Devices and Desires (1991) User Reviews

Overly plotted but still engrossing

[bob998 · 7/10 · 9 January 2018]

My copy of the novel runs to 500 pages, and I feel it could have benefited by some severe editing. The miniseries runs to about 5 hours, and that's a lot of exposition and some unnecessary characters: the second killing of a power plant employee is set up so elaborately you want to say Get on with it! There is some very effective acting, particularly from Gemma Jones as the sister of the plant director, and Nicola Cowper as a reluctant activist in the protest against environmental hazards. Lisa Ellis, who's had parts in many series, notably EastEnders, is very good as Blaney's daughter, but the tempo does drag at times.

For those who worry about Roy Marsden's quiet acting style, I'd like to remind them that Dalgleish is a poet who drives a sports car, thus he's at the antipodes of standard detective heroes (George Gently comes to mind). This is one of those stories in which the detectives, for all their competence, are peripheral to the action. The killers do their work, and are dealt with summarily by the author.

Dalgliesh takes on The Whistler.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 18 March 2021]

Adam is in Norfolk, dealing with the estate of his late Aunt, whilst there, he gets caught up in the local events, where a Serial Killer known as The Whistler is preying on young women.

It's definitely an engaging story, it's quite different for PD James, I don't recall reading any of her books before where a Serial Killer is at large, The character of The Whistler is actually pretty terrifying.

The first few episodes are the best, they are chilling, they're sinister, and they really do grab your attention, we get horror, suicide, intrigue, and some real mystery. If I'm honest, I think it dips at around episode four, and some of the focus moved away from what made the first trio of episodes so exciting.

It's every well acted, Marsden as always is terrific, Gemma Jones and Susannah York also impress, look out for an interesting role from Robert Laing.

I preferred some of the earlier stories featuring Adam Dalgliesh, but Devices and Desires is another very strong offering. 7/10.

All over the place

[preppycuber · 6/10 · 11 November 2021]

Too many subplots, way melodramatic at times.

As someone else said, Dalgliesh had barely anything to do. What was that stranger with the shoe doing in the story? Some of the characters were made way more important than they needed to be.

Series is increasingly getting worse with each story. Wonder how Unnatural Causes is going to be like.

Roy Marsden stars in a six episode version of P.D. James Adam Dalguish mystery.

[RickyofL · 9/10 · 14 July 2001]

This is a very intense mini series set on the Norfolk coast of England involving a Nuclear facility and a serial murderer. The cast includes several outstanding players in addition to Marsden, most notably Susannah York and Gemma Jones. Kate Beckinsale appears in a short sequence in episode 2. Marsden plays his part softly and without bravado. It is an intense mystery involving a wide range of individuals including local residents and nuclear plant employees. Certainly one of the outstanding examples of P.D. James mystery writing.

Odd and detached mystery

[kmoh-1 · 28 June 2020]

The other reviews here are split between admiration and boredom, and this is unsurprising, but neither attitude is quite right. The pace is slow, but the acting is generally excellent and the atmosphere intense. There is a whodunit mystery, and a lot of intelligent character exploration, and even some abstract musing about nuclear power and the environment.

It is, however, worth pointing out that this is a Dalgliesh mystery, which sets up certain expectations, with Roy Marsden's presence looming over events like an Easter Island statue in a leather jacket. These expectations are almost wholly disappointed, because Dalgliesh is irrelevant to the plot - his character could be excised from the series entirely, with remarkably little effect.

Note, there are heavy spoilers in the remainder of this review.

There are two murderers. Dalgliesh identifies neither of them. Indeed, he employs one of them. There are three suicides; he fails to prevent any of them, and even watches one take place. He counsels a former colleague, and fails to bring him out of his depression (in the end, the colleague's wife reappears and immediately gives birth to a lovely girl, which cheers him up instead). There is a terrorist plot, of which he appears to be ignorant until it is blown by an ironic accident.

Most importantly, his only official duty is to advise MI5 with respect to a nuclear power station. In the end, its head Dr Mair is promoted to become some kind of nuclear policy supremo. This is perhaps a little concerning, because there are a few question marks over Dr Mair's suitability for the post.

In particular: he murdered his father. He had affairs with two not altogether suitable women, both of whom were murdered. The first, who was blackmailing him, was murdered by his own sister, who later committed suicide. The second was an anti-nuclear campaigner working for terrorists who murdered her (but not before he had proposed to her). His secretary was also a terrorist, murdered by her bosses. His promising research assistant alerted him to the danger of a computer virus, which he brushed off, despite its turning out that the virus was potentially very deadly and could have caused the reactor to explode. So sensitively did he manage the problem that the researcher committed suicide (for reasons not altogether clear) by leaping off the reactor in front of an audience including Dalgliesh.

