Crime Time Preview

Luther 3, Scott & Bailey finale, Elementary in London, Mad Dogs 3, Tamzin Outhwaite for New Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:40:00 +0000

Stormy times ahead for lovestruck Luther. Pic: BBC

• He may not be back on our screens until September, but here is an early peek at Luther to keep fans going. The third series starring Idris Elba as the slightly unhinged detective will see Sienna Guillory joining the cast as Luther's new love interest, Mary Day. What will psycho Alice have to say about that?

• Watch out for a double bill of Scott & Bailey this week, wrapping up what has been a terrific series (ITV, Wednesday 22 May, Thursday 23 May, 9pm). Here's a video going behind the scenes of the finale…

• Elementary, Sky Living's US Sherlock Holmes update with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, will be filming the opening episode of season two in London — its first venture outside of New York. Sherlock is called to Blighty to revisit an old case and, while doing so, is forced to face his past. Meanwhile, Watson learns more about Holmes’s mysterious life…

The future's orange… but not so bright for the boys

• Mad Dogs makes a welcome return to Sky One on Tuesday, 4 June. The holiday from hell continues for the four guys — Woody (Max Beesley), Quinn (Philip Glenister), Baxter (John Simm) and Rick (Marc Warren) — as we meet them locked up in a dilapidated prison in the desert, where torture and interrogation are the order of the day. Jaime Winstone is also behind bars, playing the feisty Mercedes…

• Tamzin Outhwaite is joining the cast of BBC1's hit drama New Tricks, lining up alongside Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson and Nicholas Lyndhurst. She'll be stepping in as Amanda Redman and Alun Armstrong join James Bolam in leaving the hugely popular show. Former EastEnders star Tamzin will play DCI Sacha Millard. Armstrong is reported to be leaving the show in episode four of the tenth series, while Redman will depart during the eighth instalment.

Sarah takes on a dead woman's identity

• BBC3 has acquired a new thriller called Orphan Black from its US wing, BBC America. Tatiana Maslany plays Sarah Manning, an orphan who witnesses the suicide of a woman who looks like her. Naturally, Sarah assumes her identity, bank account and boyfriend. Then she discovers she's in the midst of a deadly conspiracy.

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Broadchurch on DVD

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:57:00 +0000

DVD: ★★★★½
Extras: ★★★★

IT'S BEEN the most talked about crime series of the year and a real triumph for ITV. Audiences and critics were gripped by the whodunit and seven million people were tuning in, which in these multi-channel days is a blockbuster figure.

But despite all the hoo-haa about whether young Danny's killer was his dad or his friend or the vicar or creepy Susan, the eight-part drama had a lot more to it than the jaded mechanics of a traditional whodunit.

Broadchurch broke the mould of police procedurals by discarding the corpse before each ad break that is the norm in shows such as Midsomer and Lewis along with the clever detectives deducing who the perpetrator was. It was about the gut-wrenching tragedy of the Latimer family, the behaviour of the press, the strife at the police station and the role of the church.

It was beautifully written by Chris Chibnall and had a first class cast, headed by David Tennant and Olivia Colman, brilliantly supported by Jodie Whittaker, Andrew Buchan, Vicky McClure, Arthur Darvill, Pauline Quirke and Will Mellor.

Chibnall reveals in the excellent special features on this new DVD release that he wrote the drama on spec because it was something he really wanted to write. And that desire to produce a really good, heartfelt story before taking it to ITV is perhaps the secret to its success.

• Broadchurch on DVD, released 20 May, running time 400 minutes on three discs. RRP: £25.99. Cert TBC

PRIZE DRAW

We have one copy of the complete series of Broadchurch worth £25.99 to give away. All you have to do is join the CrimeTimePreview gang (see the column on the right) to enter a prize draw for this fantastic series. The first name drawn on the closing date of Friday, 24 May, will be sent a copy of the DVD.
This offer is open to UK residents only. Prize Draw entrants must register as members of CrimeTimePreview (see column, right); one name will be drawn on the closing date (Friday, 24 May) and will be posted a free copy of Broadchurch. The selectee will need to provide their postal address. No prize alternatives. If anyone registers but declines the Broadchurch DVD, an alternative winner will be selected. Good luck!

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Case Histories series 2, BBC1, starring Jason Isaacs PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:54:00 +0000

Jackson Brodie and sidekick in Case Histories. Pics: BBC

Rating: ★★★★

BBC1: starts Sunday, 19 May, 8.30pm

Story: Back in Edinburgh after a child-snatching job in Munich goes awry, Jackson is offered a new case when Hope McMaster, a woman searching for her birth parents, approaches him for help.

NOVELIST KATE ATKINSON doesn't write traditional crime stories, and so this fine new series of dramas based on her books are more off-beat family sagas with a large helping of mystery thrown in.

It's good to see Jason Isaacs back as Jackson Brodie, the private investigator and knight with no shining armour. Hence, the many cuts and bruises he picks up while helping those who cross his path – in the this opening episode he even takes in a stray dog.

In fact, waifs and strays is the theme of the opening 90-minute story. There's a high-adrenaline start as Jackson attempts to retrieve a girl in Germany to return her to her mother — or so he thinks. It turns out he's been duped, and the girl is being given to the father.

Brodie delves into a case of police corruption and murder

Courtney, Tracy and Jackson

Feeling guilty, Brodie returns to Edinburgh, where he's offered a case by a young Aussie woman, Hope, who wants to trace her birth parents. This is a thorny inquiry that leads him back into a secret buried for 35 years amid police corruption and murder.

Meanwhile, Victoria Wood turns up as a store detective who has an altercation with a woman who's been whacking her little girl, Courtney. Events turn from violent to bizarre as Tracy, Woods' character, ends up walking away with Courtney. It's a performance full of heart from the comedian and actress.

There are dark events, but also humour and pathos. Tracy's stroppy, tubby store cop boss says to Brodie, 'My name's Rod, as in Rod Stewart.' To which Brodie replies, 'You've let yourself go a bit, Rod.'

Jason Isaacs as the heroic, reckless Brodie

The soundtrack ranges from jaunty to soulful, and Edinburgh's 50 shades of grey skies are beautifully shot.

And of course there's Brodie, the man who can't resist helping those in need despite usually paying a high price himself. We last met him in 2011 and it's been worth the wait for this short series' comeback (in the meantime Jason Isaacs' has been off making the supernatural cop show Awake in the US and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2).

Since then Kate Atkinson's hero has lost the wonderful Louise to a new 'boring' fiancé, and his daughter Marlee and ex wife are now in New Zealand. Isaacs brings a fine quality of crumpled heroism to Brodie, mixed with a dash of recklessness.

Unfinished business with Louise?

Barry (Tracy's partner) and DCI Louise Munroe

He flattens a skinhead he sees beating his dog in the park, and spends the rest of the episode with the mutt in tow. At the end he also strikes a dangerous deal with the man who double-crossed him over the custody snatch in Germany so that he can help Tracy, but we know it's sure to rebound on Brodie later.

Young Marlee also has a shock announcement for her dad, and there is likely to be unfinished business with Louise. It's a shame there are only three instalments of this latest series.

Case Histories is a distinctive drama with great characters – and far more enjoyable than most formulaic cop procedurals filling the TV schedules.

Cast: Jason Isaacs Jackson Brodie, Emma Hamilton Hope McMaster, Victoria Wood Tracy Waterhouse, Gary Lewis Barry, James Cosmo Len Lomax, Maurice Roeves Ray Strickland, Amanda Abbington Louise, Zawe Ashton Deborah, Millie Innes Marlee

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The Fall episode 1 — What we're watching

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:16:00 +0000

Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson. Pics: BBC

Writer/blogger Pat Nurse settles down to watch the opening episode of BBC2's The Fall – through her fingers…

HANG ON to the edge of your seat, peek through your fingers if you must, but be prepared for a fast-paced, disturbing new thriller that will have you hooked.

The Fall, BBC2's new crime drama set in Belfast, started on Monday night and sees Gillian Anderson as the Metropolitan police detective Stella Gibson sent over to review an unsolved murder case, which she soon suspects is part of a series of killings by the same person.

