Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke is one of the greatest detective characters in crime fiction. He is many things: a lawyer, a medical doctor, a genius at forensic science, a loyal friend, a shy person, and a very handsome man who is uninterested in personal romance. His greatest enjoyment in life, besides seeing an innocent person found not guilty, is a quiet dinner with a friend. He lives very simply in his legal chambers and, while he wants to get paid when possible, his motivation in life isn't money: it is to defend the innocent and unmask the guilty. One thing Dr. Thorndyke never is, in the many books and stories about him by Dr. R. Austin Freeman (who was a medical doctor) is vain.
Unfortunately, the screenwriter has made Thorndyke into a very vain person in this story, for some reason we can never know. Perhaps he felt that presenting Dr. Thorndyke as he is in the books: a man who lives on a very high moral level, made him too hard for viewers to accept. The enduring popularity of the books (still in print) would contradict this idea, but we get a version of Dr. Thorndyke in this script which is less than the one of the stories, due to saddling him with an entirely unjustified and ridiculous character flaw of vanity.
I hope the other episodes of this series are more faithful to their detective characters than this one was. Not recommended.
Unfortunately, the screenwriter has made Thorndyke into a very vain person in this story, for some reason we can never know. Perhaps he felt that presenting Dr. Thorndyke as he is in the books: a man who lives on a very high moral level, made him too hard for viewers to accept. The enduring popularity of the books (still in print) would contradict this idea, but we get a version of Dr. Thorndyke in this script which is less than the one of the stories, due to saddling him with an entirely unjustified and ridiculous character flaw of vanity.
I hope the other episodes of this series are more faithful to their detective characters than this one was. Not recommended.