So, it's February 2020 and the motion picture Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (Tony Tilse, 2020) is soon to "drop" in the parlance of youth, and my rising excitement at the glorious return of one of the most glorious of heroines has bidden me to go back and revisit the place where both the saga and my infatuation began.
The first instalment of ABC's (that's the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, rather than the US TV network or the sadly defunct UK television company of Lew Grade fame) adaptations of Kerry Greenwood's series of novels revolving around the Honourable Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis, Sweeney Todd [David Moore, 2006], Game of Thrones [Jack Bender & Mark Mylod, 2016], Mindhorn [Sean Foley, 2016]), a flappin' 1920s detective with the inherited title of real-life Romana II Lalla Ward and the striking looks of the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novels' Romana III (based upon 1920s movie star Louise Brooks of Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl [both helmed by GW Pabst, 1929]).
Making her first appearance in Kerry Greenwood's novel Cocaine Blues in 1989 (the live-action series, unlike EON Productions' James Bond series or ITV's David Suchet-led Agatha Christie's Poirot adaptations, actually starting off with the first published story to feature the character), Phryne - her unusual name the result of her father confusing her originally selected name of Psyche (the beloved of Eros from Apuleius' Metamorphoses) with that of a famous 4th century BC Greek courtesan (a much more apposite moniker for the beguiling and sexually-liberated Miss Fisher, even if the name does unfortunately translate as "toad") - is a thoroughly forward-thinking and free 1920s lady, eschewing the patriarchal sexual politics of the era to be a thoroughly modern crimefighter (and accomplished aviatrix, as we see in the third adventure, The Green Mill Murder) solving mysteries with her trusty pearl-handled gold-plated revolver; the Lady with the Golden Gun proving a far more interesting, intriguing and alluring character than the titular triple-nippled Man...
Arriving aboard ship back home in Melbourne, Miss Fisher is met by her equally modern trouser-suit wearing friend Dr Elizabeth Macmillan (known as "Dr Mac", played by Tammy Macintosh - Jool of Antipodean sci-fi adventure series Farscape), before booking in the swanky Hotel Windsor in the knowledge that Edmond Hogan, Premier of the state of Victoria (chronologically pinning the story down to between 1927 and 1929) is also staying at this upmarket establishment. The wily Phryne has every intention of engineering an audience with Hogan (he's no Bogan), in order to block the release from prison of Murdoch Foyle, the man who murdered her sister, Janey. In the meantime, she finds herself invited - along with her stuffy aunt Prudence Stanley (the always fabulous Miriam Margolyes) - to a soiree at the home of Lydia Andrews (Miranda Otto, the horse-joy Eowyn of Peter Jackson's 2001-2003 Lord of the Rings saga and currently rocking Aunt Zelda in the Netflix Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), only to discover that Lydia's husband John has been discovered dead on their bathroom floor. Obviously wary of the methods and competence of the local police - including Detective Jack Robinson (Nathan Page) and his right-hand man Constable Hugh Collins (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) - she decides to investigate the matter herself.
Soon hooking up with her own personal Watson, Dot (Ashleigh Cummings) to investigate a web of mayhem, intrigue, cocaine smuggling and illicit backstreet abortions ('20s 'Stralia apparently having he same attitudes of modern day Norn Iron. Backstreet's back, alright?), the Honourable Miss Fisher (pron: "Mees Feesher") soon seals herself a place in the great canon of iconic iconoclasts of the crime-fighting persuasion and setting the scenario for thirty three more episodic adventures and now a major motion picture.
I urge all to investigate. Vital and charming, with a hint of Roaring Twenties art deco decadence. Yes, this. This, yes.
No comments:
Post a Comment