The Irish assistant chief constable (John Lynch) doesn’t believe her — or doesn’t want to — but the viewer knows Gibson is right. We’ve met and followed the murderer Paul Spector, played with chilling perfection by actor Jamie Dornan.

Stalker Paul Spector

In his 'normal' life he is a conventionally married father of two young children. In his other life, he is perverse, violent, and appears to relieve the stress of his demanding family with murder, torture and the control of professional young women that he stalks.

It’s impossible not to feel a shudder as he enters victim Sarah Kay’s house, when she’s not in, and rummages through her underwear, leaving traces of his presence like a dog leaving a scent.

Sarah, played by Laura Donnelly, finds her underwear laid out on her bed and calls the police, who don’t take her too seriously — until it’s too late.

Anderson plays a strong female character that reminded me of Helen Mirren’s Jane

Sarah is targeted

Tennison in Prime Suspect — parts of which were also written by The Fall writer Alan Cubit.

Part two is on next Monday (BBC 2, 9pm). The victim will be found, Gibson’s worst fears that a serial killer is on the loose will be realised, but first Spector takes his time in killing and torturing the woman, so be prepared for gore — or do as I do, hide from the worst of it by peeking through your fingers. Then find a comedy to watch before bedtime. The Fall could well give you nightmares.

• What did you think of The Fall? Comment below…

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The Suspicions of Mr Whicher 2, ITV, with Paddy Considine, Olivia Colman PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:35:00 +0000

Shaun Dingwall as Inspector Lock and Paddy Considine as Jack Whicher. Pics: ITV

Rating: ★★★★

ITV: Sunday, 12 May, 8pm

Story: Jack Whicher is no longer an inspector and has left the Metropolitan Police under a cloud. But when he saves a country lady from a robbery in a dangerous quarter of London, he learns that this woman, Susan Spencer, is desperately hunting for her vulnerable young niece, Mary.

KATE SUMMERSCALE uncovered a quite jaw-droppingly fascinating Victorian tale when she wrote her non-fiction book The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which ITV then made into an engrossing drama in 2011.

This second film, again starring Paddy Considine, steps away from fact into fiction by imagining how the real Inspector Whicher got on following the ignominy of failing to solve the Murder at Road Hill House in 1860. Whicher suspected the correct culprit – Constance Kent – of murdering her younger half brother, Francis, but failed to bring her to trial.

Olivia Colman as Susan

Private inquiry agent
Constance later confessed and went to jail (her death sentence was commuted) and she lived to a ripe old 100 years anonymously in Australia. Whicher, one of a new breed of detectives and an inspiration for Charles Dickens's Inspector Bucket, found it hard to live down his failure to secure conviction, and had ruffled the feathers of his social superiors for his conduct of an investigation into a well-to-do family.

Summerscale's book reveals that Whicher married his landlady, Charlotte Piper, in 1866 and the next year was working as a private inquiry agent, though he probably didn't need the money as he had a decent police pension.

Searching for a vulnerable young woman in dangerous London
The new film, entitled The Murder in Angel Lane, is written by Bafta-winner Neil McKay (Appropriate Adult, Mo, Heartbeat) and based on further historical research.

So fictional Whicher comes to the aid of a country lady, Susan Spencer, who's had her purse clipped by a thief in a rough inn in London. She reveals she is desperately trying to find her niece, 16-year-old Mary, who is looking for the young man, Stephen Gann, who made her pregnant.

Played with emotional intensity in another terrific performance by Olivia Colman, Susan employs the former inspector to track down Mary.

Will we see more of Jack Whicher?

Going mad? Whicher is incarcerated in the asylum

Whicher is pitched into a puzzling murder inquiry and territorial rows with some of his old police colleagues, arriving eventually at a sinister lunatic asylum – a reminder of how awful those 19th-century institutions could be. It is a complex story of stolen inheritances, murder, police corruption and illegitimate children.

While it lacks the power of the original true story, this new drama is an intriguing insight into a dark side of the Victorian age. The production, acting and writing are all very sharp, and there seems every possibility that Jack Whicher won't be allowed to fade into history just yet and is nicely poised for future investigations.

Cast: Paddy Considine Jack Whicher, Olivia Colman Susan Spencer, William Beck Chief Inspector 'Dolly' Williamson, Tim Pigott-Smith Commissioner Mayne, Shaun Dingwall Inspector George Lock, William Postlethwaite Stephen Gann, Mark Bazeley Thomas Gann, Sean Baker Joshua Gann, Alistair Petrie Dr Casement, Joanna Jeffrees Nursemaid, Siobhan O'Neill Housemaid, Asher Kemp Baby Stephen, Justine Mitchell Sister Anne, Angela Terence Charlotte, Sam Barnard Robert, Justin Edwards Rev Marlow

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Hannibal, Sky Living, with Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:05:00 +0000

Mads Mikkelsen as Lecter and Hugh Dancy as Will Graham in Hannibal. Pics: Sky Living

Rating: ★★★½

Sky Living: Tuesdays, 10pm

Story: FBI man Will Graham is using his psychological empathy and insight into killers to hunt a mass murderer, Garret Jacob Hobbs, when he is assigned a new man to assist him – Dr Hannibal Lecter.

ARE WE NOT OVER Hannibal Lecter? Four novels, five Hollywood movies – but producers think we still want to gorge on tales of the serial killer and gourmand.

Special Agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy)

So we have this 13-part TV series, which has just started on Sky Living. And pretty grisly it is too, with throat slashings, pools of blood and naked women mounted on the antlers of decapitated deer heads (I decided not to include a picture of that scene).

It's all madly far-fetched, but that's because Hannibal and his fellow serial maniacs are closer to the horror genre than crime. Author Thomas Harris's creations here evoke that other great devourer of humans Dracula, along with Sherlock Holmes, represented by the similarly Asbergers-affected Will Graham, with his totally implausible deductions – 'He has a daughter, same hair [as the victim], same height, she's an only daughter…' How the heck did he work that out?

Hannibal's selling point, of course, is not its believability but its thrills and shocks. These it has in abundance.

Gillian Anderson coming up
In addition, it is slickly filmed and has a good cast. Hugh Dancy, seen recently in The Big C with
Laura Linney, is the straight guy Will Graham to Mads Mikkelsen's charismatic, beautifully dressed Lecter. Perhaps best known as the villain in Casino Royale, Mikkelsen mixes erudition with homicidal menace very well indeed, particularly in an early scene when Laurence Fishburne's FBI chief comes calling unexpectedly.

Journalist Freddie gets close to Hannibal

Gillian Anderson will also be featuring later as Dr Bedelia Du Maurier, Lecter's psychotherapist (could be dangerous job to have). In the States this is being seen as the former X Files' star's big TV comeback, whereas everyone in Britain knows she been moonlighting as Victorian ladies in BBC productions Bleak House, The Crimson Petal and the White and Great Expectations.

She can also be seen in this week's The Fall on BBC2 as a detective hunting a serial killer in Belfast, a less lurid but more chilling drama than Hannibal.

Lecter is using Graham's 'pure empathy'

And the award for best-dressed serial killer goes to…

Anyway, the Grand Guignol continues this week in episode two with the discovery that Hobbs has spawned a copycat killer, a mass woodland grave is found containing people that were buried alive, and a journalist hunting a scoop is lured into Lecter's therapy room.

The big twist will come, of course, when Graham finally works out that Lecter is observing and learning from the FBI man's 'pure empathy' with mass murderers such as himself. In the meantime, watching Hannibal toy with Graham should be interesting.

Hannibal is over the top, and the attempt at dark humour (each episode is named after a course on a French menu) is not as biting, so to speak, as the satire in Dexter, for instance. But the show is getting good reviews in the States, and the superior writing and acting seem set to have patrons coming back for more helpings.

