The Nine Tailors is an engaging four part mystery. In my opinion it's the best of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels, and perhaps the best of the dramatisations.
"Nine tailors make a man", which explains why Adolphe Menjou (Hollywood's best-dressed actor) titled his memoir "It Took Nine Tailors". In Dorothy Sayers's novel (and this adaptation), the title refers to a Church of England tradition: the parish bell chimes nine "tailors" (tolls) to mark the death of a man, six for a woman, three for a child.
The least stuffy and stodgy out of the first four "Lord Peter Whimsey" adaptations with Ian Carmichael. Make no mistake, it is still stuffy and stodgy, but it's a more expanded and ambitious production that the others; it even climaxes with a flood!
Some rate THE NINE TAILORS as Dorothy's best "Lord Peter" novel. It is certainly very good, but I like GAUDY NIGHT for that encomium.
This is undoubtedly the best of the LPW adaptations from the 1970s. The location shooting is beautiful, in particular the church interiors and, as other reviewers have noted, the countryside.
Of all the novels by Dorothy Sayers, this is the best for mystery and surprise. This Masterpiece Theater production does it full justice.
In the 1970's several of Dorothy L. Sayers's "Lord Peter Wimsey" mysteries were made into TV series, starring Ian Carmichael.
