Dalziel & Pascoe
The British detective invasion continues with Season 1 of the now twelve-year-old cops’n’murderers show, “Dalziel & Pascoe.” Dating from March, 1996, and set in the Mid-Yorkshire area of England, the first season of these 90-minute mysteries consists of three episodes: “A Clubbable woman,” “An Advancement of Learning,” and “An Autumn Shroud.”
In this series, no better or worse than most other cop shows, an old-school detective (Warren Clarke, anti-elitist, blue-collar, a deliberate vulgarian), coupled with a university-educated younger colleague (Colin Buchanan, handsome, tolerant), fight crime in their different ways. Think “Morse” in reverse, or the very-odd “Life on Mars” cop-relationships and you somewhat get the idea.
What is most appealing, in the midst of what is an average show, are the character relationships. The plots aren’t necessarily compelling, but they allow our Scottish detective and his English underling to unravel the murders that always pollute the urban and scenic countryside in these dramas.
In “A Clubbable Woman,” which deals with a local Rugby Club and the murder of an ageing player’s wife, Andy Dalziel and his newly-hatched assistant, Peter Pascoe, must determine if the killing was accidental, a suicide, or a homicide. Well, being a murder-solution show, the deed and the killer become obvious after much sleuthing. Written by Alan Plater and directed by Ross Devenish.
“An Advancement of Learning” is set in a local university, where a decade-old murder is unearthed (literally) when a monument to a former administrator is moved to make way for new construction. Who murdered this woman so long ago? Because it is set in an Ivory-Tower setting, Dalziel (his name is strangely pronounced “Dee-ell” – don’t ask) is very much out of his intellectual element, whereas newish Pascoe re-meets a female love of his academic years, Ellie, now a lecturer there. The guest star here is Prunella Scales (extremely removed from her extraordinary work in the arguably best sitcom ever filmed, “Faulty Towers”), as an embittered academic head. Written by Alan Plater, with direction by Maurice Phillips.
“An Autumn Shroud,” finds Peter and Ellie recently married (what?! They just re-met the episode before), and Dalziel is off on his own holiday. But when his car breaks down outside a huge country mansion, he is taken in as a guest and bedded by a recently-widowed lady-of-the-manor, only to discover past and present mayhems. Of course. This one stars Francesca Annis (Polanski’s very young Lady Macbeth in his first film after the murder of his wife in 1969, and recently seen in good form in BBC’s “Lark Rise to Candleford”) who is still gorgeous and very effective as the not-what-she-seems widow. Written by Malcolm Bradbury and directed by Richard Standeven.
The acting, natch, is superb and the storylines, if not exactly heart-stoppers, are watchable, indeed. And I’m glad we have them to watch again and again, if we so choose.