4/5 Parsley, sage...
  by E. A Solinas (MD USA)
Most mystery series have big tough longtime cops or lovably eccentric oddballs as their detectives.

So it's a bit refreshing to see a pair of utterly ordinary detectives in the light mystery series "Rosemary and Thyme" -- one a cop-turned-housewife, and one a feisty horticulturist. You won't find any mind-blowing mysteries, just solid whodunnits and likable characters... and plants. Lots and lots of beautiful plants.

Laura Thyme (Pam Ferris) has just been dumped by her husband of 27 years, for a "twenty-three-year-old tart!" When visiting an old pal, she encounters plant pathologist Rosemary Boxer (Felicity Kendal) who is promptly fired by her slimy boss. The two wronged women team together to solve a bizarre mystery involving poisonous plants, a car wreck, and a serial killer.

After that, Rosemary and Laura go into business together, treating sick lawns and creating picturesque gardens. But like any good detectives, they keep bumping into sinister crimes, both of the past and present: a spa matriarch is strangled at her desk, skeletons are uncovered in a murdered pop star's garden, and a man is killed in a graveyard... with an arrow.

Things don't improve much in the following seasons -- Rosemary and Laura end up dealing with wrecked romantic gardens, Parisian theft and murder, school pranks gone wrong, Italian restaurants, ferocious competition at a garden show, murder at a vineyard, sabotaged plays and tennis camps.... and even an abandoned baby that may have something to do with a murder.

"Rosemary and Thyme" is notable more for its cozy, cottagey feel than for its intricate mysteries -- but then again, they don't try to be complex or twisty. Instead, the stories focus on our likable horticulturists, and the lovely gardens they create or restore... and the entertaining dialogue ("You've broken the bloody window!" Rosemary yells at a sniper) makes this even more fun.

There's a pleasantly old-fashioned flavour to the series -- lots of vine-draped cottages, manorhouses, luxurious resorts, vineyards and herbal skills. Sure, there's laptops, TV shows, drug dealers and myriad cell phones. But those are just the trappings on an ordinary little mystery series, where the plant sicknesses often have something to do with the murders.

Of course, the leads make or break a series like this. Fortunately, Kendal and Ferris have excellent chemistry. Laura and Rosemary are an entertaining pair, with just the right mix of similarities and differences. Laura is a sensible ex-cop/housewife who is still dealing with her family tensions, while Laura is a cultured academic ("more a bookworm than an earthworm") with a rough streak.

Plant lovers and mystery buffs should enjoy the cozy, vine-covered mysteries of "Rosemary and Thyme." It's just fun and pleasant, all the way through.

5/5 So glad to see the full collection in one box
  by B. Hartford (Massachusetts - United States)
I really love this series - especially the final series (3). With all the interest in British mysteries and gardening, I am amazed that the show was not developed many, many years ago. Sadly, the Rosemary & Thyme series only lasted for 3 series and was abruptly cancelled.

The premise of the story is about two women of middle age who each face life-changing experiences (one, a pending divorce and the other is fired from her position as professor of horticulture from a UK college). Both characters befriend each other and start their own gardening business. This new adventure takes them all over the UK as well as Spain, France, and Italy.

While working on gardens, they always seem to stumble upon murders. Both Rosemary & Thyme add their unique skills and gifts to solve these murders all the while designing and planting breath-taking gardens.

There are many aspects of the series that I find wonderful, but the thing I appreciate the most is the knowledge, that even those of us in our middle years can find new adventures and create new identities which bring us happiness and fulfillment.

Partly due to this show, I had since enrolled in a garden design course to start me on a new adventure as a designer.... Thanks Rosemary & Thyme!

5/5 Do not have to compare to the book
  by bernie (Arlington, Texas)
Finally a program exists that was built from scratch and not based on a book or writer. They can not do it wrong because this is it. It looks like there is more horticulture in this series than in the Brother Cadfael series.

Two women, each have a Life changing experience just before the series starts. Soon they become friends. One a hands on gardener, with a law enforcement back ground Laura Thyme, (Pam Ferris), the other an academic horticulturist with an old four wheeler vehicle Rosemary Boxer (Felicity Kendal).

The programs are of the two trying to find out who dunnit and how. We do not get bogged down in love interests.

Each episode is unique in its approach. The only pattern I see is that it is like in the movie "A shot in the dark" where everyone is guilty except the maid. In this series there may not be a lit of murderers, however there are a lot of guilty people.

Well sit back and enjoy the view, smell the roses, and buy the series so you can watch again and again.


