Back from the dead – with all guns blazing
‘How can the same s--- happen to the same guy twice?” So aksed Bruce Willis’s John McClane in the 1990 adventure Die Hard 2 – but similar, even more desperate questions might easily have been uttered by Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer in the TV hit 24. After nine series, one telly film, and 13 years, during which time the producers had gone to Old Testament extremes to give Counter Terrorist Unit actionman Bauer the worst 24 hours of his life, he was finally retired in 2014. And that, it seemed, was that.
Not so. Series creators Manny Coto and Evan Katz have now exhumed the format for 24: Legacy, the first episode of which graced Fox last night, with Sutherland as executive producer.
Its enemies-at-the-gate paranoia chimes slightly depressingly with Trump’s attempted isolationism – you half expected to see his name pop up in the closing credits. But look past that, and this was an undeniably riproaring start to the reboot.
The format is unchanged. The clock’s already ticking, with events unfolding in real time. And last night’s pilot started bracingly, with Middle Eastern-sounding bad guys brutally interrogating and then killing a soldier in his own home – the same fate that, we soon learnt, had already befallen three of the six-strong Rangers unit that had hunted and killed an arch terrorist in Yemen. It appeared that Bauer-substitute Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins) might be next. But, in an early scene of piano-wire tension, he somehow biffed his torturer even while tied to his chair and, together with his similarly resourceful wife, Nicole (Anna Diop), escaped.
The “MacGuffin” that those wrong’uns were after turned out to be a USB containing a list of terrorist sleeper cells – cue a link to a parallel plot thread involving a shoe-in for the title of Worst Teacher of the Year. Having received an energetic (though off-camera) bout of oral sex from a pupil and fellow terrorist, this mildmannered-looking fellow then murdered her ex-boyfriend, and all this, we gather, en route to blowing up his school. No pay rise for him, surely.
While it’s hard not to miss Sutherland’s charisma, Hawkins is so far looking like a credible and athletic hero, energetically communicating the necessary urgency without careering into melodrama. And, although his is looking like the main story, others kept popping up last night like mushrooms.
There’s already a recklessly disgruntled sixth Ranger, a mole high up, a reluctantly departing CTU boss ( Homeland’s Miranda Otto), a decidedly suspect senatorial adviser, and Carter’s missus, now holed up with her hubby’s gangster brother, who’s also her ex. Which is to say, more than enough expertly juggled split-screen intrigue to make next week’s second episode a must-see.
By contrast to Carter’s exploits, the nearest the new octet of oldies in series two of The Real Marigold Hotel (BBC One) came to mortal threat was the odd placidly milling goat. Which did not prevent one participant, Lionel Blair – arguably overstating his case – from describing said ruminants as “horrific”.
Inspired, as before, by John Madden’s 2012 feature film of similar name, this plonked the veteran showbiz types together in India to see if they might consider the region a nice place to retire to. This time, the location was the charming city of Kochi, Kerala, at the extreme south west of that vast, magical country.
As entertainment, this was all gentle almost to a fault, but highly winning. Blair (87), Amanda Barrie (80), Bill Oddie (75), Miriam Stoppard (79) et al proved an engaging lot, and little character arcs were soon appearing.
It took only an afternoon on the backwaters for Blair to fall for Kerala. The bullishness of former Three Degrees member Sheila Ferguson was initially grating. But her un-selfpityingly told backstory – sensitively teased out of her by former Just Good Friends star Paul Nicholas (72) – warmed one to her considerably.
Indeed, Nicholas was the star fullstop. Although those tumbling blond locks are no more, the voice, grin and charm are entirely unchanged, and his quest to find some new underpants was a definite highlight.
Meanwhile, Barrie told a local that it was she who played the titular siren in Carry On Cleo. It was tricky to know whether to be charmed more by his rapture in her company or by the undimmed twinkle in her enormous eyes.