There’s plenty of life left in this serial killer thriller
Allan Cubitt certainly knows how to hook an audience. The much anticipated third series of his terrifying psycho drama The Fall (BBC Two) began with an obvious question: would serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) survive the shooting that left us and his svelte nemesis Stella Gibson disbelief, at the end of series two?
Coming at the beginning of a new run, the answer was perhaps equally obvious. But getting to it was skilfully and suspensefully drawn out in an opening episode that thrillingly transcended cliché through sheer panache.
Most of this opener was taken up with a bravura exercise in hyper-real emergency room drama that felt like an episode of Casualty on steroids. At its heart was a twinkle-eyed performance by Richard Coyle as the lead A&E consultant, turning a script that consisted largely of medical terminology into high drama.
A couple of light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel sequences offered an internal view of Spector’s fight for survival – unoriginal, but stylishly done. Gibson, meanwhile, was her usual swanlike self, only occasionally betraying the complex emotions going on beneath the surface.
Last time round, Cubitt made much play of contrasting her cold efficiency with Spector’s psychopathy, inviting us to ponder the difference. Here, things were much the same. Gibson’s response to her lover Anderson’s (Colin Morgan) piqued “why did you run to him?” was more like a motherson exchange. It helped spell out Gibson’s motives for wanting Spector to survive, and her reluctance to form deep connections with men. Yet she had empathy aplenty for others, even a random stranger she encountered in the hospital.
In the end what really grabbed hold and provided a reason to return again next week had less to do with Gibson, even though Gillian Anderson remained a magnetic presence throughout. At the end, an intensive care nurse was left alone in isolation room; a deeply disturbing place to be, even with Spector on a ventilator, minus a spleen. Perhaps not all viewers spotted that this was comedian Aisling Bea in a rare straight role. But for those who did, it was a hint that here was a character who would yet play a pivotal role. It was her face that lingered after the credits rolled.
This was a compelling opening episode, revisiting all the major characters in brief but menacing snatches and cleverly generating tension all around. It’s too early yet to tell if it will match the peerless terror of series one. But clearly, there’s plenty of mileage left in The Fall.
From the dark side to the light, Star Men: Britain’s Heroes of Astronomy (BBC Four) was a wonderfully lyrical documentary. The format of Alison Rose’s film was simple – four old men of science do a road trip to reflect on times past – but its execution was impeccable. It illuminated not only four eminent careers but also four charismatic individuals and 50 years of astounding astronomical discoveries, with the added bonus of being set against stunning American landscapes.
The four amigos were emeritus professors Roger Griffin, Donald Lynden-Bell, Wallace L Sargent and Nick Woolf, all British graduates who first found gainful academic employment in southern California during the American space boom of the Sixties. There, they laid the foundations of lifelong friendship and distinguished themselves in maths, astronomy and astrophysics.
Fifty years on, they toured some of the most iconic telescopes in the United States (Mount Wilson, Mount Palomar, Mount Graham and the Very Large Array radio telescope in Utah) reflecting on the discoveries they and others had made while using of these extraordinary pieces of technology. Along the way, their old-buddy conversations were joyful, reflective and anything but blindingly scientific as they nattered on about everything from mathematics to God, life, death, and the possibility of a hereafter.
Sargent, who died shortly after making the film, spoke to camera with particular poignancy about his humble beginnings. All recalled the childhood inspirations that propelled them to a life among the stars, out of a world that seemed vastly simpler then. As with all the best documentaries of this kind, it felt like a precious gift to be in their company – like being on the greatest holiday ever with the four most fascinating grandads on this planet, or indeed any other.
The Fall Star Men: Britain’s Heroes of Astronomy