Now, call me a fuddy-duddy, but this chap perhaps shouldn't be running a sensitive piece of national science policy. Dalgliesh was certainly aware of most of this (only because Susannah York had extracted the family history from the sister, not through his own work), and after the fact it is hinted that he realises about Mair's affair with Amy while he is consoling Amy's boyfriend, a wet young man with alarming hair. Yet he tells no-one.

All Dalgliesh really does is find a body that would have been discovered anyway, tick off the beer-bellied sergeant every time he is politically incorrect (which is about every episode), and romance fruity Susannah York (though not so successfully as to persuade her to tell him her suspicions about the sister). He nearly dies removing a dead body from a burning building (and ruins his leather jacket). He also announces, on the basis of no evidence, that the second murderer is a woman. This is true, but hardly helpful, and he may even suspect Susannah. We never find out why he thought this, why he said it when he did, and whether he had anyone specific in mind. It is the nearest we get to detection in the story.

The only sensible person in the entire programme is young Theresa Blaney, the daughter of a feckless, combative and drunken Irish artist, whom Dalgliesh, perhaps unwisely, installs as caretaker in his inherited cottage at the end.

Plenty of Devises but not much Desire

[gingerninjasz · 6/10 · 16 August 2023]

Three years after A Taste For Death, the P. D. James mysteries returned with Devises and Desires in 1991. Yet despite the various plot strands and themes, plus the record amount of deaths in a P. D. James mystery (8 in all), there is something oddly detached about this adaptation. It was also the last of the 6 part mysteries that viewers were familiar to, and subsequent adaptations never had the same pull after that. I'm tempted to say the reason is due to this adaptation, but to be fair to it I have also read the novel and couldn't get into that either. I'm not sure the makers could of done any better to be honest as the main problem is that for all it's different characters and plot strands this production just lacks life - or more particularly the characters do!

Not that it starts out that way. It's opening is very effective, as teenager Valerie Mitchell (Sophie Ashton) leaves a disco one night after falling out with her boyfriend, but upon missing her bus decides to walk home before being given a lift in a car by two old ladies. Dropped off about half a mile from her home, she thinks she is safe to walk the rest of the way there, only to encounter the serial killer that is stalking the Norfolk area (no, it's not Howard the Duck), a character nicknamed The Whistler. P. D. James really does atmosphere well in her novels and it comes across here as the scenes building up to the murder, plus the encounter of The Whistler in the woods are remarkably frightening. It only makes you regret that the rest of this mystery does not keep up to the same opening high standards.

Dalgliesh himself appears soon after on holiday to sort through the effects of his aunt who has died recently (what a holiday!), and soon meets the other characters that populate the area - and there are a LOT of characters to meet. There are the Blaney family, headed by alcoholic widower Ryan, whose teenage daughter Theresa looks after the children; single mum Amy Camm and her toddler son Jimmy, plus boyfriend Neil Pascoe, who all live in a caravan near the beach. Then there are two female novelists who live together in a cottage (but not like you're thinking), Meg Dennison and Alice Rowe, while Alice's brother Alex runs the Nuclear Power Station nearby along with a bunch of less than happy co-workers who all live nearby in unspecified areas. Finally there are bickering Pub owners George and Doris Jago, plus local handiman Neville Potter, who lives in a caravan with his alcoholic mother. Considering that a serial killer is loose in the area, you'd think it would dominate conversation, but the main issue here is the Nuclear Power station, with on the one side giving employment to some of the locals who work there, and others who oppose it, such as the caravan couple Neil and Amy, who are environmentalists who often trawl the beaches to look for birds to clean (of oil and not as a hobby, you understand) so concerned are they about the environmental damage it may cause. And there is one employer, Toby Glenhill, who is having concerns about his work at the Power Station - not least because someone has hacked into the computers and infected it with a virus.

