Rosemary & Thyme The Complete Series
February 2008 Reviewed by: Charlotte Meyer Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Among their many crime series, the BBC has a long and varied line of female sleuths. From the prim spinster Miss Marple to the hard-drinking Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, the British woman detective is never the same. And the series’ premises are just as varied. Hettie Wainthropp, the stout wife of a pensioner, is bored, housebound, and short of money, so she hangs out her shingle and solves the small crimes the police ignore. DCI Janine Lewis of Blue Murder, a single mother of four, solves grisly crimes but also straightens out the misdeeds of her teenagers at home.

The tradition is nicely augmented by Rosemary & Thyme, a series with another unusual premise. Two middle-aged women down on their luck team up as gardening specialists. Rosemary Boxer (Felicity Kendal) is a university botanist who has lost her teaching job, and Laura Thyme (Pam Ferris) is a housewife, formerly a police sergeant, whose husband has left her for another woman. Their business, called "Rosemary and Thyme," takes them on interesting assignments, such as designing a memorial theme garden, restoring the grounds of an 18th-century estate, or repairing the brown patches on the lawns of an elite boys’ school. On every assignment, the two gardeners happen upon a murder, usually right on the grounds, and become freelance sleuths as well.

The series was recently discontinued after only three years. An obvious explanation might be that its apparent audience -- older women gardeners -- was too small. Not so -- all sorts of people blogged to protest when the series ended. Its appeal lies in the friendship between the women, a close one despite the differences in their personalities. Rosemary is logical, blunt, and worldly. Laura is intuitive, diplomatic, and sweet. Rosemary is sexy and blonde; Laura is stout and motherly. The British love their gardens, and every episode is shot in a beautiful garden somewhere in England, or perhaps in Spain or Italy. The women drive from job to job in a beloved old Land Rover, bouncing along through the lush, flowery countryside. The locations often take us into beautiful old interiors too, with fresh floral arrangements to be seen in every room.

Finally, the plots are thick and complicated, the suspects are many, the women’s often-unprofessional escapades are funny. They get themselves into scrape after scrape. Critics protest that the series is unrealistic, citing, for example, scenes where the two women rush on the murderer in a dark basement, accusing him face to face, while he’s holding a blunt weapon overhead. But these critics are missing the fun.

This DVD covers all three years in a nine-disc boxed set of all its 22 episodes. The English ballad "Scarborough Fair" is the opening theme (often attributed wrongfully to Simon & Garfunkel), performed by guitarist John Williams, and that haunting melody is woven into the original score by Christopher Gunning. The sound is stereo, but there’s lots to hear: piercing female screams, shattering glass, resonant cathedral organs. Dialogue takes some getting used to and is occasionally a little uneven in volume. The video is very good, with nice clean, crisp colors and clear darks. The extras include a slide show, production and location notes, filmographies and interviews with Kendal and Ferris. There’s a well-constructed website too that repeats some of the material in the special features: www.rosemaryandthyme.tv.

It is to be regretted that this popular show didn’t survive beyond three years, but at least there’s this well-made DVD set. As it says on the box, "Great fun for mystery fans and green thumbs alike!"

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