At the wonderful country house, known as the Chimneys, a group of young things gambol the twenties away, without a care in the world. That is until one day Gerry Wade, well known for sleeping in late, is found dead in his bed. Although it looks like an accidental overdose there are references to a secret society known as The Seven Dials which leads Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent and her friend Jimmy Thesiger on a quest to find the killers. Along the way they discover a plot surrounding a secret formula which could have been the cause of their friends death, but can they find The Seven Dials in time to stop their nefarious scheme?...

The Seven Dials Mystery (1982), originally transmitted by ITV, was directed by Tony Whamby, who is now primarily known as a director of American television, such as The X-Files and Bones. Pat Sandys adapted the television drama from an original novel by Agatha Christie; this is the first time it has been available to buy.

The story will appeal to both fans of Christie and fans of period drama, indeed the period costumes are one of the highlights of the piece.

As far as the acting goes this is really going to be a matter of choice. Some will love the jolly hockey sticks approach that most of the actors have chosen, though to be honest, at times, I found it to be distracting as I wasn’t sure if I should be laughing - it's difficult to deliver dramatic lines to a character called ‘Pongo’.

To a non-English audience it will just reiterate prejudices that all English people either have a regional accent and a cap to doff or are terribly posh. If you’re posh you’re either slightly mad or ever so adventurous, and should you be stuck with a regional accent then you're likely to be working for a living.

That aside, some of the performances are great comic creations and none more so than John Gielgud’s Marquis of Caterham, who for the most part appears to live in a crazy world of his own creation. It was worth watching the show just for his performance. Many will recognise Harry Andrews as Superintendent Battle, who portrays his character as a deferential yet tenacious policeman. Deferential because this is still a world where privilege holds sway, where you are either posh or not.

Bundle is played by Cheryl Campbell as epitome of the tomboy heroine. Climbing ivy and wearing slacks, she tears around the countryside solving the murder, seemingly oblivious to any real danger, with her friend Jimmy (James Warwick).

The structure of the story will be familiar to Christie fans. Start with a nice domestic scene; add a murder, then have your heroes chase around until the end where a character will explain the whole thing. The reason for the chasing around is that like Christie’s book you are shown everything that you need to solve the murder, or in this case murders. Of course, there is a lot of misdirection so that when the reveal happens everyone can go: "Ah, now I get it".

The picture is the original 4:3 which does not look like a restored print due to the amount of grain in the picture, plus some print damage and evident artifacts. For special features you get an Agatha Christie text biography, filmographies of the major actors and a picture gallery. The whole thing runs to 133 mins and rather than cut it into one piece the breaks for the adverts have been left in.

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Charles Packer