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Vintage Crime: Baroness Orczy - Lady Molly of Scotland Yard

Vintage Crime: Baroness Orczy - Lady Molly of Scotland Yard: Episode 1: The Ninescore Mystery

Drama: Crime

Episode 1

Episode 1: The Ninescore Mystery

The Ninescore Mystery

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Vintage Crime: Baroness Orczy - Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, The Ninescore Mystery

Lady Molly and assistant Mary use feminine intuition over a gruesome village murder.

Made for 4 Extra. Lady Molly and assistant Mary use feminine intuition over a gruesome village murder. Read by Sophie Thompson.

Lady Molly and her assistant Mary use feminine intuition over the gruesome village murder of a young woman. Lady Molly's assistant Mary is the narrator.

Read by Sophie Thompson.

The Lady Molly of Scotland Yard stories by Baroness Orczy feature Molly Robertson-Kirk, one of the first female detectives in literature. Originally published in 1910, Lady Molly pre-dates her real-life counterparts by almost a decade. 

Relying on brains rather than brawn to solve crimes, she and her faithful assistant, Mary Granard, take on the cases of The Ninescore Mystery, The Irish-Tweed Coat and A Day's Folly, applying feminine tact and intellect to catch the culprits.

Orczy's characters The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Old Man in the Corner are literary classics, but the lesser-known Lady Molly stories are some of the first to feature a female detective as the main protagonist. 

The reader, Sophie Thompson received an Olivier Award nomination for the 1995 London revival of the musical Company, before winning the 1999 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the London revival of Into the Woods. Her film appearances include Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Persuasion (1995) Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), Gosford Park (2001), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010). She also played Stella Crawford in the BBC's EastEnders (2006-07), for which she won "Best Bitch" at the Inside Soap awards. Other Olivier nominations include Wildest Dreams (RSC 1994), Clybourne Park (Royal Court and West End, 2010), and Guys and Dolls (Savoy Theatre, 2015-16).

Abridger: Libby Spurrier 
Producer: Jo Green
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Greenlit Productions.

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Sophie Thompson reads crime cases involving Lady Molly and assistant Mary

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Episode 1: The Ninescore Mystery

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