Indeed, considering this starts out as a serial killer mystery, it gets somewhat distracted by all the different characters and plot strands. As well as serial killing, this contains themes such as terrorism, alcoholism, threat of homelessness, sexual abuse, abortion, suicides, brother-sister relationships, plus homosexuality and lesbianism (two for the price of one this time) and a lot of bed hopping by characters who seem non-plussed about who they sleep with. And despite having six episodes to bed the characters down (no pun intended), these relationships have little in the way of chemistry or belief in them. For example, Amy Camm is determinedly anti-Nuclear, yet despite this and having a boyfriend she is also having an affair with the boss of the Nuclear Power station, Alex Rowe! Does this not go against her principles? In another example Toby Glenhill ends up sleeping with colleague Hilary Robards when meeting her topless on the beach seemingly just on a whim and on that one moment becomes infatuated by her. Then there are the characters Miles Lessingham and Caroline Amphlett, who both turn out to be gay, but whose sexuality is barely even discussed in length. Considering how much effort has been put into all these plot strands, there is little time for much depth for all these subjects and the writers rather sell their stories short.

There are also elements that are a little unsavory in this. As mentioned, there is a serial killer at work and before long two employees from the Power Station become the latest murder victims, leading to Dalgliesh and the police (headed by local copper Terry Rickards) to suspect that The Whistler may work at the Power Station. There are even suggestions that the killer could be a woman, due to the dog seen about the area, with closet lesbian Caroline Amphlett having a similar sort of dog and lack of alibi (suggestions of repressed sexuality, presumably?). But it's the details of forcing pubic hair in the victims' mouths that leave a bad taste (so to speak) and felt rather gratuitous and unnecessary.

Another problem with this adaptation is that the Power Station suffers the death of two staff members (and more to follow as the case continues, for various reasons), but their losses are barely felt. And that is because most of the characters in this struggle to come to life and are so uninteresting that you don't really care much for them. The dinner party debate involving Alex Rowe (James Faulkner) and Hilary Robards (Suzan Crowley) is one such case, so lacking in life is it. Crowley probably deserves some credit for bravely taking on the nudity she has to do in this, but her character is such a pantomime villain with the various people she upsets that you just know she is set up as the next victim, but cannot really care when she does meet her end. And that is with many of the characters. Ryan Blaney (Tom Georgeson) is under threat of eviction by Hilary, a struggling artist with kids to support who has turned to drink after the death of his wife. Yet he is such a unpleasant and miserable character (do you think Tom Georgeson ever yearns to play a cheerful soul sometimes?) that you do not really care for his plight, especially when he leaves his poor teenage daughter Theresa (Lisa Ellis) to look after his children while he wallows in self pity. It is her who is one of the few people who attracts our sympathy in this, and Ellis makes a good impression in her screen debut. Alex Rowe is similarly dull, while others are merely peripheral, such as Miles Lessingham and Jonathan Reeves, considering they are suspects in a murder case. Meanwhile Caroline Amphlett (Helena Michell) has more screen time, but her character is such an enigma that it is hard to engage with the character, and that is true with so many in this.

Of the few exceptions, Gemma Jones deserves huge credit for her nuanced portrayal of Alice Rowe, still haunted by abuse suffered by her father and worried about her brother. It's interesting to note that in the flashback scenes, the young Alex is played by James Faulkner's son Guy, but Kate Beckinsale does NOT appear as the young Alice - you only hear her voice. The only other performance that feels fresh is Nicola Cowper as single mum Ann Camm, but it is her activist boyfriend Neil Pascoe (Robert Hines) who you end up feeling for in the end. As for Dalgliesh, while Roy Marsden is engaging and sympathetic as usual, as has been pointed out in a number of reviews on here his character is basically a voyeur in this. He is not in charge of investigations - that is Det Insp Terry Rickards (a lovely performance by Tony Haygarth) - and eventually ends up helpless in stopping any of the many deaths that occur in this mystery. Indeed, it is Rickards who makes one crucial deduction when they go over the many victims of The Whistler, not Dalgliesh. By the end of all this he has not had an effect in any of the investigations, other than spotting the true killer, and by the conclusion the overall feeling is how many lives have been left devastated by the occurrences in this case.

This mystery, with all it's plot lines and incidents, should of been far better than it is. The first couple of episodes with The Whistler are superbly handled and chilling, but the characters are just not interesting or engaging enough to really care about them. With many of P. D. James adaptations they are set in a institution or workplace, such as a Laboratory, Hospital or Convalescent Home, with the focus on that. Here we have a Nuclear Power Station, but there are so few scenes of colleagues working together as for it to be redundant and almost pointless. Indeed, this adaptation's problem is that the characters are too far spread out, with only peripheral connections to each other and no rapport between many of them. And there are also scenes that are left unanswered, such as who was drinking with the victim Hilary Robards the night she died (Dalgliesh and Rickards discover two glasses on her table), and why does one character commit suicide by jumping off the Nuclear Power Station? For those approaching P. D. James for the first time, this probably will serve quite well as a decent mystery to watch. But for others accustomed to her earlier adaptations, this is a strange misfire. For all it's atmosphere and plot devises, it lacks much of the desire and just does not gel.

