TV Review: RIVER and THE RETURNED

This article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 17 October 2015.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/lifestyle

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 19^th 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.  

TV Review: IN THE FLESH and WHEN CORDEN MET BARLOW

This article was originally published in The Courier on 10th May 2014.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/lifestyle

In The Flesh: Sunday, BBC Three

When Corden Met Barlow: Monday, BBC One

Paul Whitelaw

When In the Flesh first appeared last year, it initially looked like just another rotting passenger on the never-ending zombie bandwagon. For those of us suffering from undead fatigue, it didn't look promising. But a few minutes spent in its company revealed that, far from being a standard zombie horror show, it was in fact a surprisingly intelligent, bleak and sensitive drama about prejudice and adolescent alienation.

The premise is simple but effective: in the aftermath of a zombie uprising, the undead have been cured of their ailment and reintegrated into society. Unfortunately, trying to start a new life in a world you've only recently terrorised and chewed upon is fraught with difficulties.

First of all, you have to come to terms with the fact that you're basically a sentient cadaver. Secondly, your sincere pleas for forgiveness aren't readily accepted by those who regard you as an unholy menace. It wasn't particularly subtle, but the irony of humans being as rabid in their bigotry as zombies are in their quest for flesh was effectively delivered.

Indeed, the first series, which ran for just three episodes, seemed to explore its premise fully. Framed through the milky eyes of Kieren, a rehabilitated young zombie in a downtrodden northern village, it was a compact piece that could've easily stood alone. So is a second series really necessary?

The only dangling thread from last year was the background presence of the Undead Liberation Army, an extremist group of cured zombies who want to militantly reclaim their rotting souls. Sure enough, they lunged to the fore as the saga resumed.

The overall tone was as before: unlike most zombie dramas, In the Flesh depicts a world of kitchen sink apocalypse – 28 Days Later via Coronation Street. But it introduced a few new wrinkles in the form of a careerist politician who arrived in Roarton – all fictional northern villages should have faintly terrifying names – to further her vendetta against sufferers of “Partially Deceased Syndrome”, and a charismatic disciple of the so-called Undead Prophet who failed to attract Kieren to the cause. Meanwhile, Kenneth Cranham's bible-thumping, zombie-hating preacher gets madder – and closer to cardiac arrest – by the second.

At this stage it's too early to judge whether In the Flesh has anything to add to its established themes. The first episode was mildly intriguing, but it did feel at times like an aimless, uncertain sequel.

Similarly, what was the point of When Corden Met Barlow? An extended puff piece in thrall to tax-avoiding millionaire Gary Barlow, it was the uncritical story of a great survivor, the comeback kid. The narrative arc was that, having once been considered something of a joke, the former Take That dynamo is now a beloved national treasure. It was proof that if you repeat a falsehood often enough, it eventually becomes true.

To be fair, this contrived road trip, in which avowed fan James Corden took Barlow on a cheery road trip down memory lane, was affable enough in its entirely undemanding way. Corden has calmed down a lot since his initial burst of post-fame arrogance and ubiquity, and I can't deny that Barlow seems like a nice guy. Of course, being a nice guy is an integral part of the Gary Barlow package, but I doubt anyone could fake that level of amiability over such a sustained period of time. It would be exhausting.

TV PREVIEW: In The Flesh, The Lady Vanishes, The Challenger

This article was originally published in The Scotsman on 16th March 2013.

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/tv-and-radio/tv-preview-in-the-flesh-the-lady-vanishes-the-challenger-1-2841220

IN THE FLESH

Sunday, BBC3, 10pm

THE LADY VANISHES

Sunday, BBC1, 8:30pm

THE CHALLENGER

Monday, BBC2, 9pm

Paul Whitelaw

Q: What's the best way of surviving an onslaught of zombies? A: Refusing to engage with popular culture on any level.

More ubiquitous and malignant than even Sue Perkins, zombies are bloody everywhere at the moment. From The Walking Dead to Warm Bodies and practically every piece of modern horror fiction in between, the brain-guzzling undead are second only to vampires in an over-saturated market of zeitgeisty ghouls. So you'd be forgiven for rolling your eyes in anticipation of BBC3's new zombie drama IN THE FLESH. But wait! This one comes with a novel twist! And it's a rather good one.