Cast: Hugh Dancy Special Agent Will Graham, Mads Mikkelsen Dr Hannibal Lecter, Caroline Dhavernas Dr Alana Bloom, Hettienne Park Special Agent Beverly Katz, Laurence Fishburne Special Agent-in-Charge Jack Crawford, Lara Jean Chorostecki Fredricka 'Freddie' Lounds, Scott Thompson Jimmy Price, Aaron Abrams Brian Zeller, Kacey Rohl Abigail Hobbs, Gina Torres Phyllis 'Bella' Crawford, Ellen Greene Mrs Komeda, Raúl Esparza Dr Frederick Chilton, Gillian Anderson Dr Bedelia Du Maurier

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The Fall, BBC2, with Gillian Anderson, Jamie Dornan PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:18:00 +0000

Hunting the hunter – Gillian Anderson as DSI Gibson. Pics: BBC

Rating: ★★★★½

BBC2: Monday, 13 May, 9pm

Story: When a murder in Belfast remains unsolved, DSI Stella Gibson is brought in from the London Metropolitan Police to review the case. She soon suspects that the killing is related to another murder.

GILLIAN ANDERSON stars alongside relative newcomer Jamie Dornan in this complex and dark serial killer drama, set in Belfast.

While the fiendishly brilliant serial murderer has become a cop show cliche since The Silence of the Lambs, The Fall is a far more intriguing portrait of a lone killer operating under the guise of your normal family man.

Unfolding with visual flair (directed by Jakob Verbruggen) and with multi-layered characters written by Allan Cubitt (one of the Prime Suspect writers), this will fill the Monday night hole left by Broadchurch in the must-see TV stakes.

Stella wants to head the investigation

The Fall is not a whodunit
Not that The Fall is a whodunit like the David Tennant/Olivia Colman series. It is more a how-will-they-catch-him gripper.

DSI Stella Gibson is called in from the Met in London to review a Belfast murder inquiry that has stalled. The female victim is the daughter of a politician.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has investigated many sectarian killings down the years, but the sexually motivated murder is a crime they have little experience of. It is not long before Gibson suggests the killing may be linked to an earlier crime in which a woman's bound body was found in her wardrobe.

Paul Spector – daddy and stalker

Family man Paul and his wife, Sally-Ann

The audience knows more than the characters in this drama, because we can see Paul Spector going about his daily routine as a grief counsellor, daddy, stalker and predator. As he talks through the grief of one bereaved couple in his office, he sits drawing nude sketches of the mother before him.

Outside of work he has in his sights a young female solicitor, a brunette whom we soon realise fits a type he is obsessed with, and he burgles her home, arranging her underwear on her bed for when she returns.

More chilling are the scenes of him at home, father to his children and husband to his wife, who's a nurse. The monster hiding behind a mask.

• The BBC has a great 12-minute film about the making of The Fall

The Fall vs Hannibal
Gibson, whom Gillian Anderson plays as an understated but formidable personality, starts to ruffle the local force with her theory that a sexual predator is at work. She puts herself forward to head the Task Force to hunt the hunter.

Solicitor Sarah is stalked

The story is plausible and down-to-earth, and doesn't rely on mad plot twists to keep us engaged. And Dornan, the former Calvin Klein model perhaps best known as the sheriff from the fantasy series Once Upon a Time, is by turns warm, cold and intense as the devious, narcissistic, stalking, peeping killer.

The opening episode (of five) ends on a chilling note that will have viewers on the edge of their seats for more.

Incidentally, Gillian Anderson, who since her cult stardom in The X Files in the 1990s has been something of a BBC costume star in recent years (Bleak House, The Crimson Petal and the White, Great Expectations), can currently also be seen in Hannibal over on Sky Living. But while the Hannibal Lector show is full of gore and outlandishly twisted murders, The Fall is nearer the truth and a far more engrossing portrayal of a killer among us.

Cast: Gillian Anderson Stella Gibson, Jamie Dornan Paul Spector, Archie Panjabi Tanya Reed Smith, Bronagh Waugh Sally-Ann Spector, John Lynch Jim Burns, Niamh McGrady Danielle Ferrington, Laura Donnelly Sarah Kay, Frank McCusker Garrett Brink, Simon Delaney Jerry McElroy, Siobhan McSweeney Mary McCurdy, Gerard Jordan Brian Stone, Michael McElhatton Rob Breedlove, Ben Peel James Olson, Karen Hassen Annie Brawley, Lisa Hogg Marion Kay, Emmett Scanlan Glen Martin, Aisling Francios Katie

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Justified series 4, 5 USA with Timothy Olyphant PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Wed, 08 May 2013 07:14:00 +0000

Timothy Olyphant looks ahead to Justified's new series. Pics: 5USA

Rating: ★★★★½

5USA: starts Wednesday, 8 May, 10pm

Story: Raylan tries to earn a little extra cash by doing a side job for an old flame; namely, locating a murder suspect for her – a simple job gets very complicated for deputy US marshal.

AMID a lot of dross cop procedurals on TV right now there are a couple of absolute gems tucked away, and Justified is one of them.

Now back on 5USA for his fourth season, the coolest lawman around, Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens, returns with a cracking opening episode that suggests the series will live up to previous levels of mayhem and badassery.

The cowboy-hat wearing, quick-on-the-trigger Raylan – played as ever with panache by Timothy Olyphant (ironic that a slick dude should be played by someone called Timothy) – gets a call from an old flame. Sharon, a bounty hunter, asks Raylan to keep an eye out for a murder suspect she is pursuing. There's three grand in it for him.

Raylan and Constable Sweeney held at gunpoint

Raylan gets his man, then loses him
Raylan, who doesn't live in luxury, could use the money. No sooner does the episode get into its stride than he is in a Mexican stand-off with the fugitive who is sitting in his car – which Raylan resolves in brilliant style. However, being a touch arrogant, he then loses his man and finds himself in a touch of serious bother.

It's an enjoyable reacquaintance with the series, added to by the introduction of Patton Oswalt as the newly installed local constable, puffed-up and self-important Bob Sweeney. Much fun should flow from this new character.

Having dispatched the vile Quarles in the last series – and a trademark of Justified is its superb evildoers – it looks as though a different kind of series-long mystery will drive the drama this time.

Raylan looking down another gun barrel

Justified's season four mystery
The opener begins with a flashback to 1983 when a man plummets to the ground after his parachute lets him down. This could be connected to a confidential diplomatic bag and driver's licence found in the wall of the home of Raylan's villainous and now imprisoned father, Arlo.

The licence has the name Waldo Truth on it. When Raylan visits his father in prison, Arlo denies knowing anything about it, but warns his son off anyway. Another inmate knows what they were talking about, and when he puts pressure on Arlo, the old man stabs him to death. Later it will emerge that the bag could help in the arrest of a major mafioso.

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Murder on the Home Front, ITV, with Patrick Kennedy, Tamzin Merchant PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Tue, 07 May 2013 07:32:00 +0000

Tamzin Merchant and Patrick Kennedy in Murder on the Home Front. Pics: ITV

Rating: ★★★

ITV: starts Thursday, 9 May, 9pm

Story: When young women are found murdered, DI Freddy Wilkins believes the obvious suspect is the vulnerable loner, Wilfred Ziegler as a result of the swastikas carved on the victims’ tongues. But Dr Lennox Collins, a brilliant Home Office Pathologist and Molly Cooper, his young secretary, have their doubts…

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be. It's now eating our TVs alive. It's everywhere with its musty old suits, foggy streets and vintage cars.

Forget Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife for a moment. The crime genre alone has single-handedly unleashed 16 or so costume mysteries in the last six months (see the list below) – with more to come.

Unfazed – Molly (Tamzin Merchant)

Why? A rose-tinted belief that times were hard but better, perhaps. Also, many viewers just love looking at the old bangers and funny fashions (never mind the quality of the drama). And crimes committed in the past seem somehow sanitised and safer for primetime viewing.

Based on the memoirs of Molly Lefebure
That's certainly what's happened with Murder on the Home Front, a potentially fascinating true story turned into a bit of jolly entertainment.

It's based – very loosely – on the memoirs of Molly Lefebure. During the London Blitz, she became secretary to Home Office pathologist Keith Simpson, who did a lot of pioneering forensic work.

Simpson later worked on the cases of several notorious killers, from acid bath murderer John George Haigh to Ronnie Kray. The Blitz is also an intriguing period owing to the chaos that acted as cover for criminals and murderers.