Unforgettable, superb, riveting

[jeffhanna3 · 10/10 · 18 June 2008]

Couldn't disagree more with the sour reviewer who found this masterpiece and Roy Marsden to be disappointing. One wonders what this person's idea of a great mystery and detective is??

As a huge fan of Marsden (the PERFECT Dalgleish) and the P.D. James mysteries starring him, "Devices and Desires" is by far my favorite. I cannot believe that it is the only one which is not available on DVD. (Update: it is now available on DVD).

Everything about this production is excellent. What a cast! Full of fascinating twists, turns and bizarre subplots - not to mention a series of very creepy murders, this one is a winner. Available on VHS at many libraries.

Enjoyable with plenty of drama

[Sir_Oblong_Fitzoblong · 10/10 · 25 January 2021]

I rate this story a 10, not because everything about it is perfect but because the combination of its own qualities and those of the series as a whole overcome any individual faults and I enjoyed it as a major part of re-watching the whole series.

I agree with the criticisms of other reviewers about the disappointingly limited role played by Dalgliesh in this story and about some of the less than plausible characterizations and some plot lines but there is a lot going on in the story with plenty of characters to make the murder mystery a challenge (unlike some of the stories where there are far too few suspects), high-quality acting, and delightful Norfolk/Suffolk coastal scenery to outweigh them.

It is some years since I read the book but I think the adaptation is fairly faithful to it (as are most of these dramatizations as far as I can remember the books but I won't stake my life on that ).

The one major failing in terms of rendition is that a fundamental theme of the book is a dark, sinister atmosphere that stems from and characterizes the relationship between the coast, the headland, the sea, and the power station. The headland is almost a country or a world on its own and its people, native or visitor, are all affected by these elements of it. The adaptation sadly fails to recreate this feeling so that some of their reactions and thoughts don't have as much dramatic impact as they do in the book. This might be an easy criticism to make since conjuring an atmosphere on TV isn't easy but filming in mid-summer was a colossal mistake in this respect. The north Norfolk coast is at its best in winter and the sea and light of February would have greatly helped the overall feel of the story.

That said, with the lovely Gemma Jones and Susannah York plus a largely competent supporting cast (this was, after all, the old days when TV still had some standards) I enjoyed re-watching this as much as any of the other entries in the series.

Five hours is a long time to spend with Commander Adam Dalgliesh when he doesn't do much except stumble over a body or two

[Terrell-4 · 5/10 · 22 October 2008]

What to make of this mystery from the BBC that runs on (and on) for more than 300 minutes? In that time we have a terrorist plot against a nuclear facility on the coast of Norfolk; a serial killer called the Norfolk Whistler; a brother and sister relationship that is loyal to the point of, well, we won't go there; it's all our own nasty thinking anyway; a protest by a young activist against the nuclear plant because birds might be displaced; a copycat slaying that mimics the modus of the Whistler; and so much exposition the killer could die of old age before he'd be caught. There's also hanky panky in the grass, blackmail, government interference, family anger, unbridled ambition, all kinds of major relationship problems, wise old geezers and several glimpses of the uncovered breasts of female corpses. British necrophiliacs must be a big part of the BBC's audience.

In the middle is Commander Adam Dalgliesh (Roy Marsden), stern, moralistic and, in this story, nearly as passive as a muffin. He's taking a bit of time off from his job with the Metropolitan Police Service at New Scotland Yard. He's finished a new book of poetry and has come to stay in a converted lighthouse that he has inherited. Since he's on vacation and not the copper in charge of investigating the Whistler murders, he busies himself taking long walks, stumbling across corpses and meeting people. These include the attractive Meg Dennison (Susan George); the head of the nuclear plant, Dr. Alex Mair (James Faulkner); and Mair's sister, Alice (Gemma Jones). All are exceedingly well mannered, even when they're distraught. Dalgliesh knows the chief inspector in charge of the Whistler case, Terry Rickards (Tony Haygarth), who once worked for him. Naturally, Rickards is happy to have Dalgliesh accompany him on his visits to the corpses that keep turning up.

