Reviewed: Case Sensitive (UTV)
I have to admit that I’ve never been a great fan of the British TV whodunit. Sure, over the years I’ve watched the odd Inspector Morse or Poirot, but they were never as essential to my telly-viewing as, say, Seinfeld, The Good Wife, The West Wing or Doctor Who.
But when I saw Olivia Williams’ name in the cast list of Case Sensitive, ITV’s latest foray into fiction, I just had to look. In the late 1990s Williams, you may recall, played Bruce Willis’ wife in The Sixth Sense, and also had a major role in Rushmore. Since then she’s mainly featured in British films, and recently appeared in Buffy creator Joss Whedon’s excellent sci-fi adventure series Dollhouse, which ran for two seasons. She can always be relied upon to bring a certainly steely intensity to a role, and her eyebrows can kill from 20 metres.
Case Sensitive was the first of four novels by British crime writer Sophie Hannah to get the TV treatment, and if this opening two-parter is any indication of what’s ahead, the rest are not to be missed. The story unfolds as a mother and child are discovered dead after the husband/father had been away, and a deliciously twisting tale was investigated by a police team led by Olivia Williams’ DS Charlie Zailer. The cast was strong, with Darren Boyd playing an excellent plod foil to Williams, and their lack of sexual tension made them feel more like a long-term married couple rather than a pair of cops who’d recently had a fling.
As the story unfolded, I almost needed a chart of characters and twists to refer to, as the plot thickened considerably. Initially, it had looked like the mother had killed her child before taking her own life, but when a woman (Sally Thorne, played by an impressive Amy Beth Hayes), who had previously embarked on an affair with the husband, turned up at the house and discovered that he wasn’t who she thought he was, it got very complicated very quickly. Which was nice.
The second part wasn’t as strong as the first, as it basically unravelled the tale of a man devestated by his six-year-old daughter’s killing of his wife by pushing an electric lamp into her bath, and then jumping into the bath, unintentionally killing herself. In truth, the plot gave itself away early on in that concluding episode, but overall Case Sensitive was entertaining enough to suggest that this series may have legs as strong as Linford Christie’s.
New this week
The Chicago Code (Thursday, Sky One)
The cast is intriguing in this latest American cop show. Jennifer Beals starred in the hugely succesful 1983 movie Flashdance, but has kept a relatively low profile since. She plays Teresa Colvin, a police chief on a mission to clean up Chicago. The show also features Jason Clark, previously in grity Showtime drama Brotherhood, as a tough detective. While not quite ‘The Wire’ or ‘The Shield’, ‘The Chicago Code’ is certainly in that ballpark.
The Comedy Genius of John Sullivan (Friday, BBC ONE)
Anyone with an interest in British sitcoms should lap this up. A tribute to comedy writer John Sullivan who died on April 23rd, and was the creator of Only Fools And Horses, Citizen Smith, Just Good Friends and many more shows. Contributors will include David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst and John Challis.
Bring Back Bosco (Monday, TV3)
If this is well-researched it could be great fun. According to the
TV3 blurb, Bring Back Bosco tells the story of Irish children's television. Using a combination of rarely seen archive clips and interviews, it promises to ‘explore and challenge’ our views on children's television.
Back this week
The Apprentice (Tuesday and Wednesday, BBC ONE)
Returning for a seventh season, former Tottenham Hotspur chairman and still very much a tycoon Alan Sugar sets a series of tasks for 12 boardroom wannabes to see which of them will get to become his latest apprentice. As with the Irish version, a major part of this show’s attraction is the willingness of the contestants to make complete fools of themselves. Some people will do absolutely anything to be on TV these days, a situation that’s often the cause of comedy gold.
Worth waiting up for
Bad time. Great show.
Conan (Weeknights, 3e)
I tried. I really, really tried to stay up night after night to watch Conan on 3e, but about a week-and-a-half in, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I know it’s a sign of human frailty, but sometimes I just have to stop watching telly and go asleep. How do the Americans do it? If characters from dramas such as ‘The Good Wife’ are to be believed, people over there work 70-hour weeks, so how can they stay up watching all the late night chat shows? The pick of the bunch over there is Craig Ferguson’s, but Conan O’Brien comes a close second. The guests may be a bit hit-and-miss, especially if they’re unknown on this side of the Atlantic, but the guy is genuinely funny, knows how to hold a conversation, and the hour flies by. But you can’t record late night chat shows and watch them during ‘normal’ hours: it’s cheating, right?
Guest star of the week
It’s hard to beat Graham Norton’s number one guest on Friday’s ‘The Graham Norton Show’ (BBC ONE). Actually, it’s impossible. Lady Gaga will be in studio to perform a couple of songs and show off some typically spectacky costumes – hopefully she’ll also share a conversation with Britain’s favourite Corkman.
