Mirth and murder in the Bard’s backyard
THERE’S a new category in the Bafta Awards – Best Exit From A Yoga Ball – as exemplified by actress Jo Joyner in the welcome return of the entertaining Shakespeare & Hathaway – Private Investigators (BBC1, Monday – Friday). Interviewing the owner of a tech company which had a mole in its midst, Shakespeare exited the ball backwards, landing on her back. It’s soon to become a new yoga move on Tiktok.
Miraculously, having done her own stunt (so we’re told) she was able to resume the interrogation with great seriousness – though not for the Lol-ing audience.
There was another first, too. (Who said daytime television wasn’t creative?)
Towards the end of episode one we also had “murder by robo-vac”. I knew these would lead to a tragedy – and it wasn’t even someone tripping over one. Much more elaborate.
An evil villain – no spoilers – decided to hit a colleague over the head with one. What an impressive blunt instrument.
The weapon in question was eventually found in nearby Falstaff Woods. It was clearly a 4x4 version.
There is so much to enjoy with Shakespeare & Hathaway, set in historic Stratford-upon-avon, and if we’re being competitive it’s decidedly better than Death in Paradise – though lacking in sunshine hours.
The performances by Joyner and quality turn Mark Benton are first class, along with energetic luvvie assistant Patrick Walshe Mcbride.
It cleverly mixes comedy with a whodunnit. We’re now in series four and hope for many more – and even a promotion to prime-time? It’s earned it. As the great bard might have said, “I couldn’t have written it any better myself.”
Another whodunnit was returning for a new season, Traces (Alibi, Tuesday) which was packed with names. The rollcall includes Breaking Bad’s Laura Fraser, Molly Windsor, Stella Gonet and Vincent Regan. Oh and the little known Martin Compston ( from Line Of Duty).
Again, he’s mining his vulnerability as an actor as he gives evidence in the trial of his father (Regan) for the murder of his girlfriend’s mother. Things don’t augur well for the next family Christmas.
That’s just one of at least four plots in this busy drama by Amelia Bullmore, with a credit too for top crime writer Val Mcdermid.
In another, Molly Windsor is having a baby with Compston – only his mother (Gonet) is not best pleased, “Not a baby, no good can come from this…” Actually, cancel the Easter get-together, too.
There are also two professors of forensics – excessive, surely.
One, Laura Fraser, fancies the lead detective who is now dramatically pleading for her “not to ring me at home”. She answered: “I will just email you then.” Yes, the dialogue has its moments, but the courtroom scenes with Compston kept me guessing.
Fourthly, there’s also been a bomb attack in Dundee. The likely target: a Pilates group. I hear what you’re saying – a bit of a stretch. Meanwhile, in the other “prof plot”, the academic was called a nasty word by one of her freshers, and is now desperately worried she will get “cancelled”. It must be the talk of Dundee. Her colleague however is unimpressed:
“Students are so needy now,” she said. And we all cheered.
Louis Theroux has a new series about America, his first
POND LIFE: Louis Theroux is back with a new series for three years. Well, things have been quiet from across the pond. Louis caught up with three, right-wing wind-up merchants who exist only on the
internet in
Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America
(BBC2, Sunday). However, they now alas live on the i-player, too. There’s no point naming the three because you wouldn’t want to come across them again. At one stage, I actually felt the clock had been turned back to the Edwardian period.
“I don’t think that women should have the vote,” one said. Theroux maintained his cool throughout though he has said in interviews since he wanted to stand up to one of these guys. I only wish he had.
This unsavoury trio would have felt at home within either regime in
Rise Of The Nazis: Dictators
At War (BBC2, Monday). It looked at the other big contest of the
Second World War – Hitler v Stalin. We know the result but less about the “how”.
In a history show full of new contributors, chess champion Garry Kasparov
gave us the benefit of his best moves while former top UK general Sir Mike Jackson went inside the mind of Russia’s bombastic General Zhukov (memorably played by Jason Isaacs in The Death of Stalin). “He was not without some vanity,” he offered.
Zhukov saved Stalin’s war, then apparently “slept for three days”. The Russian bear takes some conquering.