't. Second, if you're casting about today for a tall, good looking, "upper class" British actor for a role - Nathaniel Parker is the natural choice. Parker casually combines class with masculinity. He also possesses one of the best speaking voices of any English-speaking actor today. His lines are always delivered clearly, but effortlessly, in that rich, mellow baritone of his. In a television career of more than a dozen years - "Piece of Cake", "Never Come Back", "Vanity Fair" and "Far From the Madding Crowd" - Parker has displayed great versatility. Having appeared in episodes of "Inspector Morse" and "Poirot" he's also no stranger to "Mystery" audiences. As Lynley, he projects authority, integrity, vulnerability; plus genuine warmth and tenderness when visiting the victim's youngest daughter - Roberta Tey - at a psychiatric hospital.

Like Parker's Lynley, Sharon Small's Barbara Havers differs in appearance from the character created by George. George's creation was short, dumpy and dressed in Oxfam rejects - one doubts if too many actresses would have been beating down the doors to play the character as originally envisioned. Small retains Havers' abrasiveness, but through her attempts at dealing with the problems in her private life, she succeeds in making Barbara a more sympathetic character.

One of the traditional strengths of British TV imports is the careful attention the British pay to the casting of each role. "A Great Deliverance" is no exception. In addition to the two strong leads, "A Great Deliverance" is graced with a great supporting cast. Anthony Calf and Amanda Ryan play newly weds Simon and Deborah St. James brilliantly - capturing the romance of a newly wed couple and the awkwardness created by their relationship with Lynley and the anguish they know he is going through. Emma Fielding is perfect as Helen Clyde - so perfect - that one wonders why the producers subsequently replaced her in later episodes. Brendan Coyle (Richard Tey) - with his dark good looks and earthy masculinity - is a perfect counterweight to Parker's Lynley. But the real acting honors go to Rebecca Gallacher as Roberta Tey - so eloquent in her silence.

To sum up, while this BBC-WGBH production of Elizabeth George's "A Great Deliverance" does not follow the book to the letter, it does capture the essence of this excellent mystery. I highly recommend "A Great Deliverance" to lovers of good, old-fashioned British mysteries.

I need not have worried. This is a terrific adaptation, both well cast and well written. The characterizations are uniformly successful, and they make the transition to the small screen with complete success. The plot is equally successful, both well written and superbly adapted to the exigencies of television watching.

Everyone who likes mysteries will enjoy this DVD, whether one is familiar with the book or not.