The Ruth Rendell Mysteries

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
Starring	George Baker Louie Ramsay Christopher Ravenscroft
Composer(s)	Brian Bennett
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of seasons	12
No. of episodes	84
Production
Executive producer(s)	Graham Benson Colin Rogers Tim Vaughn
Production company(s)	TVS (1987–92) Meridian (1994–2000) Blue Heaven (1992, 1994–2000)
Distributor	ABC Family Worldwide ITV Studios
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	2 August 1987 (1987-08-02) – 11 October 2000 (2000-10-11)

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries is a British television series made by Television South and Meridian Television (in association with Blue Heaven productions) for ITV between 2 August 1987 and 11 October 2000.

Description

The series comprises adaptations of the works of Ruth Rendell, many of which are based on her extensive range of short stories. In some cases, the stories were expanded from Rendell's original material or elements from a number of stories were woven together into one episode. A smaller number of episodes were based on Rendell's full-length novels, such as Going Wrong, starring James Callis and Front Seat, starring Janet Suzman.

There were a total of 55 episodes centring on the Detective Inspector Wexford stories, starring George Baker, Louie Ramsay and Christopher Ravenscroft, and an additional 29 episodes did not feature Wexford.

Inspector Wexford episodes

#	Episode title	Aired
1	Wolf to the Slaughter: Part 1	2 August 1987
2	Wolf to the Slaughter: Part 2	9 August 1987
3	Wolf to the Slaughter: Part 3	16 August 1987
4	Wolf to the Slaughter: Part 4	23 August 1987
5	A Guilty Thing Surprised: Part 1	19 June 1988
6	A Guilty Thing Surprised: Part 2	26 June 1988
7	A Guilty Thing Surprised: Part 3	3 July 1988
8	Shake Hands Forever: Part 1	23 September 1988
9	Shake Hands Forever: Part 2	30 September 1988
10	Shake Hands Forever: Part 3	7 October 1988
11	No Crying He Makes	23 December 1988
12	No More Dying Then: Part 1	22 October 1989
13	No More Dying Then: Part 2	29 October 1989
14	No More Dying Then: Part 3	5 November 1989
15	A Sleeping Life: Part 1	12 November 1989
16	A Sleeping Life: Part 2	19 November 1989
17	A Sleeping Life: Part 3	26 November 1989
18	The Veiled One	17 December 1989
19	Some Lie and Some Die: Part 1	30 September 1990
20	Some Lie and Some Die: Part 2	7 October 1990
21	Some Lie and Some Die: Part 3	14 October 1990
22	The Best Man to Die: Part 1	21 October 1990
23	The Best Man to Die: Part 2	28 October 1990
24	The Best Man to Die: Part 3	4 November 1990
25	An Unkindness of Ravens: Part 1	11 November 1990
26	An Unkindness of Ravens: Part 2	18 November 1990
27	Put on by Cunning	24 December 1990
28	A New Lease of Death: Part 1	29 September 1991

#	Episode Title	Aired
29	A New Lease of Death: Part 2	6 October 1991
30	A New Lease of Death: Part 3	13 October 1991
31	Murder Being Once Done: Part 1	20 October 1991
32	Murder Being Once Done: Part 2	27 October 1991
33	Murder Being Once Done: Part 3	3 November 1991
34	From Doon with Death: Part 1	10 November 1991
35	From Doon with Death: Part 2	17 November 1991
36	Means of Evil: Part 1	24 November 1991
37	Means of Evil: Part 2	1 December 1991
38	Achilles' Heel	26 December 1991
39	The Speaker of Mandarin: Part 1	27 September 1992
40	The Speaker of Mandarin: Part 2	4 October 1992
41	The Speaker of Mandarin: Part 3	11 October 1992
42	The Mouse in the Corner: Part 1	18 October 1992
43	The Mouse in the Corner: Part 2	25 October 1992
44	An Unwanted Woman: Part 1	1 November 1992
45	An Unwanted Woman: Part 2	8 November 1992
46	Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part 1	15 November 1992
47	Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part 2	22 November 1992
48	Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part 3	29 November 1992
49	Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part 4	6 December 1992
50	Simisola: Part 1	26 January 1996
51	Simisola: Part 2	2 February 1996
52	Simisola: Part 3	9 February 1996
53	Road Rage: Part 1	8 November 1998
54	Road Rage: Part 2	9 November 1998
55	Harm Done	11 October 2000

Non-Wexford episodes

#	Episode title	Aired
1	Talking to Strange Men	27 December 1992
2	Master of the Moor: Part 1	2 September 1994
3	Master of the Moor: Part 2	9 September 1994
4	Master of the Moor: Part 3	16 September 1994
5	Vanity Dies Hard: Part 1	24 March 1995
6	Vanity Dies Hard: Part 2	31 March 1995
7	Vanity Dies Hard: Part 3	7 April 1995
8	The Strawberry Tree: Part 1	21 April 1995
9	The Strawberry Tree: Part 2	28 April 1995
10	Heartstones	1 January 1996
11	The Secret House of Death: Part 1	8 March 1996
12	The Secret House of Death: Part 2	15 March 1996
13	A Case of Coincidence: Part 1	22 March 1996
14	A Case of Coincidence: Part 2	29 March 1996
15	The Double	3 January 1997

#	Episode title	Aired
16	A Dark Blue Perfume	10 January 1997
17	Bribery and Corruption: Part 1	17 January 1997
18	Bribery and Corruption: Part 2	24 January 1997
19	Thornapple	31 January 1997
20	May and June: Part 1	7 February 1997
21	May and June: Part 2	14 February 1997
22	Front Seat	21 February 1997
23	Going Wrong: Part 1	2 June 1998
24	Going Wrong: Part 2	9 June 1998
25	Going Wrong: Part 3	11 June 1998
26	You Can't Be Too Careful	24 December 1998
27	The Orchard Walls	31 December 1998
28	The Lake of Darkness	3 May 1999
29	The Fallen Curtain	6 August 1999

Media releases

In 2007, Network in the UK released 17 mysteries on DVD in a 9-disc box set called The Best Of Ruth Rendell Mysteries, including three of Inspector Wexford's most acclaimed mysteries. Two 3-disc DVD sets are available in the US, with the third set being released on 24 June 2008.

In the UK, the series was repeated through February 2009 on the digital channel ITV3.

External links

• The Ruth Rendell mysteries at IMDb.
• Ruth Rendell mysteries: Front seat at IMDb.
• The Ruth Rendell mysteries at TV.com.
• British Film Institute Screen online.