Over the past week I have not watched as much TV as usual. I missed three episodes of Ballykissangel, American Idol, the new Robin Hood series, Annie Lennox BBC sessions, The Antiques Roadshow, and This week are programmes I might have watched had I been home. I would have also watched part if not all of England’s game in the one day series against the West Indies.
There were two outstanding programmes which I did see. The best was a sporting event on Sunday morning having gone to bed early, tired, and waking just before the Australian Grand Prix commenced. The second was a surprise after my concerns at the first episode of the new series of Lewis on Sunday night. I was back, just for the second of the four programmes in the present series. The Quality of Mercy. The subject of the investigation was your standard ‘who dun it‘, set amongst what appeared to be a college production of Shakespeare rather than OUDS- the Oxford University Drama Society. One year when visiting Oxford I attended one the summer productions set in the lawn of the college and with a small but select audience. I must find the programme to remember the year and the production but the stage, seating and comparatively small audience was similar.
In Lewis the young man playing Shylock is stabbed with a knife used in the production. He is disliked and everyone has a bad word for him. The potential suspects include the director producer of the play who is said to have written the best PHD of her generation, a former friend brilliant student who dropped out and other members of the cast. The deceased student had a room in the house of a Professor of English Literature who is no longer married to a Professor in a different discipline. There is also interest in another former student who has became a Critic with the Student Paper but ambitions to make the nationals. There is a second killing, that of the critic, after she is overheard saying she had news which will be on the front pages of the national papers The mystery is solved revealing the English Professor as the killer because she did not want it revealed that the acclaimed PHD had been written by another student and that the murdered student had proof of this after stealing a laptop and that the Critic had discovered the violent capabilities of the woman with a hushed up incident in which she attacked her estranged husband.
However what made this episode exceptional was the sub story. A man who attends the play when the first murder is committed has his two suitcases stolen while they are held at the Randolph Hotel until he comes back to collect them. The Hotel and the Police work out that this is a confidence trick in order to claim insurance/ sue the hotel company for negligence in releasing the cases to a third party. As a consequence of the investigation by his Assistant, played by Laurence Fox ,the man, who ran off to Canada for three years is found to have been the driver of the car which mounted a pavement in Oxford Street and killed the wife of Lewis when she was in London on a shopping trip. There are important scenes when the Assistant discusses with their boss how to handle the information, when he tells Lewis, when Lewis first sees, and then interviews man, and when the two attend the trial of the man for the manslaughter of his wife. The relationship between the two men, private men for different reasons, educationally and culturally divided as with Morse and Lewis, have comer together and bonded out of past personal tragedy and grief.
On Wednesday evening I watched an excellent one hour episode of Taggart with a contemporary theme. Two Polish Migrant workers are shot dead from close range in what first looks like a professional hit and then from a message to a radio station are said to be random assassination against the influx of migrants from Poland.
For some of the team the phone call appears to confirm that the victims were chosen because of their nationality but others are not convinced especially when it appears that the telephone call is a made up relayed tape from a public call box where there are no CCTV cameras. The first victim is a comparatively recent building worker who has openly criticised the way the hire firm operates and had joined forces with young female lawyer and social activist with a Polish parental background. She is then professionally used by the team as an interpreter and her involvement becomes known to then hiring boss who is the prime suspect when her home is firebombed. This he admits but not the murders. The second victim has been in Scotland for six years, works as hotel receptionist and is married to an native businessman she met while he was visiting Poland. There appears to be no connection between the two although as the hour long programme progressed it is first established that both attended Catholic mass on Sundays and then that the two were on the same flight from Poland to Scotland. Then there is a DNA break through when it is found that the two are related and are cousins.
The husband is revealed as the killer because he had tried to eradicate all traces of Poland from her life and the arrival of the relative had changed the position, resurrecting her feelings for her homeland. The sub plot in the relationship which develops between DI Robbie Ross played by John Mitchie, whose grandparents were Italian, interned during the second world war and the Polish lawyer, activist cum interpreter. Romances, let alone serious relationships, rarely if ever last in these series so it will be interesting to learn if this one has legs, especially as Robbie saves her life. In contrast to Lewis of the previous Sunday this episode had credibility and fully engaged the hour.
I must confess I have found this week’s and last week’s episodes of 24 more credible than the earlier segments, although the extent to which Jack is forced to operate outside the law and on his own does stretch the credulities. Much better is Lost with several unexpected and surprising twists.
I did watch some of England’s friendly with Slovakia on Saturday evening although retreated to bed and sleep from tiredness despite an excellent win, but the major treat of the weekend was Jensen Button‘s amazing win the first Grand Prix of the new season run in Australia. His team mate came second. The Brawn team is financed by Richard Branson who rescued Honda after the firm decided it could not afford to continue in the competition. For several months it looked that Button would be without a drive this season after several seasons of driving failed and disappointing cars. The promise when he won his first and only Grand Prix in Hungary in 2006 was not realised until Australia 2009. The joy of everyone was only matched by that of Jenson who could not contain himself after the nightmare of the previous year. The race was also the first designed to make the sport of more interest to the spectator with plenty of spills. The success of Button over shadowed a brilliant driver by the current World Champion driver, Britain’s Lewis Hamilton. He started towards the back of he grid and drove himself into a podium third position until he was overtaken by the following driver, but during the period at the end of the race when the safety car was still in control and therefore the racers had to keep to their position before the safety car had to be deployed. It is not often that Britain has two drivers in the first three. However on April 2nd it was announced that Hamilton’s move into third place had been declared invalid and alarmingly that the false information had been submitted regarding the claim that Hamilton had been overtaken while the Safety car was still in operation. This cannot be the end fo this story which if true is a disgrace and reflects on those who made the claim, who ever they are and severe punishment should follow.
England had won the cricket match to square the one day series before the last game. The final success came this evening when England beat the Ukraine 2.1, their fifth win out of five in the World Cup Qualifying competition, They took the lead with a Peter Crouch goal but then allowed their opponents to equalize. A late opportunist goal secured the victory.
The surprise also came today, traditionally April fools day when the news appeared that Alan Shearer had accepted the offer to manage Newcastle United for the remaining eight games of the season. This is still unconfirmed by the club or that his team will include the excellent and much loved Rob lee and the hard man Iain Dowie. Just as good is the news that Denis Wise has departed with rumour that the present manager on the sick list following hard surgery would become the Director of Football. The confirmation came one hour after the official departure of Mr Wise. Good riddance. It was clearly the price for Shearer to come in as temporary Manager for the rest of the season, something he has made clear to the BBC and that the present manager, on the sick following heart surgery remains the official manager.
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