User Reviews

A woman dies in broad daylight, in public, a woman seen during the course of an investigation.

Well, where on Earth did this one come from, I've always enjoyed the show, but this was better in my opinion than what's gone before.

Loved the start, but the ending, that was wonderfully done, talk about twists and turns.

Great to have the duo back, and this was a cracking story, but let's be honest, there was one key element here that elevated in, the masterclass from Sian Philips, 89 years of age, and arguably at the height of her powers, she was phenomenal here, and how nice to see her with a Welsh accent on screen.

Alan Davies and Holly Aird were really good, I could believe in Davies's quirky character, Claire Skinner made a good start as The Governor also.

Visually first rate once again, I imagine this show has done wonders for Bath, and rightly so.

I hope the rest of the series continues like this.

9/10.

This programme does for Bath what Morse did for Oxford, it looks stunning. The two leads gel really well and there seems to be good chemistry between them now. I expected the new boss to be either a pompous ass or a PC evangelist but she is neither as of yet.

A woman is found dead in a park with a smile plastered all over her face. It is established that she was killed with a rare poison and suspicion centres on a professor of linguistics (wonderfully played by Alan Davies), who had traveled to South America. The complex plot revolved around his mansion and who might get their hands on it. I have to admit I didn't see the twists coming. Sian Phillips was superb but she looked much younger than she was supposed to be. I guess it's difficult getting nonagenarian actresses. If I had one gripe it's that I doubt if Dodds could become such an expert in linguistics after just an afternoon's study in the library.

Season 1 was good but I thought the writing in season 2 was poor and I found the silly, over the top acting of the guest stars to be disappointing. I only watched this first episode of season 3 because my husband wanted to see it. I was very happily surprised! Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins have great chemistry and they are solid stars in this series. DCI McDonald's sweet patience with DS Dodd always pays off with a clue that know one else would think of. S3E1 was unique and had quite an interesting plot. Bringing in 3 great actors, Alan Davies, Sian Phillips, and Claire Skinner was icing on the cake! Thankfully, the silly overacting was no more. I'm looking forward to episode 2!

'Belvedere' - Italian for 'Beautiful View'. But of course it's pronounced differently in that language, with the final 'e' sounded, making four syllables instead of three, and the stress is on the second syllable, not the first.

With Alan Davies playing a modern-era Henry Higgins, such issues of phonetics become important, but I do rather doubt whether in the modern world of children being exposed from birth to television and the internet, even Davies himself could detect any vocal difference between someone from Loughton, where he was born, and someone from Woodford Green, a couple of miles away, where he went to school. The modern ultra-ugliness of 'Estuary English' has totally destroyed such distinctions over the course of the post-war era.

But there is such a thing as artistic licence, including the notion that Dodds could acquire such a comprehensive grasp of phonetics from just six hours in the library. This does not in any way undermine the plot.

And it truly is a cracker of a plot, almost Christie-like, which keeps us guessing right the way through, and delivers a final Christie-style denouement to match.

The strength of this absolutely unlikely pairing simply grows and grows, and the arrival of a new boss merely turns out to be another challenge, a hurdle they so easily overcome, leaving the boss utterly amazed by them.

I initially gave it 8/10, but the more I digest it all, and also add in the bonus of a tour-de-force from 89-year-old Siân Phillips, including lots of her native Welsh, I think I must upgrade that to 9/10.

Excellent viewing!

As we were sitting down to watch this episode, my wife and I were talking about how happy we were that this series was returning, especially for two reasons: that everything was plausible, and that they played fair with the audience instead of solving the case with evidence we'd never seen. Then this episode fulfilled neither of those criteria. It was still an enjoyable watch, but...