55 Degrees North

I didn't even bother to watch this when it first started. Not another cop show, I thought. Just what the world needs. But after my mother said she'd seen it and said it was good, I thought I'd give it a try. Thankfully they don't make such a big deal of the racism issue although you know it is there. And whilst I agree that Nicky Cole is perhaps somewhat too good to be true, he isn't flawless. He makes mistakes and although he means well, he doesn't always manage to do the right thing. The one area where the series does fall down is the development of the Dervla Kerwan character, who is given too little to do. Perhaps the possibility of a relationship between her character and Don Gilet's was too obvious and a cliché as someone has already mentioned. Frankly, they could get rid of her character and it would make no difference to the show at all, so little impact she has made. This is no reflection on Dervla Kerwan, who is a good actress but she should get rid of her agent for making her take the part as it does nothing for her, especially as she is wiped off screen by Emma Cleasby's Sgt Brookes who is a much more vibrant character and is given probably more screen time to boot. Cleasby makes a great impact here and should be promoted to the leading female role next time round as she and Gilet have much better chemistry together.

Yes, Night Detective does not have all the flash and violence and outrageous plots that are so common and predictable in the US. I feel like it leaves some imagination for me to use. I like the low key approach and very much like how Don Gilet and the other actors are portrayed. I also like that the characters are actually believable. I tire of seeing people portrayed never making a mistake and there is no way a real person can relate to the character because he/she doesn't exist in the real world. