Thorne
cuts it
Thorne:
Sleepyhead, Sky1, Sundays from 10
Oct, 9pm
Sky
TV have not been big players in the
entertainment-making department. Apart from a couple of tentative
projects –
the Terry Pratchett serials and Must Be the Music
spring to mind – it is
largely associated with soccer soap Dream Team and
flops such as Harry
Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show.
But
with last year's hard-hitting version
of Martina Cole's The Take and now its
dramatisation of the Tom Thorne
novels, Sky1 is showing the Beeb and ITV a thing or two about making
distinctive crime drama.
Mark
Billingham's popular London
detective hits
the small screen this weekend in the first of two three-part stories, Sleepyhead
(Scaredy Cat follows).
It's
visually striking and has a great
cast and director, delivering a psychologically gripping journey that's
a long
way from Heartbeat or Inspector George
Gently.
David
Morrissey not only gives a huge
performance as Thorne but he is the show's executive producer and was a
prime
mover in joining forces with Mark Billingham to get it made. They even
chose
the little-known vintage country music soundtrack that adds dreamy
flavour to
this contemporary drama.
They've
brought in Emmy-winning director
Stephen Hopkins, veteran of 24 and Californication,
who's created
a vivid drama against a pulsating London
background of
busy streets and regenerating East
End
wastelands.
Sleepyhead
was the first
Thorne novel, featuring Billingham's chilling idea of having a psycho
who
induces a state of 'locked-in syndrome' in his victims.
Thorne
investigates what appears to be
three murders, the technique of applying pressure to induce living
paralysis
being difficult to achieve, until a fourth victim survives. No sooner
does he
realise the perpetrator has actually been trying to permanently
paralyse the
victims, than Thorne is haunted by flashbacks to a serial killer he
nailed
years before.
This
dead figure from his past appears to
be sending Thorne messages, and Morrissey conveys all the character's
passion
and turmoil, as the detective is drugged, beaten and falls from a
building
while chasing the elusive killer.
What
a fine cast this has. Eddie Marsan is
menacing as Thorne's twisted colleague, Kevin Tughan. Aidan Gillen,
almost as
ubiquitous as Morrissey on TV these days, has some tense scenes with
Thorne as
the pathologist Phil Hendricks.
And
Natascha McElhone is alluring and
drily funny as Dr Anne Coburn. It’s an ensemble show with
Morrissey sharing the
limelight and plot twists with his co-stars, particularly Marsan.
The
drama deviates from the book as the
story develops, Billingham generously saying writers Jim Keeble and
Dudi
Appleton, covered holes in the novel. But this viewer actually
preferred the
novel’s finale, finding the on-screen denouement a little
convoluted.
While
Sleepyhead is not in the same
league as The Wire (The Standard
in London
this week spoke
of them in the same breath), it is better than a lot of British crime
serials
around now.
The
BBC
and ITV better
watch out. There’s a new crime outfit on the manor.
Poirot,
ITV1
The
little grey cells are at work again in a seasonal story called
Hallowe’en
Party, going out on Monday, 18 October on ITV1.
The
screenplay is by Mark Gatiss, who pulled-off the wonderful updating of
Sherlock
Holmes with Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat
this summer. The cast
brags a returning Zoe Wanamaker, Eric Sykes, Julian Rhind-Tutt and
Timothy
West.
When
Ariadne Oliver (Wanamaker) attends a children’s
Hallowe’en party in Woodleigh
Common, a young girl boasts about seeing a murder years
before…
Watch
it, Danno – Hawaii
Five-0 2010
Hawaii
Five-0
was
on the crest of a wave from 1968 to 1980 and is still fondly recalled
by many
who were around to see it.
Steve
McGarrett’s quiff, the surfing, bikini glamour of the Pacific
islands, the
stirring opening credits, and star Jack Lord’s sign-off
– ‘Book ’em, Danno.’
The
reason put forward by CBS honchos for re-booting the series this year
was that
it was time for a tribute. But is the tribute any good?
It
went out in the US
last month to decent reviews, without anyone
pretending it was anything but a slick, action-packed bit of primetime
viewing.
The pilot cost a reported $8 million and flaunted its helicopter
gunships and
explosions.
In
the UK Bravo was going to show it this month, but my spies reveal the
show has
now been pushed back to 2011 when it will appear somewhere on
‘the Sky
platform’.
Anyway,
where Jack Lord was as wooden as a palm tree, Aussie Alex
O’Loughlin (known in
the US
for series such as Moonlight and Three
Rivers)
is a less stiff and straight-laced McGarrett. In a
prologue we discover he is a special forces tough nut who agrees to
head Hawaii’s
new law-enforcement task force after his father is
murdered.
James
Caan’s son, Scott, strikes up a buddie relationship with
McGarrett as Danno.
Their bonding is played for laughs, some of which come off and others
sink in
the surf. Daniel Dae Kim is Chin, and Grace Park is a sassy,
butt-kicking
Detective Kona, who is far more fun and lively than the slab-like Kono
of the
original.
The
plot is unreal, and not in a good way, being something about Chinese
gangs and
people smuggling, all of which results in McGarrett and Danno storming
a
Chinese ship and killing half the crew, which somehow doesn’t
result in World
War Three.
The
original music is revamped and Hawaii,
of course, looks mouthwateringly beautiful, while
McGarrett once again wants Danno to book ’em.
It
will be interesting to see how the series does. I suspect that after
initial
warm feelings towards it, interest will subside and it will be abruptly
cancelled.
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