The Best Of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries [DVD]

9 discs. 1700 hours of viewing. Mainly first shown in the 1990s, 17 offerings of varying length (50+minutes, 2+hours), all culminating in the last ever Wexford (2000).A binge-watcher's paradise? Sadly not.Some of these adaptations have not stood well the test of time. The results are somewhat clunky - certain performances too self-conscious, too actory (a tendency to utter than to speak naturally); emotions occasionally overwrought, cringingly melodramatic. Often working far better are the shorter offerings, they with a greater sense of purpose.That said, there is still much to enjoy. Viewers will all have their favourites. Mine included "The Orchard Walls" (a wartime farmhouse tragedy), "The Fallen Curtain" (a surprise in the cast list to see who played little Barry), "A Case of Coincidence" (Keith Barron the copper sensitively investigating).In a higher league are the three Wexfords, George Baker awesome as the Chief Inspector so gruff but with such humanity. Literally his face can grow red with rage. Other times compassion is so evident, even tears when a crisis hits his family. "Simisola" is well crafted (and with an early appearance of an actor now very famous), "Road Rage" (genuine tension with an outcome that may surprise), "Harm Done" (powerful fare concerning a released paedophile, a missing child, domestic abuse).Overall? Despite several disappointments, this collection's best offerings greatly help to compensate.

Despite the fairly hefty price tag, this is, undoubtedly, one of the most value for money comprehensive mystery series box set collections available. A collection that shows Ruth Rendell's one offs and Wexfords at her best with gems such as Simisola, May and June, two of my favourites. But why didn't she include the elusive Heartstones? This has got to be one of the best, if not THE BEST, Rendell one-off mystery she has written - so I was gutted that it wasn't included, particularly as it is impossible to buy anywhere else, except in audio book or hard copy format. For that reason alone, I am going to be extremely stingy in my marking and give it a 4 ranking.

Dear sir or mum there are 2 disc DAMAGED DISC 1 and DISC 5 but all are very good. the DVD is RUTH RENDELL MYSTERIESDennisBest Regards

I had sadly become lazy in my expectations of comfortable enjoyment of tidy endings from my DVD purchases. This one gave me a wake up call.It's worth a try

This Ruth Rendell collection is a real mixed bag with a surprising variety of stories, both in the quality of the tale and with the level of acting. In the poorest examples, some of the acting was 'wooden' with story lines that were hard to take seriously. In complete contrast, some stories were good with acting to match and in this category, I would mention in particular 'Vanity Dies Hard' with a fine cameo from Leslie Phillips; 'The Secret House of Death' in which Amanda Redman was particularly good; 'May and June' with Phoebe Nicholls giving a convincing lead; 'A Dark Blue Perfume' with Susannah York and David Ryall both excellent; and 'Harm Done' in which Clare Holman (best known for 'Lewis')is very good indeed in spite of the fact that she is not even mentioned on the DVD sleeve. In the same story, I recognised a talented young man, Nick Robinson, who was so good in 'Goodnight Mister Tom' and although this is a much smaller role, he still gave a good performance. This collection is worth buying for the really good stuff on it, and as for the rest, I leave you to judge for yourself.

I purchased this item to view again when I would like to, it was on tv recently, but has now been taken off air to view. Now I can view these programmes when I would like to.

Most of the collection is good watching and I was surprised how good they were as I had avoided watching them on T.V. I also liked the Inspector Wexford episodes.Micky Fynn

Having run out of "Midsummer Murders" and the Adam Dalgliesh series, we turned to Wexford. Its my own fault for not reading the reviews that I didn't realise that very few of the stories in this collection are Wexford ones. In fact the whole set is very entertaining and its nice to see some of today's big stars at the start of their careers. However, the big drawback is that there are no subtitles.