Never mind whodunit, you’ll be gripped by this did-he-do-it . . .
The British, as George Orwell observed, enjoy nothing better than a juicy domestic murder. From the first spoonful of arsenic in the teapot to the discovery of bones in the cellar, we’re agog for every detail.
In Orwell’s day, we relied on court reports and the Police Gazette. Today, true crime documentaries cater to our insatiable urge to learn about blood spatter patterns or indications of strangulation.
If you have a taste for such visceral minutiae, an outstanding 13-part investigation was released this month on Netflix, called Staircase — following the tortuous trial of a middle-aged husband in North Carolina whose wife was found dead in a pool of blood at the foot of the stairs. If that doesn’t sound very weird, everything that happens next definitely is.
Meanwhile, on ordinary telly, we were treated to the first of a two- part documentary that concludes tonight. Inevitably, it’s less engrossing than the longer series, but Conviction: Murder in Suburbia (BBC2) still offers plenty to intrigue and tantalise the little grey cells.
This is the second time we’ve met ex-journalist Louise Shorter. She runs a charity called Inside Justice to campaign for retrials in cases where new evidence has emerged. Last year, in the first Conviction, she tackled the mysteries around the killing of Paula Poolton, whose lover Roger Kearney was found guilty of stabbing her to death.
This time she’s fighting to free Glyn Razzell, of Swindon, who was going through an acrimonious divorce 15 years ago when his wife Linda vanished. Forensics experts discovered the boot of a car driven by Razzell that day was liberally spattered in blood.
Though the father-of-four insisted he was being framed in a vindictive ploy by his wife, and no body was ever found, he was jailed for life.
Conviction features too many shots of Louise having debates around an office conference table with assorted researchers. We don’t expect her to be swigging whisky from the bottle or blowing smoke rings, but it’s disappointing to think a private investigator’s daily schedule differs little from that of a town council planner.
The show is redeemed by the phone interviews Louise conducts with her clients in prison. She is an expert questioner: the convicted men trust her — so they are less guarded than they might be with police detectives.
Razzell seemed sincere at first, as he pleaded his innocence. But the mask slipped when Louise asked him about allegations of domestic violence, and he claimed he had ‘gently brushed’ against Linda when she fell through a glass door panel.
The second part will be well worth seeing, if only for Razzell’s long-haired, gravel-voiced solicitor, who looks like a guitarist from a Stones tribute band.
Less musically convincing was science teacher Rashid (Tony Jayawardena) in schooldays soap Ackley Bridge (C4), who revealed a secret passion for jazz crooning in nightclubs. his sub-Sinatra attempt to swing along with Mac The Knife was the worst bit of lip-synching I’ve seen since Top Of The Pops.
he wooed dinner lady Kaneez with Forties big band standards, before luring her back to his bachelor pad with its mood lighting, walls of art and top-ofthe-range vinyl deck.
either science teachers are paid very handsomely in Yorkshire, or Rashid’s karaoke act has landed him a £1 million recording deal.
Kaneez (Sunetra Sarker) is in a permanent sulk, and the romance is mainly played for laughs. As with all school dramas, only the teenage lovers are taken seriously. And no teaching ever happens.
HARDY PERENNIAL OF THE NIGHT: Pointless (BBC1) returned for a 20th series. That’s more than 1,000 episodes — not counting the Saturday celebrity specials. Like those radio immortals Just A Minute and The Archers, this show might run for ever.