A Mind to Kill

What a pleasure to see 'old haunts' used in the making of this program, it was nice to travel down memory lane.

It seemed to all fall into place, location, script, Actors, blended well to produce an intense modern day who-dun-it.

Philip Madoc, Gillian Elisa and Sharon Morgan, to name a few, were fantastic.

Great story lines, delving into the nitty gritty of Wales, such a pity it came to an abrupt end.

The first two series of 'A Mind to Kill' were excellent, but it was a shame that only three members of the original cast remained for the third, or maybe they felt as I did, the script was too deep. It had lost it's way, the stories became too sinister, there was no longer a sense of joviality in the script, it was so serious and not what we had all, grown to enjoy. No longer like the Bain we knew and loved, the flirt, who could be a little rude, serious when needed, wicked when not.

Why change a good thing?, it was not the move to C5 from C4 that proved fatal.

It would be wonderful if it was possible to have the original actors and writers return, and maybe have it shown on either BBC, ITV or it's first home C4, and show the rest of the Country what Wales has to offer in good drama.

Edward Harrhy.

This series is now showing in Australia for what I believe is the first time.

Trouble is it's on after midnight and hardly anyone's watching it.

Wonderfully atmospheric cop series.

It has a darkness about it that stays with you after you go to bed.

Utterly credible .. acted with restraint and so refreshingly the antithesis of the diet of police forensic porn mostly served up to us these days.

There's something genuinely likable about Bain .. but also a real world grittiness about him .. that doesn't always render him predictable.

Enjoying a love affair with this show at the moment .. would advise any Aussies not watching it who are reading this in Sep 05 to check it out on Channel 7 Tuesdays at midnight.

Set the VCR if you have to and let it get into your head .. it might take an episode or two .. but you'll be rewarded..

Excellent crime series from Wales starring the venerable actor Phillip Madoc as the imperturbable Chief Inspector Noel Bain. There are no glamorous settings or actors straight from the gym and cosmetic surgery – just ordinary-looking people going about the business of good acting in believable stories. A special mention for Ffion Wilkins who plays Bain's head-strong and slightly rebellious daughter Hannah. An absolute beautiful Celtic girl with natural acting ability who has hardly appeared in anything else other than this series. I know she has had a modest career in music, but her screen presence and timing would lead one to believe that this young woman was headed for a long television acting career. I hope her talent was not squandered for other reasons. The DVD's for all series are on sale in Australia. If you are looking for something a bit more realistic than the flashy Hollywood stereotype, then you will find these series to your taste and worth the money.

Philip Madoc is a very dependable actor and he plays his character, DCI Noel Bain, very well with a touch of humour. The sub-plot has him a widower with a late-teenage daughter and there is also a consistent thread of other sub-plots in and around the police station.

The story-lines were good, up to the standard of such major series as 'Frost', and the direction firm.

The pity is that this series (I don't know how many episodes were made, but it must have been 13 or so, having been made by Pearson, was aired on Channel 5 and therefore went largely ignored.

A MIND TO KILL is a simultaneously-made English language version of HELIWR, originally aired in Welsh on S4C. In common with a great deal of Welsh-language drama series (PRIS Y FARCHNAD is another shining example) it is brilliantly filmed and excellently directed, with fine casting and characterisation, all built around extraordinary and sometimes genuinely frightening plotlines.

AMTK - even in the English version, the original Welsh is much more atmospheric - is by far the best of the detective-procedurals of the last decade or so; it's genuinely gritty and down-to-earth without a trace of the cosy comfort of such as MORSE or FROST, and infinitely better in every sense than almost all much-trumpeted BBC product like SILENT WITNESS.

It is of course unfortunate it shows on C5 - but this is more a reflection on the sheeplike viewing habits of the British audience, as incapable now of changing channels to C5 as they were when Channel Four began, or BBC2 before it.