When it premiered on BBC4 last Thursday, The Alan Clarke Diaries achieved that channel's highest audience to date for an original programme. I caught the Sunday repeat and I can immediately see why - a thoroughly good TV drama.
Back in 1993 I was living in Bath with a landlady who at Christmas bought me a copy of his diaries. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea - political memoirs not being exactly top of my reading list at the time. I knew that they were supposed to be good, but ordinarily I wouldn't give such a book the time of day.
You should understand that before leaving school to go to university, although interested in politics, my experience of politicians was limited to an unfortunate talk given to us by a local MP - Michael Portillo. It went down like such a lead balloon with me, that politicians were off the agenda - particularly Tories who we were never going to be rid of it seemed. This was later upheld when at university in Bath, I met our local MP, Chris Patten. He was a nice genuine bloke, who had been Minister for Overseas Development and was then Secretary of State for the Environment. He cared about things. He was a good Tory. Then it all went very sour when he became Chairman of the party, was persuaded to talk about things like "Double Whammies" and lost his seat (whilst winning the election). At least he was freed up to go to Hong Kong. But I digress.
I dutifully read the book, and was immediately glad that I did. I knew he was a "cad" and a "bounder" who considered himself superior to all before him, but he was as honest and frank as Tony Benn. Hurt has him down to a tee in this series, with that air of distain and bewilderment. We have yet to see much of Jenny Agutter as his wife, but Julia Davies is wonderful as his arch secretary. I'll be following this series slavishly.
Paul Abbott is the writer du jour, with State of Play being widely praised last year, not least by me. Channel 4 has had a lot riding of Shameless as a result, with a supposed recasting going on some way into shooting meaning that it needed expensive reshoots. They've been plugging this series pretty heavily and to be honest I wasn't at all sure I was going to like it. You got the feeling that they wanted to make you think it was the new Royale Family.
Well guess what. It's excellent. I loved it to bits. The family is terrible, but loveable. They're crude, mixed up, and mad. The father is useless, mostly passed out on the floor. Jame McAvoy from State of Play is a key character of the outsider Steve who enters the strange domain of the Gallagher family (that was another aspect of the series that Channel 4 were playing up and was really going against the grain from my point of view). I would have watched the next episode on E4 were it not for the fact that I was recording Nip/Tuck on Sky One at the same time.
It's new series time at the moment, and last night Channel 4 also showed the first episode of Without A Trace. It's not too bad in a fairly average US series way. It comes from Jerry Bruckheimer, who's hit TV gold with CSI franchise. I'd put this series as a cross between CSI and that either great television franchise stalwart, Law & Order. To that extent, it's perfectly watchable but nothing special, and it's surprising that C4 have given it such a high profile. I'd be surprised if it lasts long in a 10.00pm slot on Monday evenings - I simply don't trust C4 with imported series any longer. I suspect that another station will take on the multi-channel rights (if C4/E4 doesn't already own them), and do things properly. Still I'll watch the odd extra edition when I get a chance, although Sky One launch The Handler up against it at the same time next week.
We've now seen two feature length episodes in the new series of Daziel and Pascoe, and I'm a bit disappointed really. The stories seem less routed in reality (tonight's episode saw the murder of a "reality TV" contestant), and the stories a bit more hackneyed. We don't even have any back story to contend with. Certainly last week, Warren Clarke's Daziel had an old flame in the form of Phyllis Logan, but we seem to have completely forgotten about Pascoe's ex-wife (and kids I seem to remember). Daziel's heart condition has similarly disappeared.
Then there are other changes, no doubt unavoidable, with Wieldie disappearing and Spike appearing in the same role really as third detective. It'd just be nice to have this change addressed.
The direction tonight was a joke with lots of camera tricks employed. I can't tell you who directed it, but I'd like to think that they were mocking the style of reality shows, but I can tell you here and now that they didn't do it very well.
Finally, the guest stars. I think that the producers must believe that they're doing something like Murder, She Wrote, because we guest star after guest star detracting from the plot. I have no problem with David Soul or Ricky Tomlinson showing up, just not all at once in the same series. Spread them out a little more thinly please. To be honest, the same problem has afflicted Jonathan Creek in recent years.
Maybe it's just that I want a grittier detective series on television with murders to be solved each week. Instead we get this, or heaven forbid, Midsomer Murders. Yes television has to entertain us, but look at what crime fiction sells, and you'll find some grittier detectives around.
The new series started tonight on BBC1 and it's always good to see the old gang back. This time events started in Russia where our lads were finishing off a job in a large townhouse in St Petersberg. Just as payment is due, the mafia boss for whom they've been working is blown up in a CGI explosion that also takes with it all their money and belongings. They're required to be repatriated by HM Government as a result.
Events conspire for them to get on the "OED list" as a preferred set of builders working at diplomatic buildings around the world. Neville is inducted into MI6 and before the hour's up we're in Havana. I've been looking forward to seeing this series since I heard it was set in Cuba, although I thought that the BBC were prevented from actually filming the series on the island by the Cuban government. There was certainly a second unit in the city, but I'm sure I read somewhere that they filmed much of it on another island.
As for the series, well it was more of the same. You never know where the story is going to lead them, but the humour's still there, and you can believe the cast to have been through a bit - they're not the most attractive bunch in the world, and it's unlikely the series would ever have happened in America (never mind the Cuban aspect to this series). A bit too much CGI for my liking (rain & snow by my reckoning), but good fun nonetheless.