humboles Reviews

César Wagner (2020–2023)

Very French, great fun, good plots

[9/10 · 4 March 2024]

We thoroughly enjoyed all the episodes.

The 'patron', César Wagner, is weirdly hypochondriac but eminently humane and, often, very amusing. His relationship with the female pathologist, who appears in every episode, closely resembles that of Det. Mike Shepherd and pathologist Gina in the NZ drama, Brokenwood: in each, he wants friendship, she wants more.

The detective apparently carries an illustrious surname in Strasbourg, his ancestors being well-known in several domains, while his mother is the current mayor. She plots to advance her son's career, often to his annoyance. The city looks attractive. One episode involves the Europena Court Of Human Rights, another Strasbourg's Nazi-entangled role in the 1939-45 war.

The subordinate characters are all well portrayed and memorable. I can't agree the plots are complicated; a French speaker, I still run back over any point I don't twig at first.

I hope C4 will buy all subsequent series: they have a habit of disappointing in that regard.

Hope Street (2020– )

An easy watch, though hardly original

[7/10 · 8 October 2022]

Hope Street looks and feels familiar. The BBC ran a drama in 2015, 'The Coroner', set in a Cornish seaside town, which similarly ran to 20 episodes, concerning an attractive young woman coroner (Claire Goose) as Jane, who works in tandem with the small local police force, where she has an unresolved relationship with a local DS, Davey. Cue the 'will they, won't they' sexual tension, a running theme. There are several parallels: the drama is set against an attractive seaside location in a small Atlantic fishing port; one episode is cleared up when we discover that a character's gender has long been hidden; the local pub is a key location, etc.. The scripts in both series attempt to balance the crime action with the private life of the main characters. More recently, the gentle New Zealand rural crime series 'Brokenwood' has been exploring similar territory.

In all three, the current case must be resolved in one episode and, the odd gory detail aside, all three avoid gritty reality, as befits the daytime TV slot. And, like the BBC's long-running 'Doctors' series, all have been accused of hammy acting, which must be hard to avoid when made on small budgets in cramped spaces with never a swear word, where the action revolves around parochial fluff with an attempt at amusing tension and banter between eccentric stock characters. We saw this much-repeated formula in 'Heartbeat'-sleepy attractive location, underlying romantic difficulties, loveable rogues, gentle whodunits, the work/life balance problems of the police officer, etc. Cosy stuff; so don't expect too much and there's plenty to enjoy.

I did find the direction (editing?) irritating where scenes tailed off to characters silently looking tense for seconds, or rolling their eyes. Echoes of 'Acorn Antiques'.

The cast list shows S1 characters Barry and Concepta don't appear in S2, and Nichole and central character Leila appear once only, in S1E2. Series 2 action seems to move to Flynn, Callum, and Flynn's family. Shame-Leila's full-lipped pout was worth series of its own.

Code 37 (2009–2012)

Absorbing, if a bit OTT at times

[8/10 · 23 July 2019]

I watched this in 2019 in the 'Walter Presents' All4 strand. The actors (some recognisable from the excellent 'Professor T') do well with often difficult material; especially the vile suspects! Unsophisticated interview room techniques from the 1970's 'The Sweeney', and absent defence lawyers,mean the cases would fail in UK courts, but the character interplay is entertaining... and, after 'Tabula Rasa', I just love Veerle Baetens, a sexy yet credible boss figure in this drama. The highly negative review claims she screams, but she doesn't.

Professor T. (2015–2018)

This show gets better and better, so stick with it

[18 January 2018]

I thoroughly enjoyed Professor T., and was increasingly drawn into the two series available on UK's All4 channel, ultimately binge watching! Yes, it takes a while to get into its stride, so disregard the Guardian reviewer's lazy and flippant review based only on the first episode. The series' writers' intentions only become clear over time and some of the best scenes (and explanations of the Professor's complicated past) are left building right up to the closing episodes of Series 2. If there are echoes of previous TV dramas, so there are in a myriad of small screen offerings - where could we find total originality after so many decades of TV? Humour, tragedy, suspense, romance and whodunit unravellings take turns to entertain, and I ended up really liking all the main characters, finding the acting and directing high-end throughout. The European aspects might be appreciated more by a UK audience drilled in Scand-noir than by US viewers, as we know Americans often prefer to remake a successful Euro-series or movie in English on home soil to guarantee a good audience. Still, if subtitles and a foreign ambiance are fine by you, I'd unreservedly recommend giving this thoughtful Belgian drama a go. The intriguing series 2 ending leads me to think a third series might be pending.

Lorna Doone (1963)

Recalling lovely Jane Merrow—and a rather pathetic fire

[13 September 2017]

Two brief recollections stand out in my memory from the 1963 series.

First, Jane Merrow. She was so pretty, beguiling and vulnerable that, even though she was ten years my senior, I was totally smitten and longed to ride in to save the lovely Lorna!

Now the spoiler, though it matters not a jot as the series has been lost. There was a special effect required to show the burning of 'Doone-town' and a poorer thing I never did see, even by the lowish standards of early sixties British black-and-white TV. A tiny scale model of village houses sat as though on a table, shot as if it were a dark night and seen from a high spot, and resembling tiny lumps of balsa wood upon which someone had sprinkled pieces of burning fire-lighters that glimmered and flickered pathetically. Even as an 11-year-old boy, I was mightily unimpressed. It would take Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation team to understand how to make small-scale fires and explosions look reasonably authentic.

That the series is lost is a shame but, sad to say, the greater part of our 1960's visual heritage was scrapped by the BBC.

The Naked Edge (1961)

Gary Cooper's swan song gives Deborah Kerr the chance to shine

[7/10 · 28 December 2015]

I won't recap the plot as other reviewers have done so quite adequately. Those who think Gary Cooper (who might well have suspected his days were numbered as he'd just undergone an op for prostate cancer) turns in less than his usual powerful performance are incorrect in my view. He underplays in his typical style, but I discern no failing of his powers. True, his role lumbers him with having to respond to his wife's perfectly reasonable suspicions in a way that is consistently ambiguous, and one might argue he feels hurt that he should have to explain his innocence to someone who should trust him implicitly, so he's purposely evasive — except he's already argued against that very position early in the film, accepting that sometimes one can demand proof even where convention dictates it shouldn't be necessary. The obvious conclusion is that it was a plot device to keep him firmly in the frame for the murder throughout.

Yes, the music is rather blaring and obvious at times - a common feature of British thrillers in the '50s/'60s. The composer, William Alwyn, was quite the polymath, and very experienced - he'd written around 70 film scores in the preceding 20 years. Perhaps the style was what was ordered, and not entirely of his own choosing.

This is a must-see for fans of Gary Cooper and of Deborah Kerr, who here is both radiantly beautiful, and effective in her role. Overall, I enjoyed the movie which, like many Hitchcock films, has some creaky moments and plot inconsistencies, but certainly keeps the tension going right to the end.