Compelling and charismatic Preacher
‘‘JESUS. . . what kind of preacher are you?.
So says one character in new US series Preacher (available on Lightbox from May 23), on finding the local man of the cloth in the midst of all sorts of mayhem.
It’s a fair question, because Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) is not your typical preacher.
In an early scene, he walks out of his house through empty beer bottles to deliver a bored sermon to a bored congregation in a small, redneck Texas town.
He delivers cynicism ‘‘don’t want to lose the wife-beating, squirrel-murdering redneck vote. I imagine that’s a key demographic for you’’, he drawls to the sheriff who won’t investigate a domestic violence issue.
He delivers cliched advice – ‘‘open your heart’’ he tells one troubled parishioner – without even feigning interest. But he’s not just bored and cynical, he’s also pretty handy in a fight.
To clinch it, he’s got a conscience. It makes for a compelling and charismatic character.
And there’s a whole load of other stuff in the mix.
There’s Jesse’s violent and astonishingly competent girlfriend, Tulip, (Ruth Negga) who can throw together a bazooka out of your average kitchen ingredients and there’s a violent and quick talking Irish vampire, same name and, I’ll be honest, that’s not normally my kind of thing. But a terrific rollercoaster of a first episode has me truly hooked. Give it a go – you might be surprised.
More intriguing characters await in new series Dickensian (Saturdays, 7.30pm, UKTV). Described as ‘‘free from the straightjacket of adaptation’’, it brings Dickens’ characters together, living side by side.
Think Coronation Street, but with bonnets and street urchins and an Old Curiosity Shop replacing Barlow’s Buys. There’s even a local pub, named with realistic 19th century sensibility – The Three Cripples.
Yep, it’s basically a soap opera from the pen of Tony Jordan (a former lead writer on EastEnders) and The Three Cripples has certainly got a touch of the Queen Vic about it.
There are period costumes, snowy cobbled streets on Christmas Eve and plenty of wellknown Dickens characters. Miss Havisham is young and beautiful; Inspector Bucket is pre-Bleak House and Nancy and Fagin haven’t come across Oliver Twist.
Woven into all this is a murder story set against a dark-hearted backdrop of prostitution, poverty and deceit.
I quite like it. But I like a good soap. I’m not sure though if it will leave Dickens fans in delight or despair.