Dalziel and Pascoe: Season 1 [DVD]

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Andy Dalziel: "I'm a growing lad. I need fettling" (Hill 2008:97). The Yorkshire "thee, thine, tha, yon, owt, nowt, nay, aye, mebbe," among other forms of local dialect, add delicious flavor to Reginald Hill's mysteries featuring Dalziel and Pascoe. Those enamored of "chocolate-box" mystery confections may also appreciate the salt-of-the-earth qualities of Detective Superintendent Inspector Andy Dalziel. He's a Borgnine kinda guy, a chewy as the yeast in your bottle-conditioned ale. Though this isn't Midsomer County, Barnaby & Jones, ironically, the body-count in Mid-Yorkshire isn't as high as Midsomer's. Fans appreciate the low-brow toughness of Dalziel. I happen to love the Yorkshire setting, and have read all of Reginald Hill's wonderful, erudite mysteries in the Dalziel & Pascoe series. Warren Clarke is fun as Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel, and Colin Buchanan is the perfect foil as Detective Inspector Peter Pascoe. "With Pasco, a little visual horror went a long way. He'd tried everything from vacuous jocularity to Vedic mantras, but such sights [a corpse] still affected him deeply and later almost invariably replayed themselves on that inward eye which can be the bane of solitude" (Hill 2008:195). David Royle is perfect as Detective Sergeant Wield. Regarding Wieldy, Andy Dalziel says, "if yon's the first face you see on the morning, you don't need Jeeves's fancy hangover cure" (Hill 2008:166).A Clubbable Woman: This adaptation actually improves on the book, the first and weakest in the series. Along with Dalziel, I love rugby union. Things go dangerously amiss when a randy woman is allowed into the rugby club. The maddening thing with this disk/mystery, is there appears to be a manufacturer's flaw towards the end, where it says "After Three Months" the disk may freeze. Other reviewers have commented on this problem.An Advancement of Learning: Detective Superintendent Dalziel is beset by radical feminists, gossip, and spoiled, vain students at Holm Coltram University, where his partner Peter Pasco encounters his old love, Ellie.An Autumn Shroud: The foggy, soggy, fen-like environs of Lincolnshire shroud a great house in mystery. A stranded Dalziel first sees the enticing widow Bonnie Fielding (the beautiful Francesca Annis, a woman worthy of our Andy's rich and abundant attentions) whilst she drifts in becoming black to her husband's funeral. Several demises and robust encounters follow. An excellent adaption by Malcolm Bradbury.

I purchased this DVD used from Amazon.com. It is a faithful presentation of author Reginald Hill’s police procedural novels set in Yorkshire, England in the modern era. This set of two discs consists of three episodes representing three of the author’s novels: A Clubbable Woman, An Advancement of Learning, and An April Shroud. I have read all of the author’s Dalziel & Pascoe novels, and I have reviewed all of them. I found that, so far, my reviews of the DVDs matches my reviews of the novels.The screenplay faithfully reflects the author’s writings, and the acting is superb. The cinematics are gorgeous. The dialogue is realistic, although it would help most American viewers to turn on subtitles, and learn a little about the slang terminology used in the vicinity of Yorkshire. Still, I had little trouble understanding what was taking place.Both of the first two episodes (A Clubbable Woman, and An Advancement of Learning) are five-star performances, just like the original novels. An April Shroud, on the other hand, is not nearly as good. Neither was the novel. I rated it only three stars. Still pretty good, but not as good as the other two episodes.These are really well done TV shows. They are highly entertaining, and represent some of the highest quality video produced by the BBC. I highly recommend Season 1 of the Dalziel & Pascoe TV Series DVDs.

Recently, my wife and I have been watching a lot of BBC mystery shows. And when we ran out of Scott & Bailey, Luther, Vera, MI5 and others we have relied on Amazon reviews to point us to new shows and from those I bought seasons 1-3 of Dalzeil and Pascoe. Not to be a contrarian but I heartily disagree with the reviewer who called this series "the zenith of all mystery shows".Perhaps it is because I have no interest whatsoever in English Rugby, which was the focus of the first episode, but by the end of the 90 minutes I wanted to kill myself rather than learn who was the first murderer. I could have cared less. The second episode was better, but I kept wondering why Sergent Pascoe continued to deal with his old college girlfriend when she had such disdain for police. And then, episode 3 begins with him marrying her! Maybe I should have read the books, but the characters were poor sketches and their actions didn't always make sense. They also seem very dated.While Dalzeil was being honest when he said he was vulgar, drank too much, smoked too much, picked his nose and farted longer than biologically possible (or something to that effect)... I didn't think he had to remind the viewer of it every episode. I find those soliloquies neither literate nor biting. It is borish. That is not to say that characters can't be that way; a lot of the characters in the British mystery procedurals are "flawed", to say the least. But in the first three episodes I saw no redeeming qualities in Dalzeil other than the curious fact that he is always impeccably dressed which seems odd for his character.I tried to give the second season a go because I realized that there were many seasons of this series and there had to be some reason people liked it. This season begins with Pascoe promoted and his wife pregnant... but I stopped midway through the first episode. I had enough.I won't say I hated it, but I sure was not a fan. As the English say, "Just not my cup of tea". Anyone want to buy an unopened copy of season 3? (Just kidding, Amazon!)

I bought this again only on other people's opinions. I played it today and I found it fun to watch. I found many funny spots in the movie and liked how the two worked with each other. I find it hard sometimes to find movies like this that are mysteries but also have humor in it too. I think this was very good and I would consider buying the next sets that are available. I also like it better than Inspector Morse actually.

It seemed a long time to arrive.

Season One is fabulous. The stories are well written and the actors are wonderful. Warren Clarke is superb as Andy Dalziel the hard nosed police inspector with a sense of humour and a dash of sarcasm. His partner Peter Pascoe takes more than a few ribbings and the interaction between the two makes for great fun. The stories are also very interesting with many twists and turns. My only complaint is that there are just three episodes in Season One. I've already signed up for Season Two and can't wait 'til it comes out. Pure enjoyment!!

Added this to my collection of the series and h ave enjoyed all of them. I would highly reommend it

Amazing series!