Balloon saga full of hot air
ONE problem with McDonald & Dodds is they just don’t feel like coppers.
Dodds is more like what would happen if a mad scientist pumped a Care Bear full of trainspotter DNA.
The show returned with a hot-air balloon murder. Sadly, most of the over-heated gas was in the script.
Four Eighties faces were living in luxury apartments in Bath. Martin Kemp was music mogul Mick, Patsy Kensit was Botoxed Barbara, Rupert Graves played snobby Gordon and Cathy Tyson was writer Jackie.
Mick laid on a surprise last-minute balloon trip for them involving the worst CGI since Vanity Fair.
Gate-crasher Frankie – who had been blackmailing them for decades – plummeted to his doom. A deserving fall-guy.
Enter Ray (Rob Brydon), an air accident investigator who was like Dodds’ double. Except the harmless
Email me at: garry.bushell@ dailystar.co.uk or write c/o Daily Star Sunday, One Canada Square, London E14 5AP anorak turned out to be the real killer, out for revenge over the murder of his childhood pal.
But how did he know about the balloon trip? Or that Mick had weights he could pinch at home? How did he know Frankie would gatecrash their ride? Why didn’t he just nobble the balloon and take out all five of them?
And if he had grown up on RAF bases in Germany, why the West Country accent? The script had more plot holes than Lebanon has potholes, along with the obligatory dig at Thatcher. It isn’t enough to be convoluted and quirky, it has to be clever and credible too.
McDonald & Dodds is to Midsomer Murders what Tipping Point is to Only Connect. It’s less Death In Paradise, more Dull In Somerset.
Gentle escapism? Maybe, but I’d rather tuck into a McDonald’s and fries. On the plus side, Bath does look lovely.
MY escapist cop fantasy: A Dirty Harry-style hero who bangs up bad guys and isn’t as bent as Uri Geller’s cutlery.
PALOMA Faith, Pennyworth, right (Starzplay) … The Terror… Bill Burr (Netflix)… Deutschland 89.
YOUR Honor, left – poorly judged… McDonald & Dodds – largely duds… David Baddiel, Stand Up & Deliver – a bad deal all round.