BEST OF THE REST
THE DETECTIVES: MURDER ON THE STREETS BBC2, 9pm
WE’RE fascinated by murder cases, hence our insatiable appetite for endless Sherlock-style TV drama. But there’s nothing more gripping (or astounding) than real life.
With amazing access, this four-part series follows Manchester’s murder detectives over the course of a year as they try to unravel complex cases. To add to the tension, everyhing is shot in real time, lending an extra urgency to proceedings.
In this episode, when a burnt body is discovered in a homeless camp under railway arches, GMP’s Major Incident Team are called to the scene and very soon a murder investigation is under way.
Detective Superintendent Jon Chadwick, head of MIT, takes on the case. With no CCTV and no witnesses, the team has little to go on. But extensive forensic work leads detectives into the world of the city’s exploding young homelessness crisis.
Elsewhere, a woman is the victim of a horrific petrol bomb attack in her home.
With the suspect, her brother, on the run and armed with more petrol bombs, police launch a full-scale manhunt.
PORTERS Dave, 10pm
BILLED as an upstairs/downstairs medical comedy – with wheels – this zinging new sitcom is about the underground community of hospital porters.
A world of endless corridors, partythrowing mortuary attendants and legally blind laundry train drivers.
Joining them at St Etheldreda Hospital is new boy Simon (Edward Easton). To everyone’s amusement, he thinks portering is a stepping stone to becoming a doctor – his true calling in life. This of course is never going to happen.
When Simon falls in love with a nurse, the divide between the medics and the porters becomes ever more apparent.
Porters has a great cast including Rutger Hauer, Susan Wokoma, Jo Joyner, Tanya Franks, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Claudia Jessie and Mathew Horne. In this first episode, Frasier star Kelsey Grammer is a visiting consultant neurologist, whose suspicions are raised by Simon. Quite right too, since a mix up with a dead rabbi has forced Simon to impersonate a real doctor.
If you like jokes about urine samples and dead bodies, this is one for you. In association with Dave