Philip Glenister revisits his 'Life On Mars' part - which may well cause a serious rift in the space-time continuum - to play the 2002 version of a good old Welsh detective put in charge of a (real) cold case from 1973 in which he was a rookie. You need a bit of adjustment to realise which old actors are being played by which young actors, but once you're there, It's um, watchable if nothing else is on, and the Welsh accents are soothing. The music isn't, it's overwrought and ridiculous.
Very heavy on period atmosphere, established mainly by the use of leather jerkins, turquoise Triumph Dolomites, grey Ford Cortinas, blue Morris 1100s (UK car industry - ha!), smoky lens filters and an all-consuming brown palette, with 'car coats', dubious facial hair and kipper ties.
Thing is, there's more to write about the amusing period depiction than there is to write about the actual story or the characters, which seem to have been cut-and-pasted from any police drama of the past fifty, nay seventy, years. Amusing period detail is not enough to hang a four-hour drama on, which hasn't stopped a plethora of similar mediocre period police dramas, by the way.
The only suspense is in finding out 'how they found out whodunnit', rather like one of those freeview Forensic Detective shows drawn out to four long, long double episodes without a demented voiceover. Of course, in those shows the villain is never a copper, is it. This may be a spoiler, I don't know, as I'm only on episode 2 and I'm losing the will to live, but if it isn't one of the coppers, it's going to be an anticlimax, as opposed to a cliche.
Perfectly good, not cheap production, but plot, characters and concept = total deja vu. There's even a bit where somebody says. 'The boss wants to know what's going on'. That's incredibly desperate scriptwriting. Music? Unsubtle, overdone and obtrusive.
OK, since as I'm going to mark this as 'contains spoilers', I'm waiting till the end to see if I was close. That feeling when you know the ending in advance? - deja vu, if you like.
Nah, too boring and music too gonzo; went to Wikipedia. I was wrong. Anticlimax - and murder nostalgia is sick. You wait: 'Fred and Rose- The House of Horrors' before very long.
Pardon the lengthy review, there was a rift in the space-time continuum.
Very heavy on period atmosphere, established mainly by the use of leather jerkins, turquoise Triumph Dolomites, grey Ford Cortinas, blue Morris 1100s (UK car industry - ha!), smoky lens filters and an all-consuming brown palette, with 'car coats', dubious facial hair and kipper ties.
Thing is, there's more to write about the amusing period depiction than there is to write about the actual story or the characters, which seem to have been cut-and-pasted from any police drama of the past fifty, nay seventy, years. Amusing period detail is not enough to hang a four-hour drama on, which hasn't stopped a plethora of similar mediocre period police dramas, by the way.
The only suspense is in finding out 'how they found out whodunnit', rather like one of those freeview Forensic Detective shows drawn out to four long, long double episodes without a demented voiceover. Of course, in those shows the villain is never a copper, is it. This may be a spoiler, I don't know, as I'm only on episode 2 and I'm losing the will to live, but if it isn't one of the coppers, it's going to be an anticlimax, as opposed to a cliche.
Perfectly good, not cheap production, but plot, characters and concept = total deja vu. There's even a bit where somebody says. 'The boss wants to know what's going on'. That's incredibly desperate scriptwriting. Music? Unsubtle, overdone and obtrusive.
OK, since as I'm going to mark this as 'contains spoilers', I'm waiting till the end to see if I was close. That feeling when you know the ending in advance? - deja vu, if you like.
Nah, too boring and music too gonzo; went to Wikipedia. I was wrong. Anticlimax - and murder nostalgia is sick. You wait: 'Fred and Rose- The House of Horrors' before very long.
Pardon the lengthy review, there was a rift in the space-time continuum.