Recent costume coppers and spies: Endeavour, Father Brown, Inspector George Gently, WPC 56, The Lady Vanishes, Foyle's War, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Spies of Warsaw, Vegas, Restless, Ripper Street, Miss Marple, Poirot, Corleone, Boardwalk Empire – and coming soon: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher 2, Quirke

In Murder on the Home Front, Simpson becomes Lennox Collins, played by Patrick Kennedy (Boardwalk Empire), and Molly Lefebure becomes Molly Cooper, with Tamzin Merchant (Jane Eyre) in the role. They meet during the war when Molly is a local newspaper journalist and Collins is in need of a secretary.

Molly is feisty and unfazed by dismembered corpses, and Collins is a nerdy, witty guy. The tone is carefree and light-hearted throughout. When Molly first turns up for work, forensic photographer Issy, equally as feisty and jolly as Molly, tells her, 'Bit of advice. Don't wear anything you cherish to work.' She looks around the mortuary – 'Blood, innards, and the dreaded brains.'

The pathologist and Molly at another crime scene

Collins is called to the murder of a woman in Kennington. He stuns the detective in charge, DI Wilkins, by insisting at this and ensuing crime scenes that the locus is preserved while he sifts for evidence. During the mayhem of the Blitz, Collins's approach not only goes against previous practice but also seems eccentric to the plod.

Swastika carved on victims' tongues
The victim has a swastika carved on her tongue, as does a second found in a park. Which leads the police to suspect that loner Wilfred Ziegler, who found the first corpse, must be the culprit based on his German name.

Collins is after harder evidence and focuses on other suspects, particularly a nasty dance hall owner. But not only is he trying to modernise forensic practice, he also faces opposition from the government and Professor Stephens (Jame Fleet), who represents the old guard of forensics. They both want a quick conviction to preserve morale by pinning it on a Nazi serial killer.

Ballroom blitz – Collins investigates

Nostalgia hounds will adore the old dance hall (filmed at the Rivoli Ballrooms in Brockley), the wireless broadcasts and big band music. But the characters are thin and the desperation to be light-hearted grates.

ITV describe the two-parter as 'blackly comic and hugely entertaining' despite its 'dark themes'. Which kind of misses the point in a story about a guy who cuts up corpses and investigates depraved murderers, but the dance hall scenes do look lovely.

• For an insight into the real and remarkable Molly Lefebure, who died earlier this year, her grandson has put together this fascinating online portrait

Cast: Patrick Kennedy Lennox Collins, Tamzin Merchant Molly Cooper, James Fleet Professor Henry Stephens, David Sturzaker DI Freddy Wilkins, Emerald Fennell Issy Quennell,
Richard Bremmer Charlie Maxton, Iain McKee DS Brady, Ryan Gage Danny Hastings, John Bowe Ronald Terry, Patrick Knowles Pawel Rosanski, Angus Wright Carver, .John Heffernan Wilfred Zeigler, Jake Curran Norman Becket, Daniel Rabin Granger

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Life of Crime, ITV, with Hayley Atwell PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:54:00 +0000

Cop of ages – Hayley Atwell as Denise Wood. Pics: ITV

Rating: ★★★½

ITV: starts Friday, 10 May, 9pm

Story: It’s 1985 and Denise is in her early twenties, starting life as an idealistic WPC for the Met Police. Though a rookie cop, she becomes involved in the case of a murdered young woman, killed after a night at a club. It is a case that will dominate Denise's career over three decades.

Where recent dramas Broadchurch and Mayday were ensemble pieces, Life of Crime is resolutely the Hayley Atwell show.

Her character, Denise Woods, ages across three decades as she rises through the ranks of the London Met, remaining dangerously obsessed with arresting the man who raped and murdered a young woman during her early days as a constable.

And the actress – star of Captain America and recent TV dramas Falcón and Restless – carries off the transformation and crises pretty well. The biggest problem Life of Crime has is trying to squeeze three decades into three hours of TV.

Denise clashes with her senior officer, played by Con O'Neill
Denise starts out as an idealistic WPC in her 20s, arriving as a probationer in Brixton, confronted by leering and condescension of male colleagues and bosses. While being treated in hospital for a knock, Denise meets a teenager, Amy, who later turns up dead in an alley behind a nightclub.

New face – Denise with Ray and Ferguson

The rookie disagrees with her ogre of a boss, DCI Ferguson, that Amy's dad – who earlier dragged her from the nightclub – is her killer. Denise suspects a man she saw skulking round the hospital ward as being Amy's attacker. He turns out to be the nightclub's doorman, Mike Holland.

Denise has moral and practical support from handsome Sergeant Ray Deans in her bid to get evidence on Holland. But Ferguson, who tells Denise she's nothing more than a 'Doris' who is meant to answer phones and make tea, suspends her for continual interference. Con O'Neill is very believable as the unpleasant, raging Ferguson.

The lurch from rookie to dirty cop doesn't work
The first half of the opening episode is engrossing, with Hayley Atwell nailing the role of no-nonsense Denise, a newbie ignoring the male hostility to do the job she's set on. The mismanaged murder inquiry is also all too convincing, as is Denise's frustration with it. Also, her personal stake in Amy's case is believable and gives the drama some heart.

It is during the Brixton riots – very cheaply recreated – that the story stretches credibility, with Denise strolling nonchalantly through burning streets before deciding to take matters into her own hands to nail Holland. Her career is set to take off, but she's in for a shock in episode two…

Her lurch into dirty cop mode from a novice constable is perhaps a sympton of the need to compress a lot of story into three hours, but it dents the character's plausibility.

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Scott & Bailey latest, new BBC series By Any Means, Mr Whicher

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:33:00 +0000

Suranne Jones as Rachel Bailey and Nicola Walker as Helen

• Scott & Bailey returns to the house of horrors that featured in episode one during this Wednesday's story (1 May, ITV, 9pm). We'll see Nicola Walker coming back as Helen Bartlett, the woman traumatised by the abuse she suffered three decades ago at the hands of her creepy parents. However, it seems that life with her dad, the psychopath Joe (George Costigan, who was pretty disturbing in the role), were far more macabre than we realised. Joe appeared to be a bed-bound, frail old guy in the series opener, but then it turned out, of course, that he had murdered his wife and abused his children. Now it appears there are further horrific discoveries at the house – and Helen may know more about what occurred there. It's one of the darkest stories ever featured on the hit series. Nicola Walker says of Helen, 'She has created a character to be at work and that has been successful. But then when someone brings Peveril Street back into her consciousness again, it’s like she goes straight back there. I think she has some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. I’ve never played a character who is so full of shame. It’s an interesting thing to play because it’s an absolutely internal emotion. She’s full of apology. At times she barely raises her eyes to look someone in the eye.' Watch the Scott & Bailey trailer

• Discuss all these new shows on CrimeTimePreview's new Forum •

• The Beeb has started filming By Any Means in Birmingham, a new cop from a team of writers led by Tony Jordan, whose credits include Hustle and Life on Mars. This is about a clandestine police team who attempt to play the criminals at their own game, and tread a fine line with the law. It stars Warren Brown (Luther, Good Cop), Shelley Conn (Mistresses, Marchlands) and Andrew Lee Potts (Primeval, Ideal) and Gina McKee (The Borgias, In The Loop).

Paddy Considine and Olivia Colman in The Suspicion's of Mr Whicher II

• Look out for ITV's forthcoming The Suspicions of Mr Whicher II, again starring Paddy Considine as the pioneering Victorian detective. The sequel goes beyond Kate Summerscale's engrossing non-fiction book this time, featuring Olivia Colman – fresh from the brilliant success of Broadchurch – as Susan Spencer, who employs Whicher as a private inquiry agent to investigate the murder of her neice, 16-year-old Mary. Paddy says, 'When we left Whicher at the end of the first drama he’d failed to prove his case that the little boy had been murdered by his 16-year-old sister, Constance. She’d been acquitted and having failed to secure a conviction he was booted out of the force and basically had a nervous breakdown. Now, when we pick up his story again he’s supposedly putting the case and his life in the force behind him. He’s taken up walking and gardening instead. But the audience knows before he does that as much as he tries to give the life up, it won't give him up because, basically he’s a detective to his bones. He has no chance when a woman in search of her lost niece appeals to him for help. He just can’t help but get involved.'

