Ronan Vibert: Vibertology, Mrs Bradley Mysteries, Diana Rigg, Vibert

Ronan Vibert: Vibertology, Mrs Bradley Mysteries, Diana Rigg, Vibert


	*~ The Mrs Bradley Mysteries* *n. Laurels are Poison (episode 3)* *TV Series (BBC) 1999: Ronan content: approx 22% (50 mins)* *Character: Captain Douglas, battle-fatigued gentleman adulterer* Cast: Diana Rigg Mrs Bradley, Neil Dudgeon George Moody, Joanna Roth Lacey Prideux, Ronan Vibert Douglas Prideux, Valerie Gogan Jessie Midwinter, Phillida Law Isobel Marchant, Stuart Bunce Seth Billings, Kenneth MacDonalad Alf, Michelle Dotrice Amy Availablity: Episodenot released. Repeats on UK Gold/Drama/BBC America


	Plot/Comments: Classy, critically-acclaimed 1920s whodunnit with high production values and a witty, sparkling script. Maverick, successfully-widowed 'flapper of a certain age' Mrs Bradley (Diana Rigg, full-time Goddess), imposes herself on old friend Lady Isobel Marchant, a woman devastated by the loss of her four sons in the First World War. Sensing possible vibrations of a Lady Chatterley type between Isobel's pregnant daughter, Lacey, and her psychotic gardener, Seth, Mrs Bradley unravels a tapestry of *poisonings, sexual tensions, class war, survivor's guilt, shellshock, family skeletons, and spectral sightings.* George (played by the ever-brilliant Neil Dudgeon), her trusted chauffeur and companion, unearths some skeletons of his own: Lacey's husband, the ultra-tense and tortured Captain Douglas Prideux (Ronan Vibert), was the same commanding officer who saw his brother die in the trenches.


	Three corpses and plenty of twists later, the multi-stranded plot comes to a conclusion, and we find (among many other things) that Seth, the backwards, sexually bullying gardener was poisoned (not by the prime suspects) for blackmailing the family over their Dark Secret. In the final denouement, we see Lacey break down and admit to the lies which are destroying both sets of families ('Masters' and Servants): she is acting out a second phantom pregnancy; her cold and brittle marriage to Douglas is still unconsumated, and she is not even the mother of her own first child. It is revealed that when widowed servant Jessie (who "has a talent for healing men damaged by war"), was made pregnant for the second time by the physically and emotionally shell-shocked Douglas, their baby was taken by Lacey as her own.


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	This scene is deftly handled by all performers, and this complex resolution is a welcome twist on the original red herring of 'over-fertile-gardener-knocks-up-Posh Lacey-and-Servant Jessie'. In the final scenes, Mrs Bradely packs off Lacey to Florence for a year of Latin adult education, and George, worried for Jessie and her children, offers her help in finding a new domestic position in London. She explains that she "already has a new position" and we see a rather dapper, white-suited Douglas holding one of their children and calling after her: she tells him to wait as he can see that she is busy; Jessie has broken the master/servant class barriers, and is now involved with the more relaxed Douglas as an equal. The Mrs Bradley Mysteries was a highly original and consistently polished (albeit short-lived) series, which failed to get the promotional or time-slot support that it deserved by the BBC.


	Typical Ronan Character Quotes: "Our bodies came back...we left our souls behind" "It's all gone...blown away: faces, names, men under my command...died like cattle. Things I should never forget" "All the ghosts in this house wear uniform, don't they?" "I dream of faceless men coming back for me...your brother... my friends…"


	Ronan content: Captain Douglas Prideux first appears as an arrogant, controlling, and cold snob in danger of being the potentially two-dimensional villain of a seemingly obvious whodunnit. While I don't think Vibert is at his best in these early scenes, The Mrs Bradley Mysteries is of a high enough quality to avoid obviously 2-D characters.… As the story unfolds he develops into a tense, bitter, lonely, and guilt-ridden shell of a man -- the only survivor of a family devastated by the Great War (his four boyhood friends, brothers of wife Lacey, died in the trenches) -- desperate to be at peace with himself by blocking out the pain of both memories and emotion. Ronan's best scenes are to be found in his rememberence (or lack of) his fallen comrades with Dudgeon, and in the final denouement.


	Vibert's "I dream of faceless men coming back for me" scene with Neil Dudgeon is *theatrical in its feeling of intimacy, tension, and stillness*, and the excellent technique and chemistry of the two actors is subtly illustrated in the differences that they portray between the master and servant classes, British officers and non-commissioned 'Tommies'. Vibert is softly-spoken, even wistful, as he talks of his loss, while simultaneously trying to blot the remaining details from his mind. Excellent use of changes in tone and force of voice are used to increase the emotional impact of the lines. When Prideux allows himself to admit to his 'damaged' feelings, a gentler, more appealing character shows through -- albeit one tortured by a survivor's guilt.


	Trainspotter comments: Neil Dudgeon also worked opposite Ronan on the Oscar-nominated animated *Canterbury Tales. See Loose Ends* for a full-ish run-down on other actors Ronan has worked with several times. Phillida Law is the widow of Eric Thompson, writer-narrator of the immortal children's animation The Magic Roundabout (she swears that there were no deliberate drug references). Emma Thompson is their daughter. Joanna Roth is married to the superb John Hannah (Four Weddings and the only good thing about The Mummy Returns)


	The second standout scene is in the revelation of the Family Secret, where we discover Douglas' continued infidelity with Jessie, and the true identity of Lacey's child. As I've mentioned elsewhere in Vibertology, *Ronan is among the few actors who can show more feeling in their character while being silent and still, than most actors can with a huge speech and physical histrionics*.


	In this scene, he remains in the doorway, silent, striving to remain aloof and arrogant, physically and emotionally separated from the rest of the house, full of the stiff-upper-lip pride/detachment that has been at the heart of his emotional decline, trapped in the misery of an empty social marriage, and chided for "not keeping his paws" off a mere servant -- the only 'family' member who comes close to understanding him. He does not look embarrassed for his infidelity, more uncomfortable at Lacey's manic outbursts (Prideux has numbed himself to her emotions as he cannot deal with his own), and in dignified misery at his predicament. In this stillness, the humanity and hubris of his character is fleshed out in a very subtle and seemingly effortless performance.