I am an unapologetic Anglophile. Everything is more appetizing when accompanied by a British accent, except food of course. Truly, if Game of Thrones had employed a predominantly American cast, it would have come across as a campy Renaissance fair on steroids. It is therefore odd I’ve yet to visit London. On several occasions, I’ve sat a lounge at Heathrow awaiting travel to somewhere else, but I’ve never had my passport punched. Perhaps I’ve never taken the plunge because I already feel so immersed in the London scene via the “telly.” From binge-watching the Great British Baking Show to The Crown, I catch up, relish it all, and find them all keen as mustard. Now, on occasion, an international phenomena like Downton Abbey spurs broad, intergenerational interest, but it has been difficult for most of my friends to understand my longstanding love for Masterpiece Mystery.
Best of Masterpiece Mystery
It began with reading Agatha Christie mysteries and thereafter watching Poirot. David Suchet was perfect in the role, though I fail to understand why the killers always attended the “gathering of suspects” at the conclusion of each episode. If I was the culprit, I’d simply not show! But for many years, cozying up on a Sunday night to watch an English detective series became a staple of my weekend. Woe unto me, the last few seasons of Mystery have truly disappointed. Due to my sentimental longing for eras never lived, I have particularly enjoyed those period pieces set prior to my arrival in the world. Here, IMO, are the best of the treasured lot…
Poirot: Set in the 1920s & 30s, the urbane and finnicky Belgian detective never fails to disappoint, mon ami. Most of his cases were not too difficult, as an inordinate number of upper crust British murders are committed by whoever is next in line for the family inheritance.
Foyle’s War: Set during World War II, Michael Kitchen does a bang-on job in his portrayal of DCS Christopher Foyle–a caliber of man we are desperately short of these days. Honeysuckle Weeks is a perfect sidekick as Foyle’s driver, Sam. It’s all so spot-on!
Endeavor: A look at the psychedelic 1960’s via the lens of a junior detective earning his stripes. Season 9 is scheduled for June 2023. Ace!
British female detectives tend to be fewer in number, dull, and frumpish. Do you know why…? Because Brit producers, directors, and writers know they can never replicate a female crime-fighting wunderkind as beguilingly hip as Mrs. Emma Peel of The Avengers. I’m not talking about the sophomoric superhero movie or any Uma Thurman knockoff, I mean the classic 1960’s spy series starring the one and only, irrepressible, Diana Rigg. Diana was so rad in the day, she was the only Bond girl that convinced OO7 to marry her. It is almost impossible to find a short Emma Peel YouTube clip, as there is so much cool in her every movement or gesture, brevity fails to do her justice. This is the best I could do. Enjoy the cool.
RIP Dame Diana Rigg, and by-the-bye, nice job offing Joffrey Baratheon in GOT.
So… back to Long distance call from London
While the “Era of Wonderful Nonsense” is best recalled for its bohemian antics, it was also a decade of healing for those who suffered through the losses of the Great War and Spanish flu. I gave Alexandra a British father and made London her home base of operations to introduce this subplot, and made a point for her in her travels to briefly provide solace to scarred veterans–emotionally and physically–who had fought in differing theaters of the war. Civilians suffered no less. If your a fan of foreign films, I recently uncovered this gem about a young woman putting her life back together in 1919 Germany.
The novel’s subtle undertones regarding healing is best explored with the initial reason for Alexandra’s visit to London: to check in on her only surviving sibling, her brother William. Egregiously wounded at Amiens in 1918, he had required a long convalescence, and once discharged from the hospital had elected to settle into an isolative existence in Cookham, England, rather than return to the States. The two had never been close growing up, and Alexandra remained shattered by the loss of her eldest brother, Thomas, who was obliterated at Cambrai in 1917. Her reunion with William would soon blossom into the most profound relationship in Alexandra’s life and initiate a grand quest to dip William’s feet back into everyday society.
Hidden heroes
IMO, these days we give too much attention to the frivolous, loud, and obnoxious set, and overlook those quietly toeing more noble lines. Here are three people you’ve never heard of, and the magnanimous way they gave their talents to piece together shattered lives…
Sir Harold Gillies: A physician who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Great War, he is considered the father of modern plastic surgery. He ran the best “Tin nose shop” in London and performed facial reconstruction surgery on over 5,000 wounded veterans.
Anna Coleman Ladd: A sculptor born in Massachusetts, she served in the American Red Cross during the Great War, and used her artistic talents to create and paint new prosthetic faces for disfigured veterans out of her Paris studio.
Francis Derwent Wood: A British sculptor who mastered the art of using thin, malleable metals to create masks applied to restore the facial features of disfigured veterans.
As everyone’s favorite Gladiator Maximus once said: “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” Please do whatever you can to support our military veterans.