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Broadchurch — great finish for the best new UK crime series

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:08:00 +0000

Oskar McNamara as Danny. Pics: ITV

• Broadchurch revealed its secrets in the final episode last night and confirmed its position as the best new UK crime series since Sherlock. The Beeb, BSkyB, Channel 4 and ITV churn out dozens of murder dramas each year but none has generated the buzz that Broadchurch did.

Much of the watercooler chat was about whodunit, but Broadchurch was a much better show than those that are simply puzzles over a perpetrator's identity, intriguing though that was. The bookies, and most of us in the audience, strongly suspected it was Joe, anyway.

Broadchurch worked so brilliantly because it learnt from the first series of The Killing and was a seering exploration of a crime and its painful fallout for a community – ambitions way above most TV crime fare. Central to the whole story was the Latimers and the heartbreak and confused loss they were suffering. Hats off to writer and creator Chris Chibnall (United, Law & Order: UK) for devising such a rich, compelling drama.

Olivia Colman and David Tennant

Olivia Colman was superb throughout, but really went above the call of duty in portraying the nightmare that befell Ellie during the finale. David Tennant was very good – as usual – as Alec, the lead detective who was by turns irritating and vulnerable. And, for my money, Andrew Buchan also stood out at times as Danny's dad, particularly early in the series in the scene when he had to identify his son's body.

Daily Telegraph final episode review
Guardian final episode review
Independent final episode review

ITV wasted no time last night in announcing that Broadchurch will be back. Which will be interesting, seeing that Alec is being invalided out of the force and Ellie will have to leave town. The story is, of course, being kept under wraps, but will go into production next year. More than nine-million viewers have been watching, so another series is not a surprise.

My guess is series two could involve Sandbrook, Alec's previous and disastrous case.

Anyway, final word to Chris Chibnall – 'The whole Broadchurch team has been delighted and properly gobsmacked by the response from ITV viewers. When I first talked to Peter Fincham and Laura Mackie, ITV’s Director of Drama about Broadchurch, I mentioned that if people liked it, there was another very different story we could tell afterwards. I'm really thrilled we're going to tell that story too.'

Here's the extra scene from Broadchurch that was posted on Facebook last night…

• In other news, ITV also announced yesterday that there will be a fourth series of Vera. Brenda Blethyn will this summer start filming four new 120-minute stories based on the character created by crime author Ann Cleeves.

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Jo starring Jean Reno, Fox UK PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Jean Reno, Tom Austen and Orla Brady in Jo. Pics: Fox

Rating: ★★★

Fox UK: starts Sunday, 19 May, 9pm

Story: When a body is found beaten and strangled under the 'Last Judgment' portal of Notre Dame, detective Jo must decode the murder.

Wow, this is a schizophrenic show. French-made, with English dialogue, spoken by a mainly British-Irish-Canadian cast, in US accents – it's as disconcerting as EastEnders in German.

More jarring still are the glaring Americanisms, so that you have the French cops 'putting out an APB', or pulling a suspect's sheet.

A little Gallic flavour is added by the presence of Jean Reno (though even the star of Léon and Godzilla

The Eiffel Tower is the setting for one mystery

was born in Morocco), and each episode focuses on a Parisian landmark (Eiffel Tower, Place Vendôme, and starting at Notre Dame).

Still, it's hard to imagine anyone in France falling in love with Jo when they have fine crime series already such as Braquo and Spiral – all without the American knobs on. Those knobs will no doubt be excised later because the series is part of a trend to make French shows in English, sell them abroad and then dub them into French for the home market (in this case TF1). Whether Jo can survive the insult the French linguistic pride remains to be seen.

Jo's got a drug habit
So, the series is aimed squarely at US/English-speaking audiences. Bearing in mind that the Americans are hardly going short in the cop-show department, can Jo find a niche for itself? Well, it's more comme ci, comme ça than formidable.

Joachim 'Jo' Saint-Clair is a veteran detective, with the stress on veteran. He's a drug abuser, has an estranged daughter, Adele, from a liaison with a prostitute, and the years have taken their toll. Even the actor playing him, Jean Reno, is 64, so Jo's not too clever with the action and chase scenes.

Orla Brady as Dormont

Fortunately, he has young Tom Austen (whose first big role was in E4's Beaver Falls) as Bayard alongside him, and Jill Hennessy (Law & Order) as his confidante and friend, Karyn. Orla Brady (Fringe) turns up as their boss.

Brits playing French flics with American accents
Wunmi Mosaku (Vera) and Celyn Jones (Above Suspicion) are also among the Brits making a half-hearted attempt to play French flics.

Jo needs all the support he can get (and this may explain the pharmaceuticals he uses) because he has to track the killers who commit the most shocking murders in Paris. First up, the body of a renowned organist, whose corpse is found under the 'Last Judgment' portal of Notre Dame. 'This was payback,' Jo decides, pretty much stating the obvious.

Talented he may have been, but musician Peter van Vliet was also a serial shagger who enjoyed having sex in semi-public places with married women. Hence, there's no shortage of cuckolded husbands among the suspects.

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Hannibal — Sky Living in May

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:34:00 +0000

Here's a glimpse of Hannibal, the new 13-parter coming to Sky Living (Tuesday, 7 May, 10pm), inspired by Thomas Harris's classic novel Red Dragon. Mads Mikkelson certainly looks a good choice to play Hannibal Lecter, here seen before the events of Silence of the Lambs, when the brilliant psychiatrist's crimes are unknown and he is taken on by FBI. His job is to help gifted criminal profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy). Laurence Fishburne will appear as an FBI boss, Gillian Anderson as Lecter's analyst, and Eddie Izzard as an inmate at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Insane. Sounds like crazy fun.

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Gillian Anderson in The Fall, Danny Miller joins Scott & Bailey, Win a Mayday DVD

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:51:00 +0000

• Here's a glimpse of Gillian Anderson as DSI Stella Gibson, who will we see this year in BBC2's The Fall. The series is set in Northern Ireland and will see Anderson's character, who is on secondment from the London Met, called in to track down a serial killer who is terrorising Belfast. Jamie Dornan will play Paul Spector, the murderer.

• Former Emmerdale and Lightfields star Danny Miller will be joining Scott & Bailey on 24 April (pictured below). His character, DS Rob Waddington, is set to shake up things for Janet (Lesley Joseph) and Rachel (Suranne Jones), particularly Janet. She's been filling in for months as acting detective sergeant, only to see Rob the young high-flyer nip in and take the job. 'He's learning on the job,' Danny says. 'Janet takes him under her wing and he appreciates her experience and intelligence. He doesn’t like confrontation and would rather sit down and work things out. Yet when he has to put his foot down, he will.' Though S&B has been terrific, the male characters have all been either stupid, pathetic or lecherous. It will be interesting to see if Rob breaks the mould. And, when Janet and Rachel fall out later in the series, will Janet be able to turn to the younger man for advice?

• It's the Bafta TV Awards on 12 May at London's Royal Festival Hall and there are some terrific crime dramas in the running. CrimeTimePreview will be cheering on Sean Bean and Stephen Graham, who were bold and brilliant in the first episode of the Accused series, Tracie's Story, in which Bean played spectacularly against type as a transvestite in love. Sheridan Smith (Mrs Biggs) and Sienna Miller (The Girl) are among those scrapping for Leading Actress. Olivia Colman, who could probably be nominated for everything she's in at the moment (particularly Broadchurch), is up for Supporting Actress in Accused. Scott & Bailey and Ripper Street are chasing Best Drama Series (surely Scott & Bailey is better). And a particular favourite at CrimeTimePreview HQ from 2012 was Murder, which is up for Best Single Drama. Directed by The Killing's Birger Larsen for BBC2, this was a gripping depiction of the messiness and ambiguities involved in a murder case. See Bafta's full nomination list.

