Season 10 - Danger UXB (1980-1981)
Danger UXB is about a bomb disposal unit during World War II created by the late great John Hawkesworth. The show goes into the danger and minutiae of dismantling a bomb and making it safe. The unit are constantly having to figure out the insidious new ways the Nazis have invented to create the most damage and to make bombs almost impossible to defuse. This even includes the introduction of the dreaded Butterfly Bomb. Now, I'm not saying that I could 100% disarm a bomb after watching this series, but I think I'm definitely in with a chance. Which is actually rather useful because they are still finding UXBs to this day. Not that I'd want to. Watching this show was stressful enough without having real world implications. The show starts with Anthony Andrews as Brian Ash, a man with no experience put in charge of bomb disposal. Which means that we the viewer get to follow him into this world that basically meant your life expectancy was measured in days. The problem with Brian Ash and therefore Anthony Andrews is he's too boring. He's your general romantic hero lead. The blue-eyed blonde haired boy who the women swoon over. In fact he's soon having a romance Susan Mount, the married daughter of boffin Doctor Gillespie who is a specialist in bomb fuses. Their romance is the definition of milquetoast. You don't care because you actually feel that deep down they probably don't care. It's too contrived and trope heavy. Which means, of course, she has a husband who's a codebreaker, who suffers mental breaks and whom she has to see to. Eventually he dies and that means they can be together and in the only moment of their relationship I approve of, she realizes he loves his men and the thrill of defusing a bomb more than he'll ever love her and that's where the series ends. Suck it Susan. Suck it! Because it's the men who make this show. 347 Section, 97 Company is made up of the best of the best in British character actors but Robert Pugh, George Innes, and Kenneth Cranham all deserve a special shout-out. Especially Kenneth Cranham. When I watched this show it happened to coincide with Kenneth Cranham being in everything I was watching. I don't know how he was so ubiquitous, but there he was on the stupidly renamed C.B. Strike, then popping up on the final season of Doc Martin, then on Inspector Morse and Pollyanna, even the nearly unwatchable Reilly: Ace of Spies. I was viewing shows spanning fifty years of British television in no particular order and there he was. There he always was. And he was always fabulous. His character of Lance Corporal Jack Salt was more interesting in one minute of screen time than Brian Ash was for the entire series. He had a wife up north but was conflicted and worried about the safety of this woman whom he'd met. Everything keeps compounding on him, even where he's home on leave and his house, with his wife inside, explodes before his very eyes. He's eventually taken out by a Butterfly Bomb in what I view as suicide by cop. He had so much trauma and that gave us viewers someone to root for. We wanted him to suceed. But, when you're not sure if you'll live another minute every minute is precious. If there's anything this series imparted to us, it was this. Oh, and that Nazis are evil. All Nazis are evil. There are no exceptions. They take delight in creating killing machines. If you're on the side of the Nazis YOU are a baddie.
Oxford by Matthew Rice
The Broken Afternoon by Simon Mason
What Cannot Be Said by C.S. Harris
The Montford Maniac by M.R.C. Kasasian
Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz
You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen
Wicche Hunt by Seana Kelly
Merciless Saviors by H.E. Edgmon
Indian Burial Ground by Nick Medina
My Beloved Monster by Caleb Carr
Scribbles, Vol. 3 by Kaoru Mori
If you are looking for an author who is a BIG NAME in crime fiction you couldn't do better than Val McDermid. What's more, unlike other similar authors whose work has been adapted to the small screen she has either phenomenal good luck or is extremely involved in the process or maybe she's just incredibly picky because of the two series and one standalone that have been adapted they are all stellar. Wire in the Blood with Robson Green is a classic up there with Inspector Morse. As for Place of Execution? Stunning. It's one of those mysteries that stays with you forever. Every once in awhile I'll think on it and be amazed all over again. That miniseries also did a lot for changing the trajectory of Greg Wise's career to the deliciously dark. So I had expectations for Karen Pirie. But I also was totally blindsided by it because I got the wrong end of the stick. You see when they said that the show starred a "blonde from Outlander" I thought for some reason it was Nell Hudson who played Laoghaire, the bane of Jamie and Claire, instead it was Lauren Lyle who plays Marsali, Jamie and Claire's beloved daughter-in-law. Not that I'm complaining, because Lauren proved how perfect she was for this role, I'm just also really a fan of Nell Hudson because she was amazing on Victoria, though I'm still mad they killed her off. And in fairness I really didn't know how Lauren Lyle would have the time what with also filming Outlander, but thankfully that didn't seem to be a problem. What this adaptation showed more than anything is how to perfectly update you source material for the present day. In the original novel, The Distant Echo, the cold case that Karen Pirie is investigating happened in 1978 and is being investigated in 2003. Therefore to have that twenty-five year gap now this is heavy on the nineties nostalgia, but more than that it incorporates the citizen detective and true crime podcast culture that has just boomed in recent years. As for Karen herself, she's funny, she bounces around like a Whac-A-Mole. She has a sense of humor and lame style, she knows a good joke, knows she's good at her job, and knows it's a bad time to be a Karen. There's a sense of humor too which anyone who knows Val McDermid will know she possess, I remember she was doing a book signing in the US, sadly nowhere near me, but near my favorite bookstore, Murder by the Book, so I got a copy of her newest book for my mom's birthday, and I asked if she'd inscribe it "To Marian who's glad she doesn't live in Bradfield," Bradfield being where her Wire in the Blood books are set. She dutifully signed that and added "As am I." Which just cracked me up and made the present that much more special. So while there was a part of me who felt that the mtstery was a little pedestrian, it was riviting and fun and I am just so glad there's going to be more because I need more Karen Pirie in my life.
