Product Description

Commander Dalgliesh undertakes a highly sensitive murder investigation at the Dupayne Museum. The circumstances of the case bear an unsettling similarity to the historical cases commemorated in the museum's notorious Murder Room.

DVD Features:
Biographies:Biographies of the cast and writer
Interviews:P.D. James interview from BBC archive

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30904 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2005-10-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 180 minutes

Amazon.com
The Murder Room finds Martin Shaw's second effort at playing novelist P.D. James's renowned poet and detective hero, Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh, all the more powerful yet painfully human as the character sorts out a double homicide and looks into his own heart to understand his emotional isolation. A psychiatrist, Neville Dupayne (Michael Maloney), and a young model (Ty Glaser) are gruesomely murdered within minutes of each other--one in a car garage and the other in a nearby wing, called the Murder Room, of a museum. The Murder Room focuses on famous killings in British history, and Dalgliesh finds it noteworthy that the two deaths he's investigating bear similarities to monstrous crimes described in the Room's display cases. Complicating matters is interference from British intelligence, which has its reasons for wanting the case handled discreetly. Kerry Fox, Samantha Bond, Nicholas Le Provost, and Sid Mitchell are all terrific as sundry suspects, and Tilly Blackwood and William Beck are a lot of fun as Dalgliesh's sometimes awkward Detective Inspector team. The suspense gets red-hot at times, and not just about the crime. The real question in The Murder Room is whether Dalgliesh can get his personal life together in time to accept the love being offered by the delightful Emma Lavenham (Janie Dee), the enchanting scholar he met in Death in Holy Orders. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Room Without a View
As do her novels and their BBC Television adaptations, the detective fiction of P. D. James is so complicated by character and motive that it is difficult to get one's bearing - - - as it is with the TV version of her last book, "The Murder Room," which like all mysteries has a beginning, middle and end. Lady James eschews proper beginnings, however, and plunges us right into the story without exposition, leaving us to sort out the complexities. Her genius, and that of her adapter, is to peak our interest; we want to know what has happened, is happening and will happen, even if we don't quite understand what we are watching.

It is frustrating up to a point when all falls into place, usually about a quarter into the narrative; from then on, it is sheer bliss. In this one, her detective, a widower nurturing a romance, is asked to solve a pair of murders at a small private museum. The museum has a room devoted to historical murders and a board of sibling directors squabbling over keeping the museum open. Although likely suspects abound, the culprit comes as a surprise (there are clues for anyone paying attention.) The pacing, acting, direction and especially the production design meet the high standards of this series. There's a chatty BBC interview with Lady James that will peak your interest in her novels and other adaptations.

Adam Dalgliesh on the Beat Again
A great story, loaded with suspects, suspense, etc. But this is beautifully shot, beautifully edited as well, and Martin Shaw I believe is the only one who can replace Roy Marsden (of previous televisualizations of P.D. James books) as the eternal Adam Dalgliesh.
Buy this disk and enjoy!

Flamboyant Murders, a Creepy Setting, and Too Many Suspects.
Commander Adam Dalgleish (Martin Shaw) of New Scotland Yard's Special Investigation Squad is called upon to investigate the murder of psychiatrist Neville Dupayne (Michael Maloney) at his family's museum. The Dupayne Museum is dedicated to the interwar years in England, the personal project of deceased family patriarch Max Dupayne, whose children Marcus (Nicholas de Prevost), Caroline (Samantha Bond), and Neville inherited its responsibilities. Neville thought the museum a waste of resources that could be put to better use, while Marcus, Caroline, and the museum staff stood to lose home and income if it closed. There is no shortage of suspects when Neville is murdered by a method apparently emulating one of the crimes in The Murder Room, the museum's section dedicated to famous murders between the wars. Dalgleish goes around in circles interviewing the Dupayne family and museum staff -curator James Calder-Hale (Jack Shepherd), receptionist Muriel (Kerry Fox), housekeeper Tally Klutton (Anita Carey), and handyman Ryan Archer (Sid Mitchell)- while tangling with a touch-and-go relationship with ladyfriend Emma (Janie Dee) in his scarce spare time.

"The Murder Room" is a solid British mystery flick with the requisite melodrama, scandal, and a bit of gore. Martin Shaw takes his second turn as Adam Dalgleish, the laconic, pensive police detective. Shaw noted in an interview that Dalgleish is difficult to play because "there isn't a strong character there". He's an observer, "the eyepiece through which the audience sees everything". But Shaw manages to embody a soul amid the enigma of Adam Dalgleish, so the audience has some character to grasp. "The Murder Room" isn't without flaw. I realized that it exceeded the reasonable number of characters when they were still being introduced nearly half-way through this 3-hour film. There are 12 characters involved with the Dupayne museum, not including police or anyone not directly related to the case. So many people with such convoluted interrelationships necessitate a date stamp on the screen for the days leading up to the murder. The action would really be indecipherable without some sense of time. The characters' relationships are difficult to make sense of as it is. Dalgleish's junior colleagues, Detective Inspectors Piers (William Beck) and Kate (Tilly Blackwood), seem unprofessional and unrealistic. And Dalgleish and Emma's pubescent behavior is ridiculous. But it occurs to me that these complaints are common to P.D. James mysteries, so her fans aren't likely to find fault with them.

The DVD (Warner Home Video 2005): The "P.D.James Interview" (6 ½ minutes) is from the television program "BBC Breakfast", recorded in July 2003. James talks about "The Murder Room" (the book), her writing technique, fictional vs real life crime, and chats with her 2 interviewers. The "Cast/Author Biographies" are text bios of 10 cast members and P.D. James, with selective filmographies.