A murder and a bizarre stalker with a wolf ’s head... JK Rowling spells TV magic
Privatium investigato! the question is, can JK rowling’s magic work outside Hogwarts? the omens looked bad for the creator of Harry Potter after her one- off novel of lust and local politics, the Casual vacancy, was turned into a dire BBC serial in 2015.
But now, using the pseudonym robert Galbraith, she’s back with a detective story about a damaged army veteran on the trail of a high-society murderer.
Strike: the Cuckoo’s Calling is in the classic private-eye genre, but with a twist of romantic interest. it’s Humphrey Bogart reinvented for fans of Poldark.
tom Burke plays Cormoran Strike, a former military policeman down on his luck after losing a leg in afghanistan. Holliday Grainger is the smart, sassy and ultra-competent secretary who tries not to fall in love with her battered boss, but is unable to resist the seedy glamour of his world.
it’s an equal partnership and one that is reflected in their BBC wage packets – though the Beeb infamously pays men more, the two stars are on the same package. they know this because, as Holliday revealed to the mail’s Weekend magazine, they were sent each other’s contracts by mistake.
On screen, all the hallmarks of Bogart’s film noir mysteries are in place, right down to the frosted glass in the detective’s office door and his name picked out in peeling letters. Cormoran Strike drinks, chainsmokes, wears an overcoat everywhere but the shower and gets smacked around the head by ex-girlfriends who then phone him tearfully to plead for forgiveness.
in fact, the only clue that this isn’t a remake of a period Hollywood movie is his bizarre name, which sounds more appropriate for a wizard, possibly a dark one with a long neck and beak. ms rowling never could resist an evocative moniker.
Everything else about Strike is a homage to those films. the credits capture this with a montage of sepia shots that look like the artwork for a timeless rock release – maybe Private investigations by Dire Straits.
into this atmosphere, JK breathes a hint of mythology. if there was a single secret to the success of the Harry Potter books, it was the ever-present echo of legend, folklore and fairytales. that same ancient magic is invoked here. in the first scenes on a rainy London street, a fashion model teases the paparazzi then dodges them to slide into a limo. As she escapes, a figure watches her... a figure with a wolf's head. Returning to her penthouse apartment. the girl admires a lifesize photo of herself wearing angel's wings. Moments later, in an apparent suicide, she is lying dead on the pavement three floors below. Those images of the werewolf and winged being will be familiar to fans of the children's books. And they are reassuring signs Ms Rowling is working with material that feels natural to her, and not trying to force her-self into self-consciously 'literary' styles. The opening episode (the story resumes tonight) felt uncomfortable only when it tried to be too gritty. Strike's dingy world of smelly pubs and dirty cafes is not alluring, and neither are personal habits such as brushing his teeth with his finger at his desk and spitting into a wastebin. Given the wrong cast this could have been too grubby to be sympathetic, but Burke -best known as the sad-eyed alcoholic one from The Musketeers - playa the private eye with kindness. He's unwashed, he's thoughtless, yet he's been hurt too many times to ever want to do anyone harm.
AS the resourceful robin, miss Grainger balances his mournful personality with lots of energy and bounce. though unshockable, she’s still naive enough to think her fiance will welcome the introduction of this mysterious wounded man into her life.
and because JK doesn’t do subtlety, Strike really is wounded. We see him without his prosthetic leg in several scenes, though we’re so accustomed to computer graphics that even the sight of Burke massaging his character's raw stump isn't too convincing. What works better is old-fashioned acting. Strike walks like a man whose false limb is chafing, and he sometimes winces as though electric twinges are troubling his phantom foot. When he unstraps the prosthetic he talks to it as if it's alive, which Is a nice touch. In a Harry Potter story, of course. the leg would talk back. By the end of the hour, clues were piling up, reinforcing the sense that this is firmly in the traditional crime genre. The murdered girl's flat is soundproofed, for instance, yet one of the witnesses claims she heard an argument - so why is she lying? There's a strong supporting cast too, with Martin Shaw delivering his lines in a theatri-cal Michael- Gambonesque growl. Maybe he fancies his chances as the next Dumbledore... if J1C Howling ever returns to Hogwarts.