The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
Of the classic detectives that have emerged in recent years P.D. James is responsible for creating two of them, Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray. Considering we've now had three shows spawned just from the character of Inspector Morse it's interesting to note that for most people Roy Marsden is the one and only Dalgliesh, despite the attempt in the early 2000s to get Martin Shaw to take on the mantel. From 1983 to 1998 Marsden was Dalgliesh. Which makes creating a new Dalgliesh an interesting task. It's been fifteen years since Dalgliesh was seen in any form on screen so it feels like the right time to bring him back. And if there was ever a time to remind people that Nazis are bad, it's now. At first I didn't know how I'd feel about this adaptation. Unlike Morse who is forever entwined with John Thaw, I don't think that the public as a whole, despite the two decades of work, felt as connected to Roy Marsden. Plus, as we've seen with the plethora of new Sherlock Holmes adaptations, people are willing to accept that Jeremy Brett isn't the only actor capable of playing the role. Though I did enjoy a new poll that said he was obviously the best. So we welcome Bertie Carvel to the screen as our new Dalgliesh in three two part adaptations from Acorn TV of the forth, fifth, and seventh books. Most people know Bertie Carvel from the juggernaut that was Doctor Foster, or from his Tony winning role as Miss Trunchbull, I of course know him as Jonathan Strange. So there was no doubt in my mind he had the credentials to play the part, but would I like him in the part? That took three episodes for me to decide. "Shroud for a Nightingale" and his investigation of the nurses was a little too typical police procedural, it was "The Black Tower" that let us see behind the facade of stalwart police officer to the man, the poet, beneath. To feel his grief and to see what makes him tick. That is when I connected with him. I want to applaud whomever chose these three Dalgliesh stories to adapt because you go on such a journey and really get to know him. First as the cop, second as the man, and finally as a cop whom you just can't help but admire for his humanity. With only six episodes I feel like I really know the character, and that is something some shows can't do in twenty-two episodes. But I'm greedy. I want more. In fact, I want all fourteen books adapted. Can I talk to someone who can make this happen?
Earlier this year I watched all the episodes of Endeavour that have currently been released. The biggest joy of watching the prequel to Inspector Morse is Roger Allam as Fred Thursday. So obviously once I had watched all the episodes of Endeavour I started having severe Roger Allam withdrawal. The Morse withdrawals were staved off by moving directly onto an Inspector Morse rewatch. Thankfully BritBox came to the rescue for all my Allam needs with the timely release of Murder in Provence, an adaptation of the Verlaque and Bonnet series by M.L. Longworth. Allam is still firmly in the crime solving genre, but he's traded in his trademark mac and fedora for blue suits and skies. And as for his day of the week sandwiches? They have been upgraded to fresh seafood and delectable French cuisine. This is a series as much about the lifestyle of Provence as it is about the crime solving. Which brings me to one of the main criticisms of the show by reviewers, and that's it's a show about France, set in France, and yet where are the French actors? It's like the stable of British actors who appear in murder mysteries were just given trips to Provence instead of French actors being found. And while yes, I can agree with this criticism, I have two rejoinders, it could have been worse, with the British actors putting on French accents, and Roger Allam. This show got made because of his star power. It's not blind luck that this show actually crashed BritBox when it premiered. This wouldn't have happened with a French cast, which is just a sad truth. But seeing so many actors who have been on Endeavour and Father Brown in different roles with their old costars is just comforting. Which is what this show is, a comforting murder mystery, with a little more style and substance than most. Though what I really connected to was the relationship of Antoine Verlaque and Marine Bonnet as played by Roger Allam and Nancy Carroll respectively. They are an older couple who are unmarried and yet have a fruitful relationship surrounded by quirky friends and family. I defy you not to love Marine's communist mother and Didier Laurent AKA Dirk Gently by another name. But going back to their mature relationship, they have real conversations, about health issues like prostates and menopause. And yes, I feel like it ages me saying that these conversations add some weight to the show, but it's refreshing seeing these subjects handled in a matter of fact way amongst all the other issues of a crime solving life. Even if Nancy Carroll is far younger than you would guess!
By including Endevour I'm kind of bending the rules as to book adaptations. But seriously, I couldn't leave off a show of such brilliant acting and atmosphere even if it's really a prequel to an adaptation. Endeavour follows the career of a young Inspector Morse, who was created by the wonderful Colin Dexter and brought to life by John Thaw for over twenty years starting in the late eighties. Inspector Morse was so loved and so iconic that a sequel centering on his second in command, Robbie Lewis, soon came about and after nine stellar seasons the only logical solution to fill this Morse sized hole in the viewing schedule was a prequel, until the inevitable Hathaway spinoff that is! What makes Endeavour so wonderful, aside from the casting, the music, the scripts, the locations, the little references for die hard fans, is that it's a period piece! It's almost like someone looked into my head and saw that by combining my love of period drama and my love of Inspector Morse it could result in the perfect show. Set in Oxford during the sixties the golden hues on the screen just call back to a more innocent time that was simultaneously in upheaval. And while many people will rightly point to Roger Allam's portrayal of Fred Thursday, Morse's boss, as the star, I say look to the subtle performance of Shaun Evans as the titular character, he is the glue that keeps it all together.
Arcadia by Iain Pears
The Revolving Door of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
Nelly Dean by Alison Case
The Princess in Black and the Hungry Bunny Horder by Shannon and Dean Hale
Fridays with the Wizards by Jessica Day George
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
