The Ruth Rendell Mysteries


The Ruth Rendell Mysteries is a British television crime drama series, produced by TVS and Meridian Broadcasting, in association with Blue Heaven productions, for broadcast on ITV. Twelve series were broadcast between 2 August 1987, and 11 October 2000. Created by renowned author Ruth Rendell, the first six series focused entirely on Rendell's main literary character Chief Inspector Reg Wexford, played by George Baker. Repeat airings of these series change the programme's title to The Inspector Wexford Mysteries. However, later series shifted focus onto other short stories previously written by Rendell, with Wexford only featuring in three further stories, in 1996, 1998 and 2000 respectively. When broadcast, these three stories were broadcast under the title Inspector Wexford.
In some cases, 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 The Strawberry Tree starring Simon Ward, Going Wrong starring James Callis, A Case of Coincidence starring Keith Barron and Ronald Pickup, Front Seat starring Janet Suzman and The Lake of Darkness starring Jerome Flynn. An overall total of fifty-five episodes featured Inspector Wexford, alongside his wife Dora and sidekick DI Mike Burden. A total of twenty-nine episodes focused on other characters. The first six series were released on VHS, but have never been released on DVD due to an issue with Television South's licensing rights, which affects most of their back catalogue of programming. Series seven to twelve have since been released on DVD as a Best Of box set, omitting four episodes.

Cast

Series 1 (1987)

Series 2 (1988)

Series 3 (1989)

Series 4 (1990)

Series 5 (1991)

Series 6 (1992)

This was the last series to solely feature Inspector Wexford. Subsequent series shifted focus onto other characters previously featured in short stories by Rendell.
EpisodeTitleWritten byDirected byOriginal airdate

Series 7 (1992—1994)

This series was the first series not to feature Inspector Wexford, with focus being shifted to other leading characters from Rendell's repertoire of short stories.
EpisodeTitleWritten byDirected byOriginal airdate

Series 8 (1995)

Series 9 (1996)

Series 10 (1997)

Series 11 (1998)

Series 12 (1999—2000)

Media releases

The first six series were released on VHS on 21 January 2000 via IMC Vision. This was shortly before the rights to Television South were purchased by ABC Family Worldwide, which has subsequently led to all other TVS programmes being unavailable for commercial release on VHS on DVD. Subsequently, the remaining six series were released on DVD on 9 April 2007, as The Best Of Ruth Rendell Mysteries, via Network. As these series were not produced by TVS, the licensing rights became available for a DVD release. However, four episodes were omitted, none of which have ever been commercially released. Again, the remaining six series were released on DVD in the United States on 24 June 2008. Series seven-twelve have since been repeated on ITV3 and ITV Encore, however, once again the four episodes omitted from the DVD were not broadcast, suggesting that the licensing rights for these episodes are no longer available.
SeriesYear# of EpisodesFormatRelease DatesNotes
Series 119874VHS21 January 2000Never released on DVD due to issue with Television South licensing rights.
Series 2198873 x VHS
DVD		21 January 2000
30 May 2016		Never released on DVD in the UK due to issue with Television South licensing rights. Released on DVD for the first time in Germany in May 2016.
Series 3198973 x VHS21 January 2000Never released on DVD due to issue with Television South licensing rights.
Series 4199094 x VHS
DVD		21 January 2000
30 May 2016		Never released on DVD in the UK due to issue with Television South licensing rights. "Some Lie and Some Die" and "The Best Man to Die" released on DVD for the first time in Germany in May 2016.
Series 51991115 x VHS
DVD		21 January 2000
30 May 2016		Never released on DVD in the UK due to issue with Television South licensing rights. "Murder Once Being Done" and "Achilles Heel" released on DVD for the first time in Germany in May 2016.
Series 61992114 x VHS
DVD		21 January 2000
30 May 2016		Never released on DVD in the UK due to issue with Television South licensing rights. "The Mouse in the Corner" and "Kissing the Gunner's Daughter" released on DVD for the first time in Germany in May 2016.
Series 71992-19944DVD9 April 2007Episode 1, "Talking to Strange Men", is not included in this set and has never been commercially released.
Series 819955DVD9 April 2007Episodes 4-5, "The Strawberry Tree", are not included in this set and has never been commercially released.
Series 919968DVD9 April 2007Episode 1, "Heartstones", is not included in this set and has never been commercially released.
Series 1019978DVD9 April 2007Episode 5, "Thornapple", is not included in this set and has never been commercially released.
Series 1119987DVD9 April 2007Includes all seven episodes.
Series 121999-20003DVD9 April 2007Includes all three episodes.