Taking place in the aftermath of a zombie uprising, it depicts a world in which, having being cured of their nasty affliction, reanimated corpses attempt to reintegrate into society via a government-backed rehabilitation scheme. The focus rests on Kieren Walker (his surname an in-joke for zombie fans), a wan young sufferer of Partially Deceased Syndrome who's tormented by harrowing flashbacks to his untreated past.

After being released from hospital – where patients partake in support groups and restore their human appearance with contact lenses and flesh-tone mousse – Kieren returns to the bosom of his family in a northern village riven with anti-undead feeling. Given that zombies almost always function as an allegory for something or other, here they're depicted as victims of knee-jerk prejudice, epitomised by Rev star Steve Evets' hate-spewing militia, the Human Volunteer Force (basically the EDL/BNP with guns). Naturally, they're as rabidly single-minded in their crusade as the zombies were in theirs.

If this sounds heavy-handed, writer Dominic Mitchell actually succeeds in exploring his premise with bleak wit and intelligence. A satirical social-realist take on familiar horror territory, it echoes the recently departed Being Human in its efforts to explore the hardships of unfairly vilified “monsters” living on the margins of society. Its ruminations on bigotry also recall HBO's vampire romp True Blood, although stylistically they couldn't be more different.

Bathed in mistily desaturated colours, its persuasive depiction of a world gone mad is anchored by a sensitive performance from Luke Newberry as Kieran, whose fake tan and forlorn demeanour suggest a human mannequin at a closing down sale. Ricky Tomlinson also turns up as a nosy neighbour, thus adding to the general Ken Loach via George A. Romero feel. Watching Jim Royle coping with a thwarted zombie apocalypse is pleasingly absurd and disturbing.

Despite being gilded in the moody emo trappings that every youth-skewed fantasy drama must come with these days, In The Flesh rarely feels earnest or corny. My only major qualm is that, by referring to his zombies as “rotters” throughout, Mitchell makes his characters sound like sub-par Terry-Thomas impersonators whenever they're mentioned. Mind you, they are a bunch of cads, that zombie shower.

Why bother remaking a Hitchcock classic? It's not as if you'll feasibly improve upon his work. Although its based on an obscure novel, THE LADY VANISHES is to all intents and purposes a Hitch original. And yet the BBC's latest adaptation surgically removes everything that was good about his 1938 film – mainly the droll humour, amusing characters and sparkling sense of playfulness – and turns it into the sort of dull, bland, turgid thriller he would never have dallied with in his prime. It's like painting over the Mona Lisa with a pencil sketch of Emma Bunton.

As superfluous as Hammer's failed 1978 remake, it takes the bare bones of this familiar story – spoiled young socialite searches for a missing spinster on a train full of people who appear to be conspiring against her – and locks them into a dreary parable about British xenophobia and entitlement. Tuppence Middleton and Tom Hughes – recently seen to greater effect as the psychotic Julian in Dancing On The Edge – make for a pair of colourless, pretty leads, while the surrounding glut of character actors deliver the sort of “Who's just blown off in my pantry?” performances familiar from countless make-weight Agatha Christie adaptations.

Better by far is THE CHALLENGER, a solid co-production between BBC Scotland, the Science Channel and the Open University in which the magnificent William Hurt stars as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. Tracing his determined quest to uncover the truth behind the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster, it's a classic David versus Goliath tale in which our irreverent, dishevelled hero takes on the stonewalling mendacity of the authorities who desperately tried to evade responsibility for this tragedy.

A thorn in the side of the Presidential Commission tasked with investigating its causes, Feynman is a tenaciously independent spirit who refuses to accept the pussyfooting excuses offered in NASA's defence. And thanks to his tireless studies, he eventually helped to make the space programme safer.

It would be very easy for a story of this nature to descend into a quagmire of Hollywood cheese. And yet despite a couple of hokey eureka moments, The Challenger tackles its fascinating subject matter with a satisfying degree of control and charm. And Hurt's wry, understated, entirely believable performance is an absolute delight. As far as studies of ethical and political dilemmas in which brilliant boffins investigate engineering data are concerned, it's a lot more compelling than most.