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A couple of years ago I was going through the big names in Golden Age detective fiction, aside from Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie of course, and made a couple of attempts to read Margery Allingham's Campion books. I read 1½, got annoyed and switched to the next one after that, and then did that 2 more times. So three book fragments plus 1½ books. Then I gave up.
Campion the character was fun, in spite of that, so I eventually was inspired (after seeing a bunch of gifsets at![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
hemlock-in-the-cocktails on Tumblr) to check out whether the screenwriting and acting and so on made it more watchable for me than it was readable.
So far, so good. The regular cast is good, Peter Davison in the title role is enchanting, and two eps of guest stars have had good standouts and a couple of bafflingly lackluster choices as well. The screenwriting is competent but not stunning: a more inspired attempt could certainly make more of the material. The cinematography is typical for the BBC in 1989 and really makes me grateful, in retrospect, for modern cinematography. And editing. And lighting and sound design.
Wikipedia suggests that the character was conceived as a parody of Lord Peter Wimsey, and is hinted to be an incognito member of the Royal family in early works, but later developed his own personality and was instead eventually made a viscount (after starting as the younger brother). The name he uses is an alias, and there seems to be the occasional person who knows who he really is, but he isn't recognized on sight... which raises the amusing idea of a celebrity with a recognizable name but not a recognizable face.
There are certainly not many members of the British royal family of whom that is true today, I bet. Maybe the more distant ones - the ones descended from Princess Margaret, for example? I've never seen pictures and Wikipedia doesn't recognize them, but that doesn't mean they could just walk into a noble house and introduce themselves by a fake name and not have people going "But hang on, aren't you ...?" like Campion does.
In fact, there are hardly any people with A-list name recognition who can reliably go around unrecognized on sight, as far as I can think of. Some bestselling authors, but surely even they are often recognized. Maybe one of the lesser-known members of a larger musical group would be a better present-day comparison - like Earth, Wind, and Fire, or Girls Aloud. (Of course, those people are probably too busy for sleuthing in their spare time since their fame is earned, not genetic.) (And also of course: Campion uses an alias rather than his title, not simply his name, and titles are actually unique. In a country without nobility, unique titles are thin on the ground. I mean, we have hordes of generals and admirals out there in most countries. But I'm always interested in looking for present-day and local equivalents when I'm reading historical fiction.)
Campion the character was fun, in spite of that, so I eventually was inspired (after seeing a bunch of gifsets at
So far, so good. The regular cast is good, Peter Davison in the title role is enchanting, and two eps of guest stars have had good standouts and a couple of bafflingly lackluster choices as well. The screenwriting is competent but not stunning: a more inspired attempt could certainly make more of the material. The cinematography is typical for the BBC in 1989 and really makes me grateful, in retrospect, for modern cinematography. And editing. And lighting and sound design.
Wikipedia suggests that the character was conceived as a parody of Lord Peter Wimsey, and is hinted to be an incognito member of the Royal family in early works, but later developed his own personality and was instead eventually made a viscount (after starting as the younger brother). The name he uses is an alias, and there seems to be the occasional person who knows who he really is, but he isn't recognized on sight... which raises the amusing idea of a celebrity with a recognizable name but not a recognizable face.
There are certainly not many members of the British royal family of whom that is true today, I bet. Maybe the more distant ones - the ones descended from Princess Margaret, for example? I've never seen pictures and Wikipedia doesn't recognize them, but that doesn't mean they could just walk into a noble house and introduce themselves by a fake name and not have people going "But hang on, aren't you ...?" like Campion does.
In fact, there are hardly any people with A-list name recognition who can reliably go around unrecognized on sight, as far as I can think of. Some bestselling authors, but surely even they are often recognized. Maybe one of the lesser-known members of a larger musical group would be a better present-day comparison - like Earth, Wind, and Fire, or Girls Aloud. (Of course, those people are probably too busy for sleuthing in their spare time since their fame is earned, not genetic.) (And also of course: Campion uses an alias rather than his title, not simply his name, and titles are actually unique. In a country without nobility, unique titles are thin on the ground. I mean, we have hordes of generals and admirals out there in most countries. But I'm always interested in looking for present-day and local equivalents when I'm reading historical fiction.)
