IF you are in the market for hipster detectives it’s hard to beat Cormoran and Robin, the duo at the heart of JK Rowling’s crime drama Strike (BBC1, Sunday-Monday).
How very hip and of the times they are. Offices in Soho (the cleaned up version); she’s a northerner, he’s a southerner; he has PTSD from his time in the forces, she has panic attacks; she’s a little bit country, he’s a little bit rock and roll. And of course they fancy each other like mad. It’s complicated in a way that The Sweeney’s Regan and Carter never was.
This time the case was a young doctor who had gone missing in 1974. As Cormoran told the woman’s daughter, it was very rare for cases that cold to be solved.
Before you could say “Excuse me, mate. Haven’t you seen Unforgotten?”, Corm and Robin (Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger) were finding answers by any means necessary, which in Robin’s case usually involved a disguise.
Jumping from past to present, the story wandered all over the place. It would have been annoying had you come for the plot, but most of us were here for the personal stuff.
There was plenty of that with Robin divorcing and Cormoran being pulled back to his childhood by illness in the family. The man of mystery unmasked at last, maybe. At one point we even saw him smile.
After a strong start with A Spy Among Friends, the new streaming service in town continued to make itself welcome with Litvinenko (ITVX, Thursday). David Tennant starred as the former Russian spy who spoke out against Putin and paid with his life.
At first, the police did not know what to make of Litvinenko’s claim that he had been poisoned. But the proof was in front of them, and dying before their eyes. The race was on to take a statement before it was too late.
What began as a spy drama soon became an old-fashioned police procedural with the cops determined to get justice for newly naturalised British citizens Litvinenko, his wife Marina, and their son.
It was another outstanding performance from Tennant, and from Mark Bonnar as the best of British senior officer in charge.
Most impressive of all, though, was Neil Maskell as the workaday Met detective who formed a bond with the family. Maskell’s Everyman, like the viewer, struggled to take in the sheer wickedness of what had happened.
Chris Kamara: Lost for Words (STV, Wednesday) was another in a long list of documentaries by well-kent faces about life-changing conditions. In the case of the former footballer it was apraxia of speech, a rare neurological disorder that meant he struggled to get the right words out – not what you need when commentating live on TV.
Initially in denial and then embarrassed, Kamara was admirably honest about how the disability had floored him.
As he began to learn more he met youngsters with apraxia who were on waiting lists for speech therapy. The ex-player had found a goal, raising awareness, and set about it with his usual enthusiasm.
Kamara seemed a genuinely good bloke and one wished him well. But wouldn’t it be something if people could get the services they need without having to wait for a celebrity to come along and take up the cause?
Some of the most chilling sights of the week were not to be found in crime dramas but in the documentary Undercover: Sexual Harassment – The Truth (Channel 4, Monday). Ellie Flynn was the reporter who posed as a drunk woman separated from her friends on a night out. Wearing hidden cameras, and with a camera crew and security following her, she ventured out into the nightlife of first Liverpool, then Leicester Square in London.
It seemed like an elaborate way to show what many viewers, especially women, know only too well to be true.
Yet seeing how vulnerable Flynn was, and the speed at which a situation turned from annoying to dangerous, was shocking. It was like watching a nature documentary in which the reporter was the prey.
By the end of the hour Flynn was shaken but angry, not least at the pressure put on women to take precautions rather than on creeps to change their ways.
One of the joys of BBC3 was the comedy Bad Education, with Jack Whitehall as the teacher at the mercy of his pupils.
So it seemed like a great idea to turn up for Bad Education: The Reunion (BBC3, Thursday). Wrong. You can’t go home again right enough. Lesson learned but there’s still a lot to be said for the old series, now on iPlayer.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel