Ruddy Gore - TV vs Book

While Ruddy Gore is the 7th book about Phryne Fisher, it is the 6th episode of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Like in most cases this far, the plot has been reduced and changed somewhat for the TV adaptation. To be honest, I really do find part of it to benefit the pacing of the story. The theatre felt quite overcrowded in the book and, like I said in my book entry about Ruddy Gore, I did have some problems taking an interest in all the cast and crew. They are all quite egocentric and in love with each other.

I found the best part with the book to be Phryne's date with Lin Chung and the issues it provoked with interracial relationships at the time. This issue was treated by the TV show in the episode of The Green Mill Murder and I was pleasantly surprised to see Phryne contemplating it as much as she did. Same goes for her finding it sad that she is going to lose one of her lover, Dr Mark Fielding,who returns from Flying too High, to the nurse-trained actress Mollie Webb.

Phryne with Bernard Tarrant and Lin Chung

I do love that Phryne is adventurous and reckless and sort of does whatever she wants and does not care about what people think. However, I do find those moments when she gets emotional. Especially in regards to her relations to other people. It keeps her grounded. Makes her human. Even though she only has loose liasons with men, she does care about them. This caring for her lovers is taken out of the TV show almost entirely except for in the case of Lin Chung. (Again on the subject of recurring characters and plots that is evident in the book, but not on the show.) Besides Lin (and Jack Robinson of course), we do not get to see any of her "gentlemen callers" ever again. The case does rattle Phryne in a slightly different way though. When a sand bag falls, Jack saves her and it falls on Gwilym Evans (the actor Dot Williams has a celebrity crush on) instead, killing him. This incident happens in the book too, but in a slightly different way and for different reasons.

'Don't make the mistake of thinking their emotions are all put on. They're real people underneath, just exxaggerated. They talk to me', she observed, 'because I care for them. They call me Mum. The're quivering little things under all that glamour. They're always afraid that no one really loves them, that they're going to fail. But they're addicted to applause.'

~Miss Pomeroy, Ruddy Gore

The ghost of Dorothea Curtis

Even though I do prefer the simplification of the plot in the TV episode in this case, I do find it sad that they have left out one of the central themes of the book: wanting/needing to be seen. I really think this is a basic human instinct. Not that everyone does need to stand on a stage to fulfill it, but I think everyone feels a need to be acknowledged and taken seriously from time to time. The setting of the plot in a theatre and also to a certain extent the apperance of "a ghost" work well to enhance this theme.

'I bet none of you have ever handled stage machinery.'
The murmurs increased.
'Of course not, we're actors, not technicals', said Cameron Armour. 'If I'd wanted to be a tradesman, I wouldn't have done ll that voice training.' Phryne began to understand Mr Brawn's rage and scorn.

~Ruddy Gore

Phryne and Dot

It is not that the show does not deal with this subject. In fact it does so to a larger extent than the books seem to be doing actually. Phryne's employed taxi driver Bert Johnson tells his partner Cecil Yates that he is hopless when it comes to collecting strays in Cocaine Blues which is a trait also true of their employer. Both in the books and in the TV show, Phryne has an ability to really see people who needs it. She cares for them and encourages them to reach their full potential. She does not ever pamper them, which can be seen by the way she treats the female star of the theatre production Leila Esperance in the book.

Finnish author Tove Jansson is considered one of the giants in the children's litterature of the Nordic countries and her works about the Moomins are known worldwide. I have not talked about her before on this blog, because I have long felt a need to reread her books before I do so. However, one of her short stories, Det osynliga barnet (The invisible child) is very much worth mentioning here.

In the short story the character Tooticki brings the girl Ninni to the Moomin family. Ninni has been taken care of by a horrible older lady who did not like her. Because of this, she has lost all her confidence and turned completely invisible and the only way to know she is there is by the sound of the little bell, the lady had put around the girl's neck. Ninni is placed under the care and love of Moominmamma and little by little she becomes visible again.

I feel like there are certain similarities in Moominmamma's treatment of Ninni and how Phryne handles Dot in the TV show. When she first meets the younger woman in Cocaine Blues, Dot is mainly invisible. She works as a maid at the Andrews's house, but you cannot say that she draws much attention to herself. As she comes to work for Phryne however, Dot starts to develope as a person. She finds her confidence and role in life without giving herself away at the same time. And Phryne is there, nudging, caring and encouraging. You can see her become surprised by Dot's strict religious reasonings of the modern world in Cocaine Blues, but she never judge her.

"When I came to work for you, Miss, I was afraid of everything. And you taught me so many things, and you made me brave, and you made me happy."

~ Dot Williams, Death do us part

Dot is quite different in the books. She is much more timid and not as active in Phryne's cases as she is on the TV show. With Phryne's mentoring, TV-Dot starts learning the detective skills and from time to time ends up solving the crimes to a certain extent. In a way I think Dot is the main character who develope most throughout the show. I prefer the more active TV-Dot over the passive book one. The friendship between the two women in the books is just wonderful and they certainly love and respect each other (even so much that Phryne continue to wear the St Christopher medal that Dot gives her before she goes away to the circus in Blood and Circuses). However, I do miss Dot doing her own sleuthing and Phryne teaching her the ways of the detective. She does participate from time to time (like helping Phryne go through all the dressing rooms at the theatre in Ruddy Gore) but it is just not the same and the character does not go through the same evolution in the books as in the TV series.


The image of the cover of Det osynliga barnet, did I borrow from here.

Blood and Circuses - TV vs Book

"Justice, not money, determines the cases worthy of my attention."

~Phryne Fisher, Blood and Circuses (TV)

As I said in my entry about the book, there are a lot of different thoughtprovoking issues in Blood and Circuses and I probably get back to it in the future. It was however one issue that was more prominent than others to me and it was how both versions of the case at the circus sort of got to Phryne Fisher herself, but in different ways.

Phryne, Dot and Jane sneek a taste.

I had really decided I was going to leave Phryne as a character pretty much alone until I had read through all the books, but after reading this book (and to some extent also after a person I like said Phryne was only a shallow James Bond character), I figured I needed to address her character pretty much immediatelly, but first I will do a recap of the plot of the TV episode and how it deviates from the book one.

Just like the book, the TV episode starts with Mr Christopher (here called Miss and is considered a woman) and the episode starts with her being found strangled, stabbed and with a python around her neck in the magician’s vanishing cabinet (overkill as Phryne calls it) during the circus Farrell’s show and not in his bed at the boarding house where he lives in the book. Not pleased with Senior Sergeant Grossmith who has been assigned to the case, Phryne’s old friend Samson(Sam) seeks Phryne out to try getting her to help. For once, Phryne is rather reluctant to go back to Farrell’s since it was there that her little sister Jane disappeared while Phryne was too caught up in the magician perform a vanishing act in the same cabinet (at least I think it is) that Miss Christopher is found dead in. 

Jack and Elsie share a moment.

The TV episode is not one of my favourites. It is quite messy and it is not made clear exactly who made what and why. However Elsie Tizzard is probably my absolute favourite among the minor characters. I love her special relationship with Jack, but also how she bonds with Amelia Parkes in the cell. The latter is just one of all the amazing depictions of female friendships that we can see throughout both TV and book series.

Another aspect I really enjoy as an archaeologist is how they have used how memories (even unwelcome ones) are triggered by materialities. Phryne is extremely reluctant to go (back) to Farrell's circus to investigate and it is not until Jack (for once) gives her a definite no that she agrees to Samson's request and takes on the case. When she gets to the circus, the memories become even more prominent and we get much longer flashbacks with Jane and Phryne at the circus. Correct me if I am wrong, but I also think this is the first time we really get to see Janey Fisher's blue ribbons.

We have seen Phryne vulnerable before, but the memories of Jane are humbling in a new way. They seem to give her new insights into what happened to her sister and the episode itself sort of works much more as a build-up to the two that follows it.

'Tonight you shall share my luxury', she said, pulling off the dress and the scarf and shedding battered undergarments, 'because tomorrow I shall share your poverty.'

~ Kerry Greenwood, Blood and circuses (book) 

Phryne and Samson

In the book, Phryne goes through an even more humbling journey. She is forced to leave her luxurious lifetotally behind as she goes undercover as Fern Williams, the trick rider at the circus. Like Peter Smith, the anarchist, does in the Death at Victoria Dock book, Mr Burton questions what she does at the circus and Phryne gives him a similar answer that she is tired of being said not to understand or being able to manage a more simple life because of her otherwise privileged lifestyle. Because the Janey Fisher/Murdoch Foyle plot was made up for the TV show, the circus does not provoke as many bad memories for Phryne as in the TV show, but it does turn out to be a very hostile environment.

Little Phryne and her sister Jane in one of the flashbacks.

Like the TV episode, the book works a lot with materialities, but instead of connecting them to memores, it connects them to Phryne's self-esteem and confidence in a way that had me thinking of the song Wig in a Box from the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

The musical is about trangendered Hedwig who goes through sex reassignment therapy, but the surgery goes terribly wrong and she is left with an "angry inch" and in a state of not belonging to either of the binary sex/gender construction that is still considered norm in today's Western society. As you might understand, this can in many ways be related to the transgender theme of both book and TV episode (In the TV episode, we even get to know that Miss Christopher pays a surgeon to have her "additional appendage" removed.), but in many ways it can also be related to Phryne as a character.

Kerry Greenwood made a cameo at the circus in this episode.

As I have said before, I do not like the comparisson of Phryne to James Bond. I actually find it a bit degrading of her character. Phryne is so much more than just a female version of the action male archetype. Yes, she is wild, adventurous and reckless, active in every scene she is in (traditionally male traits), but she is also empathetic, compassionate and kind (traditionally female traits). She does not show many emotions (male trait), but she is sensitive to other people's needs (female trait). (I admit the latter does not always apply to Jack, but in that case it has much more to do with him not behaving like a traditional male way.) She is cunning and clever (male traits), but also flirty and seductive (female traits). She also uses violence and reacts to it in a very different way than Bond (or for that matter Indiana Jones who she is also compared to). Even though she often brings her golden pistol with pearl handle and has a dagger in her garther, she does not use them other than when it is totally necessary to save herself or others. I agree that her wild, reckless and sexual side is far more conspicuous, but I think we more should ask ourself why that is instead of only calling her a female James Bond/Indiana Jones.

Her overall apparence is also totally female with her beautiful, often very feminine clothes, hats and red lipstick. This is also where the relation to Hedwig and the song Wig in a box becomes most apparent. Like Hedwig, Phryne has a dark past which has been made clear at this point in the TV series, but not in the books, so I will leave it until it is brought up. Both of them also hits rock bottom, but they decide to turn their life over and they both sort of find exuberance in fashion. This is also how the book points to the material aspect of Phryne's identity and how important it is to her.

She was feeling of balance. Deprived of her usual props and stays and allies, and having to speak with the accent of her childhoo, she was losing confidence. No one seemed to like her, and she was used to being liked, or at least noticed. She closed her eyes.

~ Kerry Greenwood, Blood and Circuses (book)

Jane asks Samson for stories about Phryne.

In a way the circus makes her time-travel back to her childhood in poverty in Collingwood, leaving her feeling self-concious and lonely. When the clown Matthias/Jo Jo does her make up for her performance in the circus show, she does no longer recognise her face, seeing only a stranger in the mirror.

But again it is a material object that destroys her identity all together. When she is discovered by Jones and his men and they are about to rape and kill her, they take away both her clothes and the belonings she has hidden underneath and inside them. Among those is the St Christopher medal Dot gave her right before she was leaving her home.

She made no sound until he broke the thong which held the holy medal and pocketed it. Phryne gave a pitiful cry. Her last link with her own self was gone.
~ Kerry Greenwood, Blood and Circuses (book)

The medal triggers a basic instinct inside of Phryne, making her fight the men. Because she is no simple "damsel in distress", she manages to avoid rape, but she does not win her freedom. Instead Jones and his men locks her in an animal case calling her a "wild beast".

This is actually not the first time in the book where humans have been compared to other animals.This is actually a theme also woven into the plot. Trapped in the animal cage and naked, Phryne's identity travels even further back in time (The mentioning of her friendship to the archaeologist being extremely fitting in all of this). Her fear of the lions was established already as Dulcie showed her around the circus and is already then said to enhance a primitive version of herself. She, however, remains quite active, trying to get herself out. In the end though, she realises she might need help from a friend or two. Humans are, after all living in hoards by nature...

Some more thoughts about the Phryne Fisher universes

The main characters of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

After having fun with Historical Women, Female Archaeologists and actually a lot of Ancient Egypt, I thought it was about time that I went back to Phryne Fisher.

As is probably quite obvious from this blog, I love Phryne. I think she is such a wonderful character and both TV and book series are amazing. There are some differences between the two media though which I discuss from time to time in the series of entries I have chosen to call Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries -TV vs books. This entry will be part of that series, but instead of talking about a certain book and its TV counterpart, this one will discuss a more general trend I have noticed that is different.

Up until this point, I have only read five of the Phryne Fisher books and, after a short hiatus, I have just started with the sixth (Blood and Circuses). There are a lot of books that I still have to read, but I think I can still discuss this and there is a chance I have reasons for returning to the subject further on.

In the TV series, Phryne creates a sort of family that more or less provides her with stability in life. Only one of these people is related by blood to her (Her aunt Prudence.). They are a bit mismatched with communists, policemen and strict Catholic girls for example, but they turn out to work extremely well together and also with Phryne. (This is a subject for a different entry though, so I will not go into it so much.) Besides these nine people making up Phryne's family, there is not much consistencies to Phryne's friendbase. People come and go and we hear they have a past with Phryne and some of them might be "old friends", but we tend not to hear about them either before or after Phryne and Jack have solved the case they are part of. There are a few exceptions to this. Most of them related to the over-arching plotlines of each season like Murdoch Foyle in season one and Phryne's father Henry Fisher in season three. In season two we also get to meet Jack's ex-wife Rosie Sanderson who is introduced already in season one (when Jack is still married to her), but is only talked about then. These characters are in more than one episode, because their plot stretches out for more than one episode. Another exception is Lin Chung. He is in two different episodes with two different plots although his part is sort of the same (being Phryne's lover). From what I have gather he is a much more of a recuring character in the books, but I have not got to him yet, so I have to leave it for the time being. (I cannot think of any more minor characters that are in more than one episode. Please help if you come up with someone!)

On the contrary, the books reuse a lot of characters and also plot points. Phryne still builds a family around herself containing mostly the same people. There is no aunt Prudence, but Mrs Butler and Ruth. The latter I will get back to in a bit. Detective Inspector Jack Robinson has a different role in the books and is not as close to Phryne as he is on TV, but I think he still can be classified as a family member. Not least since one of the few times he is mentioned in Death at Victoria Dock is in the context of having given Jane and Ruth a record player.

Then Phryne also has friends who she surounds herself with on a more distant level. She still calls them when she needs them to help her out on a case and she seems to meet up with them from time to time. These characters are reused and we also get to hear how some of the minor characters (both friends and others) do after their plot has been finished. For example Bobby Matthews who we encounter in the very beginning of Cocaine Blues and who we later hear from in Murder on the Ballarat Train in relation to Eunice Henderson and her mother. There are also a couple of characters that I have a small feeling will return later on, but I will not tell you whom since I do not trust you not to spoil me.

'I feel a bit shaken, but I'm all right, Dot, don't fuss. This is not the same as that other time. I didn't see this man die.'

~ Phryne Fisher, The Green Mill Murder, Kerry Greenwood

There are also some mentions of past cases and not just in a recap sense, but more woven into the plots of other books. For example when Dot asks Phryne how she is after hearing Phryne has encountered another murder in The Green Mill Murders. This is a reference to Phryne being shocked and upset by the death of Yourka in Death at Victoria Dock.

Hugh: "Miss Fisher's gone on holiday again Sir."
Jack: "Hm. Anyone dead yet?"
Hugh: "Only one so far Sir..."

~ Murder under the Mistletoe

Jane and Ruth, Murder on the Ballarat Train

I do understand the need to simplify things for the TV adaptation, but the reuse of characters in the books makes book-Phryne's universe feel more real and thriving. In the TV series it sometimes feels as if you either die or kill someone if you do not belong to Phryne's inner circle. The TV series is very good at reusing clothes and accessories though and also in how they are worn. The men, like Jack for example, have a pretty limited range of clothing, but they can vary small things like ties, which makes the male clothing a bit less uniform. When it comes to the minor characters however I would love to see or hear more about many more of them. A lot of them are actually very interesting and some of their stories are left more or less unresolved.

To take Ruth for example because she is probably the most important character from the books that is not important in the show. She is in the Murder on the Ballarant Train and just like in the book she lives (and slaves away) in the same boarding house as Jane and they are really close.The police finds her grandmother in the end of the episode and she goes away to live with her. But if she and Jane were so close, why would she not come around to the house to see Jane? And would she not fit into the group of flower maidens Phryne trains in Queen of the Flowers? I do not think Jane would stop seeing her and/or that Phryne would not let her. So why can she not appear as Jane's best friend?

I do not expect every minor character to turn up again or Phryne to have any sort of contact with that we get to hear. Some of them are just so fantastic that I find it sad. Besides, we do not even get to know if Jack and his police men were able to catch Lydia Andrews and destroy the cocaine trade after the events in Cocaine Blues.

The Green Mill Murder - TV vs Book

Phryne

The Green Mill Murder is one of my favourite episodes of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and also turned out to be one of my favourite out of the Phryne Fisher books I have read so far. There are some differences in the plot between the two versions that I intend to talk about here. 
The TV adaptation is loaded with different social topics like interracial marriages and homosexuality. The murder also takes a more central role in the plot there than in the book. The same method is used for the killing of Leonard Stevens (Bernard Stevens in the book. - Seriously, what is up with all the changing of names between the media?!), but things might not have turned out as it was intended in the book. The fact that it also was pretty risky considering how many people could have got in the way is also acknowledged there.

Jack: "I don't know who has the more fanciful imagination. Rodgers for coming up with it or you for working it out."
Phryne: "Jack! Me, obviously!" 

Nerine

The character Nerineis much more awsome in the TV episode where she is already married to Ben Rodgerswhile in the book, she waits for her lost husband to die before commiting herself to him. 

Hugh Collins och Dot William's relationship however, is pretty well established in the book while in the TV episode, Hugh tries to master up the courage to ask her to the Firemen and policemen's ball. 

"As far as I'm concerned, everybody should be allowed to marry whomever they choose. Though personally, I'm not the marrying kind."

~Phryne Fisher

Jack Robinson has a rather more laid back role in the book than on TV and he gets a chance to both worry for Phryne and yell at her. At the end of the TV episode we also get our first more clear indication of what is called phrack by the fans when he looks at the mug shots Hugh takes of her. In the book he is introduced as: "Detective Inspector John 'Call me Jack, Miss Fisher, everyone does' Robinson", but I have to say that I do prefer how he is introduced in the TV episode. The camera is intended to be him and we hear him excuse himself as he walks through the crowd at the jazzclub The Green Mill up to Phryne and the dead body of Leonard Stevens. 

Jack excuses himself through the crowd at the Green Mill

While the TV show focuses on social issues, the book seems much more interested in the First world war (called The War to end War) and the effects it still had, ten years after it was finished on the people involved. (They bring up that homosexuality is a crime, but does not dwell as much into it as the TV episode does.) The character of Victor Freeman gets back from the war shell-shocked (Today we call it Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD). The TV series does tackle this subject as well. It is a recurrent theme in many episodes and we meet a lot of characters who suffer from it (There are even small hints that Jack might be one of them.) and Victor Freeman does move out into the wilderness because of it. It just does not deal with it so much in this particular episode. The book is far more thorough and Bert and Cec tell Phryne and Dot over dinner about their experiences during the war in both Gallipoli and Pozières. (There is a very good podcast about the former campaign by the Missed in history website.)

