Summer's Lease

I can only reiterate the plea of a previous reviewer: This wonderful little mini-series, faithfully rendering one of John Mortimer's quirkier novels, ought to be available on video! It has atmosphere, landscapes, art, history, politics, intrigue, character development, a sympathetic protagonist, comedy, pathos, tragedy...

Intriguing story about an English family who rent a villa in Tuscany for the summer. Strange things are afoot and the mother/housewife of the family plays amateur sleuth.

Scenes from this series have remained with me years after seeing it. On the surface, it's a fairly slow-paced detective story, as the wife of a family summering in Tuscany uncovers a series of disturbing facts about a death that occurred before her arrival.

John Mortimer has a slightly wicked sense of humour, well demonstrated in this superbly written and acted work. Not likely to be enjoyed by the non-literate or younger adult, but a treasure for the middle-aged parent.

I'm writing on behalf of my elderly Mother In Law (86)who has lost her one and only copy of Summer's Lease.

"Summer's Lease" was the first John Mortimer book that I ever read and it transported me to Tuscany then- and it does so every time that I've read it since. The film version manages to capture much of the magic of the book in a story about a slightly dysfunctional family vacationing in a somehow sinister, rental villa in Tuscany.

Further to my comment of 26 December 2002, I wish to alert others - who may wish to offer copies - that I have now located a replacement (PAL VHS) copy of Summers Lease much to the joy of my 90 yo MIL. Many thanks to those users of this data base who responded to my plea.

This worthy PBS series is now available on DVD. I watched it back when it was on PBS and have now enjoyed watching it a second time.

My husband and I were mesmerized when we saw the BBC mini-series and kept checking to see if there was a VHS version, but alas. We are now the very proud and happy owners of a DVD version made available thru Acorn Productions.