Not wanting for money, charm or intelligence, Wimsey takes up detective work as an amateur pursuit, using his connections and social status to assist the police in their investigations.

Carmichael played the role concurrently in a series of BBC Radio 4 adaptations from 1973, which eventually completed the whole sequence of Sayers's novels.

In The Radio Detectives (1999), Carmichael recalled that he had hoped to continue with further television adaptations, but acknowledged that by 1975 he was too old to play the part onscreen for the sequence of more romantic novels featuring crime writer Harriet Vane.

[8] Glyn Houston played Wimsey's loyal valet and assistant Mervyn Bunter in three adaptations[9] and Derek Newark in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (the character does not appear in Murder Must Advertise).

Mark Eden played Inspector Charles Parker, Lord Peter's friend and contact at Scotland Yard in four adaptations.