Season 24 - Dandelion Dead (1994-1995)
Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong was a man convicted and hanged for the murder of his wife in 1921 and the attempted murder of his business rival, Oswald Martin, later the same year. He would probably have gotten away with the murder of his wife if not for his attack on his rival, whose father-in-law was the local chemist from whom Armstrong bought the poison used in both cases supposedly to deal with the dandelions in his yard. The practically nonexistent dandelions. The father-in-law put two and two together and the rest, as they say, is history. The case inspired both Dorothy L. Sayers and Frances Iles, AKA Anthony Berkeley Cox. But it was Michael Kitchen and his genius who brought this man so fully to life. First off, let it be known, I am a Michael Kitchen stan. I fell in love with his understated method of crime solving in Foyle's War and worked my way through his back catalog. If you haven't seen him as Branwell Brontë in The Brontes of Haworth I question your dedication to the actor, your love of British miniseries, and your interest in the Brontës themselves. Yes, the absolute fro of hair and mutton chops for days may at first distract you, but once you hear that voice, well, you are in for another classic Kitchen performance. And it's that ability to reel you in, to side with him that this drama uses so deviously. For the first quarter of this miniseries you identify so strongly with Kitchen as Armstrong that you can see why he'd kill his wife. She's portrayed as a demanding harridan. She's unmanageable and untenable and by being given just this glimpse into this couple's life we see that Armstrong really only had one way out. But that's the point, we are given just this slice of life. His views, his opinions, his struggles. Then, after she is dispatched, we see a different side of him. Maybe his wife wasn't how he portrayed her to us. Little hints of who he really is starts to seep in. The womanizing, the venereal diseases. All this comes as a shock and makes you think, how could I have gotten the wrong end of the stick so thoroughly. That is all down to the genius of Kitchen. Once we know the truth and he sets his eyes on Oswald Martin, brilliantly played by David Thewlis the series shifts once more into a dark comedy with Armstrong's ham-handed attempts to get ride of his rival. First he attempts to bump off Martin with poisoned chocolates. But not being able to witness the ingestion leads to a bit of a mix-up. Therefore the second attempt is done under his watchful eye at his home. In other words, his desire to destroy his rival makes him show his hand. This leads to much palaver. Did Armstrong just try to kill him? Wait, were those chocolates him? And then the father-in-law putting it all together. Brilliant. The timing leads to it being humorous without being overplayed. The trio arriving to report their findings to the police is comic gold but also, just three desperate people trying to save themselves. Needless to say, Armstrong doesn't get away with it. But, for a moment, Kitchen made you wish he did.
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