What TV show did you last watch?

The Moonstone

(was showing on BBC1 daytime all last week, five 45 minute episodes, recorded the lot and watched it all in one go today.)

Excellent adaptation of the classic mystery/detective novel by Wilkie Collins (published in the 1860s) about the theft of a Indian diamond during a country house birthday party, and the subsequent events and investigations over the following year.

Very well done, the structure dispenses with the novel's format of telling the story through letters, diaries and documents, and goes for a more straightforward approach but with the twist that the first episode jumps right into the middle of the narrative - after the robbery has already taken place and everything with the characters has gone a bit pear-shaped in its aftermath - and then gradually unfolds the preceding events up to the robbery in flashbacks - with the theft discovered right at the end of the first episode : a good device and saves the opening being too stodgy and scene-setting, and gives it a good pace.
The subsequent episodes keep you watching to try to unravel the mystery.
The subplot of the housemaid suspected in the robbery is also really well done - very effective.

(The novel was an influence on early Sherlock Holmes, particularly the character of the detective Sergeant Cuff, and there is a similar atmosphere about the theft of Indian treasure in the Holmes story "The Sign of Four".)

All the episodes on the i-player until end of the month if you want to check it out.