Sing a Song of Murder

I loved this episode, people complaing about the accent. Do any of you know Angela Lansbury sang that song in, the picture of dorian Grey. And of course her accent is gone look how long she's been in America. People are never satisfied, just have to complain about something.

Jessica receives a call informing her that her English cousin Emma, a music hall entertainer has died. Jessica travels to London to sort out her affairs. Emma's nearest and dearest are shocked to see the resemblance of the two, but not as shocked as Jessica is that Emma is in fact alive.

Now, where do you begin with this one, it's almost impossible to review, if you're too critical and having a bad day you'd be forgiven for giving it a 4*, on a good day you'd sing along, get absorbed in the nonsense and give it a 9*. It is definitely a marmite episode, you will (in the mood) love or hate it. On the plus side, it's pure fun, and you can see that Lansbury enjoyed every second playing two parts, her stage song is the highlight. I like the story, and I applaud the efforts to create London.

If I were being critical, London it ain't, the stock footage looks bad, and the fact that on every corner you see London taxis, London buses, Big Ben etc. London overload or what. Olivia Hussey (I wouldn't ordinarily criticise as she's in my favourite film Death on the Nile) but she's very bad, are I say it Patrick Macnee perhaps attacked the role with too much enthusiasm.

Now the worst part, the accents. Normally on the show, every British guest star sounds like they've been living at Buckhingham Palace, here they sound like bouncers from Eastenders.

I won't review the story as this has already been done, as has the obvious Non-British locations.

The 'English' Actors seem to have had the same voice coach as Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. Even the British ones have bad accents; I've never heard Patrick Macnee and Glynis Johns, both very talented, that bad! Don't know what was worse, Macnee's odd English or Johns appalling Irish.

Do Americans really think we talk like that, or just American directors? Certainly the Americans I know don't.

Please. if you want British characters, let them sound British. If you want an Irish accent, get an Irish actor to play it. The same applies to Scottish which thankfully there were none to be murdered in this film but are often done very badly in American films.

We want Characters, not Caricatures.

I have no clue what planktonrules is talking about in their review of this episode.

All of the cast is from the UK, so there are no "horrible fake accents" as they describe. Quite the opposite, Angela Lansbury seems quite at home working with her fellow countrymen.

It's somewhat of a thin plot (as far as Murder She Wrote goes), but there is some really great acting by some excellent masters of stage and screen performers in this episode.

The writing for the dialogue is excellent, and with a few minor slips, use proper british idioms and terminology.

The cast is a powerhouse lineup of veteran UK performers who are at the top of their game here; Patrick MacNee, Glynis Johns, Olivia Hussey... the cast saves a relatively weak storyline.

Jessica's cousin Emma McGill pulls a trick worthy of her American relative when she fakes her own death and asks Jessica to come for the memorial service to investigate. With Emma hidden away in a Streatham flat, Jessica pokes into the behind the scenes life of the Mayhew theatre to discern who might have wanted her dead. Then Emma's dresser becomes the victim of another apparent attempt on her life. With the secret breached, can Jessica figure out who is threatening her cousin before her curtain comes down for good?

Love the accents, America's view of a quaint British portrait of music hall and afternoon tea where every daughter says daddy - it's a little tedious at times but grand performances from Lansbury, Patrick Macnee and the scrumptious Olivia Hussey, an underrated actress, keep this interesting.