5/5 Miss Marple and her clone leave her garden to tend those of others.
  by R. C. Walker (Encinitas CA, United States)
It's well known that Brits generally do murder better than Yanks (or anyone else, for that matter). This trend started with Conan Doyle and continues right down to the present moment. Part of the reason for this is that Brit mysteries are genteel and intelligent. Yank mysteries are often written as if the main audience consists of cave men. Which is, alas, all too true. Even so, the Brit example is starting to sink in on this side of the pond. Virtually all of the main characters in superb series such as "Bones" and "Numbers" consist of nerds who actually use 3- and 4-syllables (and bigger) words. They also omit gratuitous violence (tiresome) and profanity (even more tiresome). Readers may also recall the spectacular success of "Murder She Wrote", set among the rural beauty of the Murder Capital of New England, Cabot Cove. Genteel, engaging, beautifully filmed, this was everything a good mystery ought to be. If you actually like urban grunge and gritty plotting, but want something from the Brits in that line, there's always Helen Mirren's "Prime Suspect". This is really good grunge and grit, especially if you want Brit quality instead of slipshod Yank stuff that uses gratuitous violence to distract you from the vapidity of what you're watching.

The problem is that good Brit mysteries outnumber Yank ones as the Chinese outnumber the Brits. This first decade of the 21st Century is no exception. From 2003 to 2007 we were treated to the wonderful "Rosemary and Thyme". All indications are that after 3 seasons (03, 04, 06/07) and 2 specials (04, 05), R&T are through. Well, we still have the long-running "Midsomer Murders" and the more recent "The Last Detective".

Rosemary Boxer (played wonderfully by Felicity Kendal) and Laura Thyme (played even better if possible by Pam Ferris) meet by chance as the latter's husband is deserting her. They go into business as professional gardeners and go about (mostly) rebuilding decrepit plantings. Lo and behold, very shortly they have a body in their garden. Unlike the Midsomer people, the R&T people spread the wealth of death around, taking their characters to beautiful places in England, France, Italy, and Spain. The gardens are often spectacular, and even if not (one episode involves a lawn; another, a grape grove), there is usually a beautiful and/or interesting building to compensate. What we don't get is the American favorite, (ugh!) urban grunge.

The mysteries themselves are all to brief - all episodes but 2 longer ones are only 48 minutes (as opposed to, say, 100 for Midsomer). In the beginning the girls don't solve the murder so much as they flush the guilty party into the waiting arms of the police. Mostly, however, they work out whodunit. These are good little conundrums, but it would be nice if they had more time in which to get worked out.

The scripts are clever and witty, informed by an insidious sense of humor. They're full of hilarious throwaway quips and verbal exchanges. This tendency reaches its height in the last episode in the set (the 2005 special), "The Cup of Silence". Here we get an actual black-out skit, á la Ernie Kovacs, which we should call "The Donkey Shop". It proceeds from the outré premise that somebody would actually try to make a go of a gift shop that sells nothing but donkey-related items. This builds in an exchange right out of Monty Python that leads to one of the most wonderful puns I've ever heard.

Besides, any series that dares to have one of its characters quote the immortal limerick, "While Titian was mixing rose madder", can do no wrong.

OK. Tiziano (Titian) Tecelli (1477-1571!) was a great artist. Despite its name, rose madder (root of the plant of the same name) is a brilliant red, often referred to a "true" red. OK, I had to look up the dates.

Aside from the witty scripts, the acting is on a par with them. There are several talented guest stars, including the brilliant Phyllida Law. One of the stars is a gizmo - that used to steam the grape groves in "Cup of Silence". Bless us, holy Rube Goldberg!!

R&T comes on 9 DVDs in a compact case. The discs are just a little difficult to remove. The aspect is 16x9. Typical of Brit programs (and this is a serious flaw), there are no subtitles. One of the "special features" actually is special. The first DVD for each season (or "series", as the Brits refer to it) contains a featurette on the locations used for that season. These are informative and have some beautiful footage. The rest is silence (of which, as previously noted, you can get a whole cup with the last disc).

Note on the lack of subtitles: luckily, the actors' diction is particularly precise and clear overall. Subtitles are not quite the necessity they normally are, although people who don't hear well, or at all, will find this lack damn inconsiderate.

As you might have figured, I highly recommend this collection. It will give you 18 hours of viewing pleasure at a cost only a couple of inches of shelf space.


5/5 Excellent mystery/garden series!
  by Dr. Lesley Degner (Winnipeg, Canada)
For those of us who love both gardening and mysteries, this series is a wonderful find. I had first seen a couple of episodes while staying in England and was impressed, and now have thoroughly enjoyed working my way through all of the the episodes on my new home theatre system. The quality of the picture was top rate, the gardens were enviously beautiful when completed (and I got some good ideas from them!), and the plots were well drawn. Of course, the two actresses were great--both funny and engaging. It is wonderful to see "ladies of a certain age" (ie, my own) on the screen and being shown to still have interesting, even exciting, lives. Even their Range Rover is a character who plays an important role--sort of like a side kick in the old westerns. My set of DVDs is now making the rounds of my friends who are deriving great enjoyment from them. It is the kind of set you could sit down to watch every year and know you are in for guaranteed fun! One can only hope that someone somewhere will start to develop this genre of British gardening mysteries and give it the attention it deserves.