• It's competition time! The first three crime TV fans who become a member of the CrimeTimePreview gang (see the column right), will receive copies of the sinister thriller series Mayday. The complete series of the BBC drama starring Peter Firth and Sophie Okonedo was released this week, costing £19.99. It was written by the team responsible for that other creepy detective series Whitechapel, Ben Court and Caroline Ip, and told the story of the residents of a small town coping with the disappearance of a teenager who was supposed to head the Mayday parade. The woods outside of the town are menacing, while several residents have secrets to hide. So what happened to the May Queen? The DVD's special features include The Making of Mayday, Cast Filmographies and a Picture Gallery.
This offer is open to UK residents only. The first three people who become Members of CrimeTimePreview (Join this site, column, right) will be posted free copies of Mayday. The selectees will need to provide their postal address. Deadline: Saturday, 20 April. No prize alternatives. If anyone registers but declines the Mayday DVD, an alternative winner will be selected.

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The Ice Cream Girls, ITV, with Jodhi May and Lorraine Burroughs

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 06:27:00 +0000

Jodhi May and Lorraine Burroughs in The Ice Cream Girls. Pics: ITV

Rating: ★★★½

ITV: starts Friday, 19 April, 9pm

Story: Two vulnerable teenage girls are accused of murdering their schoolteacher in the summer of 1995. For seventeen years, the two girls go their separate ways, Poppy having been charged with the murder, while Serena has married a doctor and started a family. Now in 2013, their paths cross again.

ITV is flush with excellent crime dramas in April. During the week of 13 April it will be showing Scott & Bailey, Broadchurch will be nearing its finale and Endeavour and The Ice Cream Girls will be launching.

The latter is a three-part drama derived from a bestseller by Dorothy Koomson. The Ice Cream Girls is how the press dubbed the two teenage girls who were the only witnesses to a murder, Serena and Poppy having briefly been friends during the summer of 1995.

Old mates – young Poppy and Serena

Seventeen years later, Serena is still disturbed by a love affair she had then with her teacher, Marcus Hansley, a passion that ended in murder. Serena fled the seaside town of her youth and moved to Leeds, where she married a doctor and had a daughter.

Poppy and Serena are back in town
As the drama begins, Serena moves back home with her family to help her sister cope with her ailing mother. She is on edge, haunted by the past.

It just so happens that Poppy is finishing her sentence for murder and is about to return home too. She is also plagued by what occurred all those years before, and wants to confront Serena and the tragic events that bound them together. Everyone thinks Poppy murdered the teacher, but did she? That's the question hanging over their lives.

It's a riveting opening to the drama, with equally fine performances from Lorraine Burroughs as a jittery Serena and Jodhi May as the young woman with a prison pallor who gradually starts to assert herself once she gets used to being on the outside again.

Teacher with secrets – Marcus

Martin Compston as the teacher with a dark side
Serena is so on edge she races away from a cop who stops her for speeding. She has never told her husband about her involvement in the trial. Meanwhile, Poppy has to deal with moving back with her mother and hostile stepfather.

Martin Compston is creepy as the victim and teacher with a dark side revealed in flashbacks. Poppy closes in on Serena, visiting her unknowing husband at his surgery, and there are twists to come in episode two before the women come face to face.

It's a skilfully made and atmospheric thriller about believable characters trapped by a vulnerable moment in their young lives. Full of surprises, it rounds off a terrific week for ITV drama.

Cast: Jodhi May Poppy, Lorraine Burroughs Serena, Holli Dempsey Young Poppy, Georgina Campbell Young Serena, Martin Compston Marcus, Bryan Dick Al, Dona Croll Rachel, Nicholas Pinnock Evan, Dominique Jackson Vee, Sara Powell Fez, Eleanor Methven Liz, Owen Roe Jim, Kathy Kiera Clarke Marlene, Michael Mcelhatton Brian, Patricia Martin Poppy’s Gran, Gail Brady GP Receptionist, Dylan Tighe Poppy’s Lawyer, Laura Jane Laughlin Serena’s Lawyer, Caitríona Ní Mhurchú Sgt Reynolds

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Broadchurch fever, Shetland returns, E4's new crime drama

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 08:55:00 +0000

Ellie (Olivia Colman) and Alec (David Tennant). Pic: ITV

• An ugly mood is rampant among journalists just now – and it's nothing to do with Leveson's proposals for press regulation. There's indignation and much riding of high horses over ITV's refusal to allow journos to see the final two episodes of Broadchurch. 'Can't believe they're not putting Broadchurch 7 & 8 on previews. I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG' – so wailed the editor-in-chief of TV Choice this week on Twitter. And the story is the same at the Mirror's We Love TV magazine, where I've been working this week. Mirror hacks have been stomping around over their inability to glimpse the final instalments of the David Tennant murder drama. When was the last time a UK cop show had the jaded media so much in its thrall? Anyway, this Monday we reach episode 6 when the seaside town comes together to mourn and a new suspect in the murder of Danny Latimer comes to light. After that, the journalists are going to have to wait…

• BBC1's Shetland, in comparison, passed with barely a murmur, but channel honchos were happy enough with combined viewing figures over two nights of 12million to quickly commission a full series of six episodes. Douglas Henshall will return in the stories, based on author Ann Cleeves' series of novels (all split into two parts) – Raven Black, Dead Water and Blue Lightning. I felt that Shetland's debut, shown in February, fell way short of the novels. Television chiefs seem obsessed with whodunit and the location of their dramas – and Shetland is a great location – but not with creating interesting characters. Perhaps detective Jimmy Perez will come to life in the new series.

• The cultured air at Sky Arts was shattered last week by the machine gun blasts and mayhem of Corleone, the channel's new mafia drama about Sicilian mobster Toto Riina. Starring Claudio Gioe, the drama started last Friday (10pm), but you can catch up with it on Sky Go.

• E4 has commissioned an original, eight-part crime drama called Glue. It's written by Bafta-winner Jack Thorne, and is described as 'twisted, wayward… a thrilling murder mystery ride through the countryside'. Thorne says, 'I grew up in Newbury and was fascinated by life around the stables. In an age where the British countryside feels like it's rotting through disrepair, we want to tell a story about ambition, hope, darkness and anarchy.'

• CrimeTimePreview has a new Forum. We'd love to hear what you think about the murder and coppers filling our screens. Drop by any time…

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Arne Dahl – The Blinded Man, BBC4 PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 08:50:00 +0000

The magnificent six brought together by boss Jenny Hultin, centre

Rating: ★★★½

BBC4: starts Saturday, 6 April (to be confirmed)

Story: A special police unit is set up after three businessmen are murdered on consecutive nights. Detective Jenny Hultin leads the so-called A Unit to investigate the killings while the financial world panics.

BBC4's Nordic invasion of Saturday nights shows no signs of abating as this latest thriller, from Sweden this time, arrives. Where The Killing gave us the iconic Sarah Lund and The Bridge had the odd couple of Saga Noren and Martin Rohde, Arne Dahl is an action-driven ensemble piece.

A crack squad of six detectives is recruited by senior officer Jenny Hultin to investigate a series of shootings of leading businessmen. The magnificent six is an amalgam of talents, including legal whiz Aarto, strongman Gunnar, computer hound Jorge and action man Paul, whose dominates the opener, The Blinded Man.

We meet him as he goes all Clint Eastwood during a hostage situation, when he shoots a man fighting extradition. He's rescued by Jenny Hultin from an Internal Affairs investigation and brings his obsessive, marriage-jeopardising intensity to catching the Fat Cat Killer.

Viggo in trouble with the mob

Estonian mafia
Working round the clock the 'A Unit' run into the mafia in Estonia and try to work out how a Russian bank robber's murder by a dart to the eye, of all things, may tie in. One of the team, the usually desk-bound Viggo, ends up having a very nasty encounter with the mobsters in Tallinn. And there is the conundrum of a Theolonius Monk CD, Mysterioso, left playing when the assassin is interrupted during the murder of his fifth victim.

The Blinded Man, a one of a series of dramas based on novels by Swedish novelist Arne Dahl (the pen name of writer/critic Jan Arnald). It unfolds in two 90-minute films, leaving plenty of scope to flesh the odd bunch of detectives.

