Introducing the unflappable Miss Fisher

Introducing the unflappable Miss Fisher

In February I did a blog post centred around The Mrs Bradley Mysteries, the short-lived 1999 Twenties-set murder-mystery series starring Dame Diana Rigg, which was being shown again on B.B.C. Four and which inspired me to purchase the DVD box set.

At the time I remarked on how it was a shame the series was not a great success when first broadcast and that there were no more than 5 episodes, with nothing else quite like it coming along since.  Well now there is a new murder-mystery drama that to these eyes has a lot [of good] in common - Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.  The catch?  It's only broadcast in Australia!

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A fairly recent creation (1989), Phryne Fisher looks to be very much the home-grown Australian heroine but in many respects is much like Ariadne Bradley - perhaps even a younger version of her.  The protagonist in seventeen books (so far), which have already been picked up and turned into a 13-episode series by Australian broadcaster ABC1, she is somewhat reminiscent of both Mrs Bradley and also the earlier Tuppence Beresford from the 1980s series Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime (Tommy & Tuppence).

Unlike both those two series, however, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries appears to have been a great success in its native country.  It is also rather interesting in that it is set in 1920s Australia, and this seems to have attracted viewers keen to connect with this period of their nation's history.  (If any Australian readers would care to pass comment, I'd be interested to know if I've called it right, and what you think of the series).  I don't know about you, but I'd be interested in the setting too - we see and read so much about Twenties America, Twenties Britain, even Twenties Europe yet comparatively little about Twenties Australia.  A programme set in that time period in Australia would go some way towards filling that void, I feel sure.

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Neighbours and Home and Away are both great export successes for Australian television and I from what little I've seen I see no reason why Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries shouldn't be as well.  We all know vintage and retro is riding the crest of a worldwide wave at the moment and I'm sure that any cultural references that might exist in the programme wouldn't detract from it or spoil our enjoyment of it.  Come on, ABC Television - send Miss Fisher abroad, it looks positively topping!