The Murder at Road Hill House
In 1860, Inspector Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard is sent to rural Wiltshire to investigate the murder of the three-year-old boy Saville Kent, who was snatched from his bed at night and murdered.
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- Cast:
- Paddy Considine , Peter Capaldi , Tom Georgeson , William Beck , Emma Fielding , Tim Pigott-Smith , Kate O'Flynn
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Reviews
Pretty Good
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
This applies to all 4 of the Whicher movies. They are full of well realized characters acting in a way which is reasonably consistent with what I know of the period. The mysteries are clever and the solutions are, for the most part, very satisfying. If you like this sort of program you will like this one. If you don't, give this one a try.
This detail movie about the true and absolutely sensational murder mystery that occurred in England in the 1860s gave birth to Sir Arthur Canon Dolye's "Sherlock Holmes". The life of Constance Kent was a was disgrace by murdering her half brother but was reborn after becoming a Christian and seeking forgiveness. Queen Victoria forgave her to a life in prision. After which she join her brother in Austrailia and led a life of nursing. She died at the age of 100. She was still in the newspapers although in the obituaries. Could God forgive this murderess ? I think so. She led a good life in Austrialia. I saw the Road House in Wilshire, its the same at pictured in the movie. Which leads me to believe that Kate Summerscale had a lot to do with this movie. I even prayed over the grave of Saville Kent after I talked to a few people in Rode, Wiltshire, England. I imagine that after the movie, there is alot of tourists looking at the house. Just like the movie "Bagdad Cafe", although there is nothing left of the small area now.
I came across the 'Whicher' series of dramas on amazon prime. I'm so glad I did because 1) I've never heard of the actors and 2) I am put off by the dark grim environment of the times portrayed. Luckily, the acting and writing (and story) were good enough to overcome my biases.Watching these Whicher stories (I have not read the novel from which the film is adapted, I am impressed that this is straight story-telling. Every few minutes, I appreciate that it is clear the story is going somewhere. That holds my interest - where? There are not the distracting subplots and twists so often found when a mystery unravels. Whicher has one aim - to solve a crime - and I'm taken along for the ride. That's an interesting ride, too!Very enjoyable viewing.
Based on the best-selling novel, which I've not read, this was high-end costume-drama based on a true-life child murder in the mid-Victorian era. Thus we get expensive production values in casting, sets and costumes so that the piece doesn't lack in atmosphere.What it did lack though was suspense as the to all intents forced-looking circumstantial suspicions of crack Metropolitan detective Whicher somehow turn out some five years after their initial dismissal (leading to the end of his career and descent into penury) to be true after all. This is probably why so much prominence was given to the examination of Whicher's character as he is beset by the obstructive local count police force, an unsympathetic local public, jeering local press and yet urged to "get a result" by a combination of parliamentary pressure, the local judiciary (at least initially) and his own over-confidence. Given that miscarriages of justice still occur today, often for some if not all of the same reasons as stated above, the plot has some relevance to today but is weakened by the act that Whicher's hunches largely come true. The acting was largely acceptable for TV drama if not exceptional. Somehow though, Addy Considine didn't convince me that he was as driven as his character's actions would indicate and similarly Peter Capaldi failed to bring passion to his part as the philandering father figure who recoils from the unpleasant home-truths he's forced to face.For me it was crying out for either a dramatic courtroom finale or major plot-twist and delivered neither. If that's because that's how this true-life adaptation actually played out, then fair enough, but as latter-day TV drama, I felt it missed its mark.