The Ruth Rendell Mysteries

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
Starring	George Baker Louie Ramsay Christopher Ravenscroft
Composer(s)	Brian Bennett
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	12
No. of episodes	84
Production
Executive producer(s)	Graham Benson Colin Rogers Tim Vaughn
Producer(s)	John Davies (1987) Neil Zeiger (1988–2000)
Production company(s)	TVS (1987–1992) Meridian Broadcasting (1994–2000) Blue Heaven (1992, 1994–2000)
Distributor	ABC Family Worldwide ITV Studios
Release
Original network	ITV
Picture format	4:3 (1987–1996) 16:9 (1997–2000)
Audio format	Mono (1987–1992) Stereo (1994–2000)
Original release	2 August 1987 – 11 October 2000

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries is a British television series made by TVS and Meridian Broadcasting (in association with Blue Heaven productions) for ITV between 2 August 1987 and 11 October 2000.

Description

The series comprises adaptations of the works of Ruth Rendell, many of which are based on her extensive range of short stories. In some cases, the stories were expanded from Rendell's original material or elements from a number of stories were woven together into one episode. A smaller number of episodes were based on Rendell's full-length novels, such as Going Wrong, starring James Callis and Front Seat, starring Janet Suzman.

There were a total of 55 episodes centring on the Detective Inspector Wexford stories, starring George Baker as Wexford, Louie Ramsay as Dora Wexford and Christopher Ravenscroft as DI Mike Burden. An additional 29 episodes did not feature Wexford.

Inspector Wexford episodes

# Episode title Aired 1 Wolf to the Slaughter: Part 1 2 August 1987 2 Wolf to the Slaughter: Part 2 9 August 1987 3 Wolf to the Slaughter: Part 3 16 August 1987 4 Wolf to the Slaughter: Part 4 23 August 1987 5 A Guilty Thing Surprised: Part 1 19 June 1988 6 A Guilty Thing Surprised: Part 2 26 June 1988 7 A Guilty Thing Surprised: Part 3 3 July 1988 8 Shake Hands Forever: Part 1 23 September 1988 9 Shake Hands Forever: Part 2 30 September 1988 10 Shake Hands Forever: Part 3 7 October 1988 11 No Crying He Makes 23 December 1988 12 No More Dying Then: Part 1 22 October 1989 13 No More Dying Then: Part 2 29 October 1989 14 No More Dying Then: Part 3 5 November 1989 15 A Sleeping Life: Part 1 12 November 1989 16 A Sleeping Life: Part 2 19 November 1989 17 A Sleeping Life: Part 3 26 November 1989 18 The Veiled One 17 December 1989 19 Some Lie and Some Die: Part 1 30 September 1990 20 Some Lie and Some Die: Part 2 7 October 1990 21 Some Lie and Some Die: Part 3 14 October 1990 22 The Best Man to Die: Part 1 21 October 1990 23 The Best Man to Die: Part 2 28 October 1990 24 The Best Man to Die: Part 3 4 November 1990 25 An Unkindness of Ravens: Part 1 11 November 1990 26 An Unkindness of Ravens: Part 2 18 November 1990 27 Put on by Cunning 24 December 1990 28 A New Lease of Death: Part 1 29 September 1991 29 A New Lease of Death: Part 2 6 October 1991 30 A New Lease of Death: Part 3 13 October 1991 31 Murder Being Once Done: Part 1 20 October 1991 32 Murder Being Once Done: Part 2 27 October 1991 33 Murder Being Once Done: Part 3 3 November 1991

# Episode Title Aired 34 From Doon with Death: Part 1 10 November 1991 35 From Doon with Death: Part 2 17 November 1991 36 Means of Evil: Part 1 24 November 1991 37 Means of Evil: Part 2 1 December 1991 38 Achilles' Heel 26 December 1991 39 The Speaker of Mandarin: Part 1 27 September 1992 40 The Speaker of Mandarin: Part 2 4 October 1992 41 The Speaker of Mandarin: Part 3 11 October 1992 42 The Mouse in the Corner: Part 1 18 October 1992 43 The Mouse in the Corner: Part 2 25 October 1992 44 An Unwanted Woman: Part 1 1 November 1992 45 An Unwanted Woman: Part 2 8 November 1992 46 Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part 1 15 November 1992 47 Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part 2 22 November 1992 48 Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part 3 29 November 1992 49 Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part 4 6 December 1992 50 Simisola: Part 1 26 January 1996 51 Simisola: Part 2 2 February 1996 52 Simisola: Part 3 9 February 1996 53 Road Rage: Part 1 8 November 1998 54 Road Rage: Part 2 9 November 1998 55 Harm Done 11 October 2000

Non-Wexford episodes

# Episode title Aired 1 Talking to Strange Men 27 December 1992 2 Master of the Moor: Part 1 2 September 1994 3 Master of the Moor: Part 2 9 September 1994 4 Master of the Moor: Part 3 16 September 1994 5 Vanity Dies Hard: Part 1 24 March 1995 6 Vanity Dies Hard: Part 2 31 March 1995 7 Vanity Dies Hard: Part 3 7 April 1995 8 The Strawberry Tree: Part 1 21 April 1995 9 The Strawberry Tree: Part 2 28 April 1995 10 Heartstones 1 January 1996 11 The Secret House of Death: Part 1 8 March 1996 12 The Secret House of Death: Part 2 15 March 1996 13 A Case of Coincidence: Part 1 22 March 1996 14 A Case of Coincidence: Part 2 29 March 1996 15 The Double 3 January 1997

# Episode title Aired 16 A Dark Blue Perfume 10 January 1997 17 Bribery and Corruption: Part 1 17 January 1997 18 Bribery and Corruption: Part 2 24 January 1997 19 Thornapple 31 January 1997 20 May and June: Part 1 7 February 1997 21 May and June: Part 2 14 February 1997 22 Front Seat 21 February 1997 23 Going Wrong: Part 1 2 June 1998 24 Going Wrong: Part 2 9 June 1998 25 Going Wrong: Part 3 11 June 1998 26 You Can't Be Too Careful 24 December 1998 27 The Orchard Walls 31 December 1998 28 The Lake of Darkness 3 May 1999 29 The Fallen Curtain 6 August 1999

Media releases

On 9 April 2007, Network in the UK released 17 mysteries on DVD in a 9-disc box set called The Best Of Ruth Rendell Mysteries, including three of Inspector Wexford's most acclaimed mysteries. Two 3-disc DVD sets are available in the US, with the third set being released on 24 June 2008.

In the UK, the series was repeated through June 2014 on the current digital channel ITV Encore, formerly shown on ITV3 ten years ago.

References

External links

• The Ruth Rendell Mysteries at the Internet Movie Database
• The Ruth Rendell Mysteries at TV.com
• British Film Institute Screen online