Bay’s the best in the battle of the bobbies
IN A KEENLY FOUGHT competition, popular crime drama Unforgotten (ITV, Monday) has lost its glittering crown as television’s most addictive detective show to a cool contender on the same channel called The Bay. It’s a levelling-up delight for the good people of Morecambe.
The “loss” in a car accident of Nicole Walker’s DCI Cassie Stuart has had a resounding impact on Unforgotten.
Her former sidekick Sunny (Sanjeev Bhaskar) is moping about the office like he won a Lottery but lost the ticket.
It’s not that Cassie’s replacement, actress Sinead Keenan, isn’t highly competent in the role.
But her team is now on a complete downer, not least because the new DCI has barely lifted a finger.
Of course, come the next episode, there will be an office booze up and Sunny will bond with Keenan’s depressed cop as they sing, “Roll Out The Barrel” together in a dimly-lit corner.
Meanwhile, The Bay (ITV, Wednesday), now in its fourth series, is proving much more compelling than previous offerings.
On the surface it appears to be a straightforward police procedural, with Daniel Ryan’s professional but chummy DI Tony Manning running a loyal, hard-working team of detectives. Yes, it’s fictional...
Among them is Marsha Thomason’s wily but compassionate DS Jenn Townsend, who heads up the family liaison officers.
Their job is to get as close as possible to the relatives and question them like a concerned friend. Only Jenn is not. Haven’t they seen the earlier series?
After the success of this show, no one will speak to family liaison again.
It’s all in the writing by co-creator Daragh Carville, who dangles suspects before the audience like he’s serving up gruel in Oliver Twist – sparingly.
Just when you think, “this is the one”, and you announce it to the living room, you’re bound to be wrong. In that regard, it’s stolen the clothes of Unforgotten.
There’s also Marsha’s splendid “blended family” on show, which we used to call a Brady Bunch family.
This one’s made all the more interesting with her partner Barry’s ex, Jacqui, played by Claire Goose, still having a key to the house – and one for the cellar.
An unexpected hit for ITV and a PR victory for the police.
Russell Lewis, the acclaimed writer of Endeavour (Sunday, ITV), deserves similar praise for cramming half a dozen storylines into three episodes to see off Inspector Morse forever. Only he’s not yet reached that rank, only Detective Sergeant.
Tonight’s final episode, which will be set around the horrid goings-on at Blenheim Vale residential boys’ home and its abuse scandal, will cap off more than 30 years of this detective on British TV, probably only
A TREND is whipping across TV faster than a category eight storm. It’s celebrity travelogues. A quick search of the TV guide brought up Nick Knowles, Joanna Lumley, Will Mellor and Keith Lemon. Jane Mcdonald is on a ship somewhere and it feels like Susan Calman is doing three travelogues at once. Enough already. Admittedly, Nick Knowles is a bit of a newbie so I will forgive him for now. Who knows, he might have specialist knowledge about the Grand Canyon which he’s willing to share. Personally, I prefer to see
Nick tripping over a builder while helping out in
DIY SOS.
eclipsed by Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Sherlock for staying power. America’s Columbo and Scotland’s Taggart also deserve a mention for long TV runs.
But if anyone can come up with another iteration of Inspector Morse, I’m sure ITV would look kindly at it, unless it happens to be The Strange Years: How The
Masons Made Me...
A show that positively bursts with personality is
Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr
(BBC One, Tuesday), but I’d tend to concentrate on the last bit, because Carr is the best and funniest thing about it.
And don’t get hung up about the designs either.
One imaginative contestant managed to make a “feature” from a drainpipe. A fine piece of recycling. In other frippery this week, Jamie Oliver made a pizza in a pan, not an oven, for 97p a portion in Jamie’s £1 Wonders (C4, Monday).
Beyond impressive and no sign that it had arrived on a moped either.
I loved every minute, of this new show, with mentor Gennaro Contaldo doing a nice turn. The Naked Chef has served up a cost-of-living winner.
Finally, there’s a new and unlikely double act on TV. It’s John Bishop and Hugh Bonneville in DNA Journey
(ITV, Tuesday). The new bromance was such a beautiful story as their eyes met across a crowded vaccination hall in Midhurst, Sussex. Since then, they’ve been happily supping pints together.
Bishop had recently moved there and admitted he didn’t have any friends.
That said, the comedian does most of the talking, while Hugh Bonneville supports a wry grin and offers a jolly quip every now and then.
As you would imagine, there was a slight “class” difference between the revelations, with one ancestor of Bishop being a salt miner, while Hugh’s was a naval architect. But no one seems to mind. Though it does appear their families once “came together” many generations ago in Ireland, when their respective ancestors – bakers and musical instrument makers – both protested against the English.
The Earl of Grantham would be aghast.