Because everyone else does,
I'm not commenting much on
the clothes. However I just
love this outfit!

Besides Phryne, the most interesting characters in the books are the three remaining members of the Freeman family. In the entry about the book, I did proclaim my love for Victor Freeman. He is a far more complex character in the book than on TV, but even though I find his mother horrible and appalling, I find her interesting. 

On TV they are all old friends of Phryne. Victor is an aviator and used to take Phryne up in his airplane. He also told his brother Charles, he was going to teach him how to fly, but then he left for the war and Charles is now trying to sell his plane off to Phryne. Contrary to his brother, book Charles is far more unpleasant. He is one of those people I talked about in my book entry that does not care for the things he has no understandings of or interest in. This has devastating results for himself.

Book Mrs Freeman is an extremely terrible person who abuses both of her sons. It is even hinted by Bobby Sullivan that she takes Charles to bed with her and Charles says that his mother has taken away his ability to love any other person. Neither her nor her husband (who is dead before the beginning of the book) seem to understand the seriousness of Victor's condition and Mrs Freeman also seems to turn both sons against each other. TV's Adele Freeman (I do not remember and have not been able to find any first name for her in the book.) is far nicer. A mild-tempered woman who seems loving, caring and understanding of both of her sons. Just like in the book, however, she does keep the fact that Victor is alive a secret from Charles.

I find certain similarities between Mrs Freeman and the character of Lydia Andrews in Cocaine Blues. They are both women who never have had the chance to live independently and provide for themselves. Mrs Freeman's husband also rather donated all the money to charity than putting his wife in charge of it. Both Lydia and Mrs Freeman feel they can do business better than their husbands and in the end they feel entitled to "go bad" because of it. This also makes them stand in stark contrast to book Eunice Henderson from Murder on the Ballarat train and not least Phryne herself.


The photo of Phryne in her flapper costume was borrowed here.

Death at Victoria Dock - TV vs Book

Phryne Fisher

Death at Victoria Dock is the fourth book and the fourth TV-episode about the Honourable Phryne Fisher. However, the second book, Flying too High was never turned into a TV episode. It is still the fourth episode however, since for some unknown reason the TV version of the book after, The Green Mill Murder, was placed before Death at Victoria Dock in the line up of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries episodes from season 1. Because I could not really compare the book version of latter to the TV version of the former and vice versa, I needed to make a similar switch.

In the book Phryne happens to be witness to the murder of Yorka Rosen while driving past the docks. On TV, however, she hears him being shot outside, while meeting with Mr Waddington. On both occasions, he dies in his arms and also on both occasions, Phryne takes his death pretty hard.

Phryne Fisher

As I said in the entry about the book, I like vulnerable Phryne. It has nothing to do with me not wanting her to be the fabulous, reckless super hero. It just shows a much more complex character, letting her have a tender, vulnerable side to her. It makes her human and I love her even more because of it! I am so glad her feelings towards Yorka's death was left in the TV episode.

This is the book in which we first get to meet Constable Hugh Collins, but in the TV series, we have known him since the beginning. In the book he is Catholic, while his protestant faith clashes a little with Dot's Catholic one on TV. I was also really pleased to see that Hottie was actually canon even in the books. Dot and Hugh are just the sweetest couple ever!

Phryne Fisher

The depiction of the anarchist plotline is actually interesting in the book. We have already from the beginning known that Bert and Cec are communists and that Phryne accepts them just as they are anyway. The Death at Victoria Dock book actually dwells further into the socialistic bracket of the modern political scale and it does it very well. It is far from the Hollywood demonization of it.

Socialism is a very big field with lots of different variations, just like any other political ideology and movement. Some are better and some are worse than others and everyone of them has its benefits and its problems. I do not like to get into politics so much on this blog, but some things need to be clearified because there are a lot of misunderstandings going around about every one of the political ideologies.