There's nose-picking Viggo, former steroid abuser Gunnar, and the oddball father of five Aarto, who calls his children by number rather than name because it's 'rational'. Paul does not like Jorge, and ace interrogator Kerstin finds time for a fling with another member of the Unit.

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Jonathan Creek, BBC1, with Alan Davies and Sheridan Smith

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Joey (Sheridan Smith), Jonathan (Alan Davies), DI Pryke (Rik Mayall), Rosalind (Joanna Lumley). Pic: BBC

Jonathan Creek will re-materialise on our screens on Easter Monday for a one-off feature-length mystery, The Clue of the Savant's Thumb. Alan Davies as the paranormal investigator will be joined by Sheridan Smith, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer and Joanna Lumley in a tale about a dead body disappearing from a locked study. Unfortunately, CrimeTimePreview can't reveal more because the film is still being edited, so to find out more tune in to BBC1 at 8.30pm on Easter Monday.

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Scott & Bailey 3, ITV, with Suranne Jones, Lesley Sharp PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 08:48:00 +0000

Rating: ★★★★½

ITV: starts Wednesday, 3 April, 9pm

Story: A worried neighbour knocks on Janet Scott's door one night, concerned about the smell coming from a house down the road…

Manchester detectives Scott & Bailey quickly won a following among audiences and critics alike, clocking up between six and eight million viewers and winning the Royal Television Society's script writing award for Sally Wainwright last November.

Good as the first two series were, however, series three gets off to a blistering start and could be the best yet. No sooner are the credits done than Janet is saying to Rachel in the Ladies, 'This woman comes knocking on our door at half past eight last night. She lives down the road. I don't know her particularly well…'

And we're straight into an absorbing case that is horrific, sad and mystifying despite the apparent everyday nature of the tragedy.

Strange smell from a creepy house The neighbour says there's a smell coming from a house that Janet has always found creepy. When the uniforms break the door down they find 75-year-old Eunice's body at the top of the stairs – and her head at the bottom.

In the upstairs bedroom is close-to-death, bed-ridden husband Joe. He's emaciated and barely able to speak.

It turns out Eunice was hit over the head. In a bid to discover who killed her, Rachel and Janet set out to trace the couple's four children, who it seems haven't visited their parents in a long time.

Nicola Walker as Helen
They finally locate daughter Helen, who is working on the makeup counter of a department store. Helen's response to news of her mother's death is distracted and muted. Upset she is not – 'I don't have anything to do with my parents,' she says. 'They're of no interest to me.' It's a stunning and eerie performance by Nicola Walker as Helen.

What unfolds is a shocking story of evil, made totally gripping by sublime acting. George Costigan as Joe is a disturbing portrayal, and with Nicola Walker he makes this a powerful opening to the series. And watch out because the character of Helen turns up again later in the series in another tragic story.

Suranne Jones and her former Corrie colleague Sally Lindsay dreamed up this Cagney & Lacey-inspried series, in a bid to create prominent female characters, and a big element of its success is that the characters of Rachel Bailey and Janet Scott are as important as the cases featured each week.

Rachel's bored with her marriage – after three months
So, Rachel is only three months into her marriage and finds herself bored with dishy but dull hubby Sean, while Janet, whose marriage is over though she still shares a roof with Ade, is upset that he is dating and she fancies no one.

Tracie Bennett joins the cast as Rachel's drunken, boob-flashing mum, further adding to the detective's headaches. Meanwhile, Janet is acting as sergeant but is in two minds about whether to take on the extra responsibilities permanently. Another new cast member in episode four (Danny Miller) four will settle this issue for her…

Amelia Bullmore is back in tough boss mode as DCI Gill Murray, and Pippa Haywood is again unrecognisable from her daffy role as Harriet in Prisoners' Wives, here reappearing as the formidable and acerbic Detective Superintendent Julie Dodson.

It's a great ensemble cast, and on the evidence of episode one, stands alongside Broadchurch as the best UK crime drama currently on telly.

Cast: Suranne Jones DC Rachel Bailey, Lesley Sharp DC Janet Scott, Amelia Bullmore DCI Gill Murray, Danny Miller DS Rob Waddington (eps 4 – 8), Ben Batt DC Kevin Lumb, David Prosho DC Ian Mitchell, Tony Mooney DC Pete Readyough, Delroy Brown DC Lee Broadhurst, Nicola Walker Helen Bartlett, George Costigan Joe Bevan, Tracie Bennett Sharon Bailey, Sean Maguire PC Sean McCartney, Tony Pitts Adrian Scott, Judith Barker Dorothy Parsons, Judy Holt Scary Mary Jackson

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Third degree: Cath Staincliffe

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:15:00 +0000

Manchester-based crime writer Cath Staincliffe is interrogated below for evidence of her TV viewing and reading activities. She writes the novels based on the Scott & Bailey series, which stars Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones and is soon to return to ITV – with her latest book about the female detectives being Bleed Like Me. Cath is also the author of the Sal Kilkenny private eye stories and creator and scriptwriter of Blue Murder, which was on ITV and starred Caroline Quentin.

Your favourite British crime series or thriller on TV?

(I’ll tell you now I’m rubbish at choosing single answers). Scott & Bailey, Prime Suspect, Life on Mars, Morse, Cracker, Z Cars. Can I have The Singing Detective too?

Favourite US crime series or thriller on TV?

Justified, Southland, Breaking Bad, Hill Street Blues, Boardwalk Empire, The Wire, The Sopranos. And can I chuck in Jack Irish (Australian), which I really like.

Top TV cop?

At the moment it’s Raylan Givens in Justified.

Which unfilmed book/character should be made into a TV drama?

Hard this because choosing something to be adapted means a new interpretation of well-loved characters (which might be awful). Maybe a series with a fresh location we’ve not seen before like the Leaphorn and Chee novels by Tony Hillerman or Steve Hamilton’s chilly Alex McKnight stories. Or Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins – they could be amazing.

If another of your novels were filmed, who would you cast to be the hero?

No idea. When Caroline Quentin was cast as Janine Lewis in Blue Murder she wasn’t how I imagined the detective in the book but she was brilliant in the role and made it her own so that after that I could only see her as that character.

What do you watch with a guilty conscience (or what’s your guilty pleasure)?

Can’t think of anything really – there’s not enough time to watch all the good stuff (I only see a couple of hours a day) let alone rubbish.

Least favourite cop show/thriller?

Never really warmed to Silent Witness.

Do you prefer The Wire or The Sopranos?

Neck and neck.

Marple/Poirot or Sherlock Holmes?

Philip Marlowe.

Wallander – BBC or the Swedish version?

Enjoyed both.

US or British television crime dramas?

If I absolutely had to pick I’d choose US, but it’s a very close call.

Your favourite crime/thriller writers?

James Lee Burke, Tana French, Thomas H. Cook, Denise Mina, Walter Mosley, Steve Mosby, Belinda Bauer, Don Winslow, Kate Atkinson, Simon Lelic, Laura Wilson, Ken Bruen, Dennis Lehane, Claire Seeber, Sue Grafton … I could go on … and on.

Have you read a crime novel that’s really knocked you out lately?

Yes! Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer, also Broken Harbour by Tana French.

Favourite non-crime/thriller author?

Carol Birch, Toni Morrison, Sarah Waters, Kate Grenville.

Favourite crime movie or thriller?

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. And if you won’t let me have that then Fargo, Con Air, LA Confidential, The Usual Suspects, Insomnia, In the Heat of the Night.

You’ve been framed for murder. Which fictional detective/sleuth would you want to call up?

I’d pick DCI Gill Murray and her Scott & Bailey team. She’s bright, clever enough to see what’s really going on and she’d be totally committed to getting me off. Janet and Rachel would work their magic, Janet with her skill and sensitivity and Rachel with her reckless flair. Then we could all go to the pub for a good natter afterwards.

• In addition to Bleed Like Me, Cath Staincliffe has a new standalone novel out in April – Blink of an Eye.

CrimeTimePreview will be previewing Scott & Bailey 3 tomorrow…

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Endeavour ITV, with Shaun Evans, Roger Allam PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:31:00 +0000

Jakes, Morse, Bright and Thursday in Endeavour. Pic: ITV

Rating: ★★★★

ITV: Sunday, 14 April, 8pm

Story: Margaret Bell, a young woman with a heart condition, is found dead. DC Endeavour Morse suspects that the death may not be down to natural causes, suspicions that bring the novice detective into conflict with his superiors.

