Odd couple join forces for crime drama
When it comes to partnerships, the type that are ‘‘chalk and cheese’’ are often the best – particularly in TV dramas.
Meet the latest crime-fighting duo, DCI Lauren McDonald and DS Dodds (his first name is a mystery). She is the ‘‘hare’’ to his ‘‘tortoise’’.
Fiercely ambitious and gogetting, McDonald has relocated from London’s Metropolitan Police, hoping to move up the career ladder in the sleepy West Country. But arriving at the city of Bath, she is unaware of the sneaky plan being put in place by her new boss, Chief Supt John Houseman (James Murray), to get rid of plodding policeman Dodds.
For years, Dodds has been content to languish around the office, doing very little. Now, Houseman wants to pressure him into early retirement with the short, sharp, shock tactic of teaming him with McDonald and sending them to investigate serious crimes.
‘‘Dodds is spectacularly dull,’’ laughs Jason Watkins, who plays him. ‘‘He’s not been very brave.
He’s like a technician, not a careerist, the opposite to McDonald. He’s been stuck behind a desk for years and then he suddenly gets deployed in the field, and it’s a shock.
‘‘Houseman thinks by sending him into a dangerous area with McDonald he will either mess up and he can get rid of him or he will just volunteer to retire but Dodds sees it as an opportunity and, to his own and everyone else’s surprise, he is really good at it.’’
In the first episode, the pair are sent to investigate the shooting of a homeless man at the house of prominent industrialist, Max Crockett (Robert Lindsay). Crockett immediately makes assumptions about who, out of middle-aged white male Dodds and young black female McDonald, is the superior officer.
‘‘Dodds recognises the little undercurrent of racism and sexism, and McDonald’s vulnerability,’’ says Watkins. ‘‘He begins to appreciate her world a bit.’’
But McDonald despairs of his slow, old-fashioned procedure.
‘‘Everyone has iPads and Dodds still has his little notebook. That’s the way he has always worked,’’ says Watkins. ‘‘I’m not criticising social media. I am a big social media person myself, but sometimes you think, ‘The person who shouts loudest gets noticed.’ Yet, there are lots of very interesting, brilliant people who don’t feel the need, or aren’t able, to compete in that environment and are just as valid as everybody else.’’
Tala Gouveia says from the start, her character, McDonald, finds Dodds frustrating.
‘‘She’s quite an impatient person, fast-paced, always on the front foot, wanting to make things happen. She finds him infuriating because he’s slow and doesn’t understand Google. He’ll go to the library instead, while she is always on her computer or tablet.
‘‘She doesn’t mind stepping on toes. But looking at the bigger picture, she doesn’t always take the time to notice small details, whereas Dodds does.
‘‘McDonald wants their professional partnership to work but doesn’t have time for friends or any warmth. But she can’t help but eventually warm to him.’’
McDonald and Dodds, TVNZ 1, Sunday, April 19.