Elsewhere, Paul O’Grady has the usually entertaining Black Eyed Peas (Friday, UTV), while MasterChef judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace become the first-ever co-hosts of ‘Have I Got News For You’ (Friday, BBC ONE), and Michael J Fox is back on ‘The Good Wife’ (Thursday, More4) as slippery lawyer Louis Canning.
Casting Couch Corner
Who’s heading to what show
This is the time of year when shows and casts get chopped as the US TV season heads into summer. So far confirmed are deaths of at least one regular character in the following shows: Desperate Housewives, Castle, The Vampire Diaries, Hawaii 5-0, Fringe, Glee . . . As for the shows, there are no notable casualties so far, but the following are all in danger: Brothers & Sisters, Detroit 1-8-7, No Ordinary Family, CSI:NY, The Defenders, Rules of Engagement, Two and a Half Men, Lie to Me, Chuck . . . On the positive side, David E Kelley’s Charlie’s Angels reboot is looking likely to get the go-ahead; Fox is aiming to reunite with Kiefer (24) Sutherland in a Tim Kring (Heroes) drama about an autistic child who can predict the future. Not looking so good is Alcatraz, the latest from Lost producer JJ Abrams that features former Lost favourite Jorge (Hurley) Garcia.
Sat Nav
Satellite Highlights
Bones (Wednesday, Sky Living)
This looks interesting. In a move identical to what happened last year on 'Criminal Minds', Brennan and Booth head to Florida to meet up the characters from a proposed spin-off called 'The Finder'. These characters are based on the novels written by Richard Greener, and focus on Walter Sherman, a former military colleague of Brennan and Booth.
Serenity (Thursday, ITV4)
Firefly is possibly the greatest cult show of modern times, and starred Nathan Fillion (‘Castle’, ‘Desperate Housewives’) as Malcolm Reynolds, captain of a renegade spaceship in a sci-fi/western that also featured Summer Glau (‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’), Adam Baldwin (‘Chuck’) and Christina Hendricks (‘Mad Men’). Serenity is the feature film that followed in 2005 when Firefly was cancelled after just one season. And it’s brilliant.
What You Watched
RTÉ’s top 20 programmes (viewed as live) for the week ending 03.04.2011
RTÉ One
1: The Late, Late Show Friday 654
2: Fair City Tuesday 577
3: Roomers Sunday 574
4: Fair City Sunday 566
5: Fair City Wednesday 506
6: Dragons' Den Sunday 503
7: Prime Time Tuesday 502
8: The Saturday Night Show Saturday 497
9: Prime Time Thursday 441
10: EastEnders Monday 441
11: EastEnders Thursday 429
12: EastEnders Friday 428
13: Fair City Thursday 424
14: Reeling In The Years Sunday 411
15: EastEnders Tuesday 407
16: From Here To Maternity Tuesday 397
17: Families In The Wild Monday 384
18: Off The Rails - On Tour Wednesday 381
19: Winning Streak Saturday 377
20: Nationwide Friday 357
The Late Late Show remains at the top, but the most impressiove performance of the week goes to Roomers, which saw its audience increase by more than a third to climb from 16th to 3rd. Winning Streak picked up a little after last week’s hugel slump, while Thursday’s Fair City (down 59,000 and from 9th to 13th) is the week’s big loser, followed by From Here To Maternity, down just two places but with 43,000 fewer viewers.
RTÉ Two
1: Desperate Housewives Tuesday 440
2: Magners League Live Saturday 356
3: Grey's Anatomy Tuesday 261
4: Anonymous Monday 233
5: CSI NY Wednesday 232
6: Katherine Lynch's Wagons Den Tuesday 231
7: CSI NY Wednesday 199
8: The Republic Of Telly Monday 195
9: Criminal Minds Monday 195
10: Home And Away Tuesday 186
11: Home And Away Monday 176
12: Home And Away Friday 164
13: Home And Away Thursday 161
14: Home And Away Wednesday 146
15: Payback Sunday 131
16: Premier Soccer Saturday Saturday 131
17: International Soccer Friendly Tuesday 118
18: Shameless USA Thursday 117
19: Neighbours Friday 113
20: Anonymous Sunday 110
After a couple of weeks off the top, Desperate Housewives regains first place – even though it shed 12,000 viewers. Magners League Live was the big winner in sport, finishing second with 356,000 and miles ahead of the English and international football. The CSI:NY double bill picked up some more viewers to maintain its strong showing, while Katherine Lynch's Wagons Den and Criminal Minds both enjoyed substantial growth, up 46,000 and 43,000 respectively.
John Byrne
