Alleyn Mysteries

Seasons

1990

7.5

Drawing on her love of theatre and art, New Zealand author Ngaio Marsh created elegant crime-puzzlers full of quirky characters with hidden agendas, all brought meticulously to life in this BBC series.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Artists in Crime

After an artist's model dies in a suspicious incident, the aristocratic Detective Chief Inspector Alleyn and his down-to-earth assistant Inspector Fox, investigate. Matters get complicated with a houseful of suspects, blackmail, another death, and Alleyn's growing attraction to the painter Agatha Troy.

S1 • E1

A Man Lay Dead

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.

S1 • E2

The Nursing Home Murder

A member of Parliament who has taken controversial stands on Palestine and A-bomb development is murdered during a routine appendectomy.

S1 • E3

Final Curtain

An egotistical Shakespearean ham actor gathers his dysfunctional extended family in his mansion on his 75th birthday for the reading of his will.

S1 • E4

Death at the Bar

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.

S1 • E5

Death in a White Tie

Inspector 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.