Colin Dexter and ITV created one of the UK's most popular fictional detectives in Inspector Morse and you can almost hear the intake of breath among viewers as this first prequel series starring Shaun Evans approaches.

A good pilot for Endeavour went out in January last year, immediately won an audience of 6.5 million and the series of four films was quickly commissioned. So, how good is Girl, the opening story?

Well, it blows Lewis away. Kevin Whately's sequel is still popular enough but has fallen into a rut as a rather uneventful procedural with flat characters.

'Queer fish, stand-offish, rude'
Endeavour is energised with protagonists who don't just go round saying, 'Where were you on the night of the 14th?' Writer Russell Lewis uses his two-hour slot to flesh out the characters, particularly Morse, creating a precocious detective not much liked by his colleagues but mentored by DI Fred Thursday, played again by the excellent Roger Allam.

As PC Strange tells Morse, the boys think he's a 'queer fish, stand-offish, rude'.

A fine new addition to the ensemble is Anton Lesser, giving us yet another snake-like character, this time Chief Superintendent Bright (ironically named, no doubt), who is a stickler for plodding procedure and who feels Thursday has promoted Morse above his station. Bright is the kind of boss we've all encountered – an unoriginal thinker, bit of poser with his foreign phrases ('tabula rasa' etc), and a snob who refuses to believe Morse's theories, such as his suggestion that a vicar may have been at the scene of a murder.

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WPC 56, BBC1, with Jennie Jacques

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 10:11:00 +0000

Gina Dawson (Jennie Jacques, front) joins the team. Pic: BBC

BBC1 has a new daytime drama running every weekday next week (2.15pm, from Monday, 18 March). WPC 56 follows Gina Dawson, played by Jennie Jacques, the new face starting work as a policewoman in a fictional, 1950s Midlands constabulary. The all-male police team are patronising, but also a little unsure of this novel phenomenon – the WPC. Expect sexism, corruption and racism in a drama offering an unsentimental glance at an era often associated with the comfy Dixon of Dock Green depiction. The Beeb is unleashing the series with very little ballyhoo or publicity material, so you'll just have to watch it to discover whether it's any good. Judgments welcome below…

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David Suchet on Agatha Christie, Arne Dahl's Intercrime series on BBC4, and Point Blank at the BFI

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:15:00 +0000

David Suchet with Agatha Christie biographer Laura Thompson. Pic: ITV

• Whether you like Agatha Christie's implausible novels or not, there is no denying her worldwide popularity. A new strand of the Perspectives documentaries begins with David Suchet, who has made the role of Poirot is own on ITV, investigating her appeal. As he prepares to don the spats one last time as Christie's Belgian sleuth, Suchet sets out to learn more about his character's creator, the woman whose books are only outsold by Shakespeare and The Bible. The doc goes out on ITV on Sunday, 17 March, at 10pm. Watch out too for Jonathan Ross on Hitchcock in coming weeks.

• BBC4's excellent scheduling of European crime dramas will soon be including a new Swedish season of five two-part adaptations of Arne Dahl's novels from his Intercrime series. Dahl is the pseudonym of Jan Arnold, whose stories to be screened this spring on Saturday nights will include The Blinded Man, Bad Blood, Many Waters, Europa Blues and To the Top of the Mountain. The tales focus on a team of older detectives. Further good news is that there will be four new Montalbano films in the autumn, along with a spin-off about Young Montalbano.

• The BFI in London is keen for us to flag up its forthcoming screenings of a new print of John Boorman's classic crime movie Point Blank. Tickets go on sale today for the screenings of this power-packed revenge tale, starring Lee Marvin, who was perfect as the bruising brute Walker, and Angie Dickinson. The direction is startling at times and the action unfolds in a fragmentary style, creating a fresh and exhilarating thriller that grips from start to finish. It was a bravura US debut from the British director.

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Prisoners' Wives 2, BBC1, with Polly Walker, Pippa Haywood, Karla Crome, Iain Glen PREVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Jarossi) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:24:00 +0000

Frisky business for Kim, Francesca, Aisling and Harriet. Pics: BBC

Rating: ★★★★

BBC1: Thursday, 14 March, 9pm

Story: Francesca, her dad and her two children are nearly burned to death in an arson attack organised by a rival of her imprisoned husband's. Harriet and her son embark on new spiritual paths, and two new women appear at visiting time – Kim, the respectable wife of a man accused of child abuse, and Aisling, the gutsy teenage daughter of a repeat offender.

The first series didn't attract much of a fanfare when it went out around this time last year, but that compelling drama about four very different women coping with their men being behind bars attracted a solid audience of 5million and was quickly recommissioned by BBC1.

Season 2 has some new faces and says goodbye to a couple of former characters. Gemma's story, featuring Emma Rigby, reached a natural conclusion when she walked away from Steve (Jonas Armstrong). And Lou (Natalie Gavin), who lost her boy and ended up in jail herself, was too difficult to integrate in to the new storylines as well.

Kim meets Harriet in the visitor centre

Sally Carman and Karla Crome
In comes Kim (Shameless star Sally Carman) as the wife of an apparently respectable man who ends up inside after being accused of abusing a neighbour's son. And Karla Crome, the young star seen recently in series such as Hit & Miss, Misfits and Lightfields, plays Aisling, the feisty daughter of roguish repeat offender Brendan (Owen Roe).

The series kicks off explosively when Francesca's home on the estate, where she lives with her dad (David Bradley), is set alight by arsonists one night. She and her dad and two children escape, but the house is burnt out.

Gangster hubby Paul (Downton's Iain Glen) tells her it's a turf war and she must help him to resolve it. Reluctantly she agrees to hand over a 'peace offering' of a cache of weapons to Pearson, Paul's rival.

Horrific ordeal for Francesca

Paul and Fran after the arson attack

However, when Pearson insists Franny accompany him during the handover, the transaction turns into a horrific ordeal for her.

It's a powerful opening episode, and Polly Walker as Francesca and Iain Glen are brilliant as the couple trying to hold things together despite her growing disillusion with life as a prisoner/gangster's wife. She's come a long way from the lavish lifestyle we saw her enjoying in series one.

Sweet but daffy Harriet (Pippa Haywood) is involved in a tender, if strained, relationship with the prison chaplain, while her floundering son, Gavin, is desperate to find strength in numbers with the Muslim prisoners.

Nicola Walker as DCI Fontaine

Has Kim's husband been fitted up for a sex crime?
Kim's storyline is another emotionally strong one, with Mick, her husband (and father of their three boys), accused of a sex crime and locked up pending trial. Has he been set up by the dysfunctional family that live next door?

The cast is further boosted by Nicola Walker as the detective circling Franny and Paul, and Anne Reid turns up as the seedy, fag-smoking accountant that Paul lines up to help his wife.

The stories are based on real-life accounts, and the charity Partners of Prisoners helps to keep the scripts realistic.

Prisoners' Wives may be a low-key success, but its fine cast and terrific, human interest stories make it one of the most compelling dramas around.

Cast: Sally Carman Kim Haines, Polly Walker Fran Miller, Karla Crome Aisling O'Connor, Pippa Haywood Harriet Allison, Ben Batt Danny, Tony Bell DS Hagen, Jorden Bennie Jaiden, David Bradley Frank, Sally Carman Kim Hall, Enzo Cilenti Mick, Paul David-Gough Chris, Phoebe Dynevor Lauren, Laura Frances-Morgan DS Sankey, Adam Gillen Gavin, Iain Glen Paul, Munir Khairdin Imam, Callum Lambert Jack, Joshua Lambert Charlie, Emma Matthews Vicky, Harry McEntire Matt, Jack Mitchell Reece, Osi Okerafor Ben Ballo, Chris Overton Blake Fenner, Gary Overton Stan, Anne Reid Margaret, Owen Roe Brendan, Nicola Walker DCI Jo Fontaine, Stuart Wolfenden Liam

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