Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow were well-known american outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the central united states with their gang during the great depression. their exploits captured the attention of the american public during the “public enemy era” between 1931 and 1934. they and their gang are believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders. the couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in north louisiana by law officers.
As lovers of crime fiction will know, Phryne - that's ph as in physician and Phryne to rhyme with briny - started life as the heroine of a wonderful series of novels from that city's Kerry Greenwood, and given the demand for the adventures of the raunchy, independent Miss Fisher, Greenwood is still producing them.
Now, inhabited by the gorgeous Essie Davis (Cloudstreet, The Slap), Phryne is also the star of an ambitious and much awaited 13-part series for the ABC. And what a star Davis is too, a beautiful actress who seems not so much to play Phryne Fisher but to collaborate with her. A dab hand at conducting an elegant dalliance, Davis's Miss Fisher is equally at home in Melbourne's Parisian-style bistros or mixing with the city's hard men in darkened lanes, her stylish heels clicking in jazz time as her gold-plated revolver urgently returns fire.
She is gorgeous, thrilling and dangerous: the country will fall in love with her style, panache and determination.
I am a fan of Greenwood's novels, and Davis is just how I imagined Phryne Fisher, even though at various times I have fantasised about Cate Blanchett or Toni Collette in the role. Thankfully the show, produced by Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox, is as witty and elegant as the novels, with just the right dark edge: a kind of attractive Bleak City noirishness. Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is produced with genuine big-screen cinematic style: the establishing first episode has the experienced hand of Tony Tilse to give it elegant direction, and there's a lovely sound track from Greg Walker that echoes the musicality of Greenwood's prose... Read More
