Campion - Police at the Funeral
InPolice at the Funeral,Margery Allingham's genial but impishly  morbid sleuth, Albert Campion (Peter Davison, a formerDoctor Who),  accompanied by his ex-burglar manservant Lugg (Brian Glover), investigates  a murder among an upper-crust family of bickering middle-aged siblings and  their imperious mother. Allingham's series, set in 1930s England, has a  slippery tone--some mysteries seem to view the class system with blithe  reverence;Police at the Funeraltreats the wealthy, aimless  siblings as near-idiots, all waiting for the death of their fearsome  mother, who's the only one with any wit or fiber. The Campion stories are  less about whodunnit than howdunnit--the roundabout plots feature  improbable killings that poke fun at the conventions of murder mysteries,  while simultaneously providing all the comfortable pleasures of the genre.  Meanwhile, a cast of fine British thespians sink their teeth into  Allingham's gloriously eccentric characters.--Bret Fetzer