For the length of the program Dalgliesh quietly asks questions that seem to be designed to make others think of options, while never committing himself. The Whistler is eventually found and the copycat killer identified and dealt with, but Dalgliesh could just as well have been off on a walking tour in Wales for all that the story depends on him. In the other televised mysteries of P. D. James' Dalgliesh books, we have a man who is perhaps difficult to warm up to. He often seems to be evaluating people against his own standards and finding them wanting. Dalgliesh, when it gets down to murder, believes in moral absolutes, and says so. He also seems to prefer a nice hot cup of tea to a pint of ale. I can imagine what Morse would make of him. Dalgliesh, however, is redeemed because he deals with complex and often clever murders. He's calm, he's smart and he's relentless in going after a killer. With Devices and Desires, almost none of that is present. Dalgliesh is just an observer, as we are...even less of one, because we observe, which he doesn't, all the rationalizing, misunderstandings, avarice and impassioned do-gooding of the other characters. The creative team behind this adaptation forgot some basic rules of storytelling for television and the movies: Even if you have five hours to fill, be concise, keep exposition to the bare minimum, concentrate the themes and don't let your protagonist become dull. The crowning frustration is that Dalgliesh doesn't even solve anything.

On the plus side is the recollection of how good Roy Marsden can be as Dalgliesh when he's given murders to solve. Susan George does fine as a woman who just might or might not develop a relationship with the Commander. And more than anything else is the sterling performance of Gemma Jones. The character she plays is quiet, assured and complex, and is the most interesting in the story. Jones herself, simply because of her skill and empathy as an actress, in my view dominates the story every time she's on screen. To see Gemma Jones in full display of her powers, just watch her as Louisa Trotter in The Duchess of Duke Street - The Complete Collection. That's a production that makes 26 hours seem to flash by far more quickly than the five hours of Devices and Desires. But don't give up on Dalgliesh. There are DVD releases of nine other mysteries with Marsden in the role and two with Martin Shaw as the Commander.

And if you want to really enjoy a mystery where the detective isn't directly involved, read The Daughter of Time. That great mystery writer Josephine Tey puts Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant in hospital, immobile and bored to death. He comes across an illustration of the painting of Richard the Third that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. (It's the same one on my Amazon Profile Page.) Grant is intrigued by the disparity between Richard's gory reputation and the image of this thoughtful, rather sad-looking man. He decides to look into the deaths of the two princes in the Tower as a way to kill time. He winds up solving the case.

worst scene editing ever

[klowey · 5/10 · 5 January 2021]

For me the story was too drawn out, often boring. Would have been better at 3 hours. But most annoying was the way the scenes cut, sometimes after less than a minute. I appreciate switching from one scene to the next for suspense, but this was often ridiculous.

NOT MUCH ADO ABOUT ANYTHING

[fionastaun · 3/10 · 27 December 2018]

The Director decided to make a passive mini- series with as much English politeness as possible. The pace is slow. And so many scenes after scenes of nothing much, grinds it on. A lack of drama drains a PD James mystery to a pale tale.

Boring

[richard.fuller1 · 1/10 · 16 October 2005]

This was my introductin to PD James, James Marsden and Inspector Dagliesh and it was a major letdown.

Six episodes long, this thing was. There was suspenseful moments, but these had nothing to do with the serial killer. There just seemed to be lots of filler in this thing.

Marsden has a look about him that he is bored with what is going on. I would see him as the vampire on Sherlock Holmes. He had a bit more to work with, but against Jeremy Brett, it was hardly Holmes meets Dagliesh, as tho that would be a salespitch.

The focus of this story was we had a serial killer and apparently someone else would be killed, but did the serial killer do it? SPOILER. The killer would kill himself, confess to the crimes in a note, but reveal he didn't do one of the murders.

Truthfully the revelation of the killer and the final incident with this person was just so patchy and strung together, I just looked at it and thought, I've sat here for six hours and this is all that happened? I would sit through one more Dagliesh before I decided (ironically as did the admitted killer during a flood) that I had had enough.

Of all the English detectives, Morse, Allyn, Wainthripp, Foyle, Linley, this one, Dagliesh, stands as the only one who literally disappointed me, mainly because of Marsden, but the crimes were just too absurd.

There is a new actor as Dalgliesh. Will be checking him out tonight, then seeing Rupert Everett next week as Holmes.

But I have seen disappointment in the English detectives, and he was Marsden-Dagliesh.