In the wake of the US election Swedish media has had some sort of a wake up call and there have been a lot of discussion of the "bullying rhetoric" spreading from there to here. So the last couple of days have been a lot about that and lots of politicians have shown what great friends they are with and/or how much respect they have for politicians on "the other side of the scale". Just because you do not have the same opinion, does not mean you cannot share a friendship and/or respect for one another which both book and TV Phryne shows very well. She builds her own sort of family of people she likes. She never looks down on anyone or judge them for their opinions, their heritage or their personalities.

Phryne Fisher

In the TV episode, there is a lot less talk about different types of socialism in the TV episode, even though Bert and Cec tell Phryne about different variations as they go to the Latvian club and there is some talk about anarchism. It manage to show us that anarchistic methods might not be the best way to handle things (Just like the book do.), but it does not demonize all of socialism like many American films and TV shows tend to do.

There are a few changes to the more domestic plotline in the book where Phryne takes on the case of the missing teenage girl Alicia Waddington-Forsythe (Lila Waddington in the TV episode). Her father has remarried and she does not like her stepmother. When Phryne investigates, she finds Alicia's story is deeply tragic, being sexually abused by her brother who then moves on to get their stepmother pregnant and forced into a mental institution by that stepmother where they try telling her she is crazy for more or less telling the truth.

Jack Robinson

Lila Waddington's story is not as tragic. Her brother has still impregnated their stepmother, but the stepmother then tricks her into thinking she sees tears on her madonna painting and in the end it drives her to the mental hospital where Phryne and Jack come to save her. Her father is also the boss at the docks and there is a strike as Phryne goes to speak with him about the case in the beginning of the episode. Phryne also convinces him to talk to his workers in exchange for her discretion about his family "problems". We also get to know that Jack Robinson was part of the police strike of 1923, which Phryne did not expect.

Yes, Jack is in this episode even though he barely gets a few mentions in the book. Before I talk about him, I think I need to address the response to the blog post I wrote all about him a couple of days ago. I am both overwhelmed and scared about the whole thing. Social media is so strange. I shared the post on Tumblr myself since it is there I have "friends" I normally discuss Miss Fisher with. The fact that it was shared on other social media platforms without my knowledge does in fact frighten me a bit. This blog is my oulet for thoughts and feelings I have about subjects I am nerdy about. Because the entries to this blog are so deeply personal to me, I would like to have at least some sort of control about where it is being shared and what is being said about it. Not least so I can explain uncertainties and/or defend myself against criticism. I am so happy and overwhelmed and humbled by all the positive response to the Jack entry. I love that so many people have read it, but if you like something I have written and want to share it anywhere on the Internet, please use the comment section underneath any entry and tell me that you do so it will not be such a shock that I suddenly have had hundreds of visitors in a day.

"It'd be a tactical error to think you had med pegged just yet, Miss Fisher"

~ Jack Robinson

But, back to Jack. As said above, he only gets a few mentions in the book and keeps himself a little more in the background in the TV episode as well. Because of the switch in order between Death and Victoria Dock and The Green Mill Murder, it is a little hard to tell all of Jack's character in this entry without giving too much away from that episode. Jack still tries to remain firm about not letting Phryne in on the investigations (and she shamelessly uses Hugh to still be able to medle), but you also see him softening towards her. When she gets shot at, he seems really worried for her safety. The Green Mill Murder and this episode are also when I first started to realise that there was more to Jack than what he first appears to be. Over the course of the series, he is much like a chiffonier where Phryne and the viewers continuously find hidden compartments, not seldom where they least expect it.

Death at Victoria Dock was actually one of my least favourite episodes, but rewatching it now, after having read the book, I saw it in a rather different light. From time to time the plots of the episodes in the TV series can feel a bit forced together (probably to make Phryne only investigate one case instead of many like in the books), but this one flows better. The two cases (Lila Waddington and the anarchists) are still kept apart, but held together through Lila's father at the docks where Phryne more or less picks up both cases. It only shows that ones opinions might change based on circumstances and that Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is a series one must watch more than once.

Phryne Fisher and Jack Robinson