Ironing, crime and a national treasure
JASON WATKINS is the new Olivia Colman. He can read the phone book – if he can find one – and make it funny. The Bafta-winning actor effortlessly updated Columbo in Mcdonald & Dodds (ITV, Sunday) to further the genre of gently comic detective dramas that give us a much-needed diversion.
By the way, I’m excusing the title which sounds like a down-on-its-luck Bath accountancy firm.watkins played Dodds in this diverse pairing which was something different for ITV. Of course Columbo, played by Peter Falk, was always a solo sleuth but Tala Gouveia’s high-powered, promoted DCI partner from the Met was feisty and believable though I’m not sure about her predictable moany phone calls to her boyfriend who couldn’t do anything right. He’s a heating engineer.what a helpful person to have around – especially in winter.
Watkins channelled the LA detective completely, almost immediately signalling the prime suspect to the audience and gently winding up his quarry throughout the episode until, in this case, Robert Lindsay’s ironing entrepreneur made a slip-up when pressed.
Dodds also had the immaculate dress sense of Columbo – with several layers of an indistinct beige ensemble of cardigan and light jacket sourced from the best of Bath’s charity shops, if they have such a thing.they also have homelessness it seems, as the victim was from a hostel.they call this “social realism”.that’s available if needed on other channels.
It was a drama that soaked up its location.the drones were certainly busy with some breathtaking shots of the splendour of this Georgian city. Residents of the famous Royal Crescent must have looked up in horror. Like Morse and Oxford, we were taken into a period world within which people are up to no good. For Oxford, it’s the dons. For Mcdonald and Dodds, it’s the grasping moneyed lot. Quite why Lindsay’s ironing magnate went to such trouble, apparently, to arrange his own fake killing by his youngest daughter’s partner, whom he detested, is beyond me. And how he could have relied on her to carry out the shooting on the day he planned is ridiculous.anyway, that’s a small plot point – OK big hole – which we will allow them for the first episode. It was inventive enough to have a man with such a passion about pressing clothes.
There were other lovely quirks to Dodds. Who didn’t adore the way he wrote notes in that tiny book like it was the last sentence he would write? He also forgot he was wearing his glasses (hurray, we all do that!) and he went to a “library”, which was busy! For younger viewers, that’s where books – those tatty things at your granny’s house made from paper – used to be kept before your fancy internet.
The most ridiculous character was, alas, the impossibly young chief superintendent who appeared dressed for a day of paint-balling. I suppose that also happens
STEPHENSON’S ROCKET
WHAT was Liar doing back? I was done with this drama after six hours the first time around. TV producers can’t leave something alone especially when it does well. The most annoying aspect, also a complaint by a correspondent to this paper, is the way dramas overdo flashback. Why is it any different from telling a story from start to finish? It isn’t. The same thing happens only without potentially confusing the viewers each time you caption, “Three weeks ago”. My tip: prepare for a Murder On
The Orient Express ending. in Bath although we would hope not. It wouldn’t sit well in the Assembly Rooms.
There was inverted “social realism” in Noughts + Crosses (BBC One, Thursday), originally a Young Adult novel but which didn’t really cut it as a grown-up story. It was mostly driven by teenage angst and passion, the preserve of this genre. It was meant to say something about racism. But was this simply too obvious a point? If the racial norms of society – which are not absolute anyway – were the other way around, black people in power would be just as racist to whites. Do we need a drama to say that?
There were, however, some promising performances from the younger cast – namely Kike Brimah and Jack Rowan, and it was great to see Helen Baxendale properly back on the television rather than simply imagining her old Cold Feet character which was mentioned many times during the last series of the comedy drama.
I laughed a lot at Rob Brydon during The Trip (Sky One, Tuesday). Thankfully, this was the intention of the piece. Indeed, the Would I Lie To You? presenter was much funnier than Steve Coogan. I hadn’t noticed that before. Has it taken four series for Brydon, the slightly less famous of the two – but only marginally – to come out of his comedy shell? He did it in style. His Ronnie Corbett was so good, it appeared to take Coogan’s breath away. For some sections of the printed press, that’s no bad thing.there was even a discussion over whether one notable tabloid newspaper would bother mentioning Coogan if he had died in a plane crash with George Clooney. “The Daily Mail wouldn’t!” joked Brydon.
Finally, Last Tango In Halifax (BBC One, Sunday) improved on the margins, thanks to the presence of wonderful actor Timothy West. His character had deserted his family in New Zealand. “I told them they could do one.”