This article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 17 October 2015.
River:
Tuesday, BBC One
The
Returned: Friday, More4
Paul
Whitelaw
Just when you thought the hoary old
cliché of the troubled detective with an extensive vinyl collection
had been pummelled beyond repair, along comes River to show
that there's life in the old dog yet.
The effectiveness of this new cop
drama from Abi Morgan (The Hour) is enormously surprising, as
from the moment I first heard about it I assumed the worst. After
all, the very concept of a maverick cop named John River sounds
ridiculous.
It reminded me instinctively of Simon Day as John Actor
in The Fast Show's Monkfish sketches (“John Actor is a
tough, uncompromising inspector/doctor/vet...”).
However, putting aside the vast
unlikelihood of the great Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard playing a
character named John River, this is undoubtedly the most confident
attempt yet at transplanting the existential angst of Nordic noir to
British climes. Face facts, From Darkness.
The opening ten minutes alone offered
some of the most arresting drama I've seen on TV all year. Scored to
Tina Charles' disco classic I Love To Love, the sequence
immediately established a warm, understated chemistry between the
endearingly discomfited River and his more exuberant partner DS
Stevenson (the always believable Nicola Walker, who also shines at
the moment in ITV's above-par crime drama Unforgotten).
Their affectionate banter was
punctured suddenly when River spotted a petty drug dealer. Chasing
him on foot, our wheezy, ageing hero unwittingly drove the suspect to
his death. The scene that followed seemed standard at first: River's
weary chief (the wonderful Lesley Manville of Mike Leigh renown)
arrived to chastise him for causing the young man's demise.
As Stevenson offered him support, the
camera span around slowly to reveal a gaping wound on the back of her
head. She'd been killed in action, and now exists only in grieving
River's mind. It's a measure of how well this twist was handled that
its invocation of another great comedy sketch – Chuffy, the
imaginary sidekick from Armstrong & Miller – didn't make me
laugh. It was so unforeseen, I admired its audacity.
It transpired that River is haunted
by other ghosts, namely a murdered teenage girl whom he'd failed to
rescue, and – there's no way of describing this without it sounding
ridiculous – a 19th century serial killer (Eddie Marsan,
another gifted Leigh veteran). They're voices in his head, a
manifestation of his troubled psyche. Ghosts who assist him in
solving problems.
If his noggin wasn't already crowded enough, the episode ended with a bedtime visit from the innocent man he "murdered" at the top of the episode. It's quite a party in there.
Judged incorrectly, this swirling
cavalcade of psychological eccentricity could easily descend into
farce. But so far at least, River gets the tone just right.
It's rather subversive and unusual in an intelligent, dry-witted way.
Skarsgard inhabits the role of River with sad-eyed charm and intensity.
For once, the old cop-with-a-difference cliché seems justified.
Bathed in shades of medicinal green and nocturnal red, it's also directed with a sharp eye for striking composition.
Delightfully, this highly promising show confounded all my
expectations.
One of my favourite dramas of recent
years, The Returned made good on its title last week for a
second series of French supernatural mystery. Despite its ambiguous
finale, I actually felt quite satisfied with series one as a
self-contained piece. Is another series necessary?
Steeped in glacial intrigue, the
opening episode suggested that there's more to be gleaned from this
everyday saga of a remote French town populated by photogenic zombies.
Granted, thanks to a two year
transmission gap between series, it took me about half an hour to
fully remember who the hell everyone was. But once the fog had
cleared, I was cautiously hooked all over again.
God only knows if it'll ever make
complete sense, but that's not really the point. It's a disquietingly
atmospheric mood piece, an exercise in odd, beautiful Twin Peaks-esque
style. I'm glad it's back, to linger in the memory like one of
River's manifests.
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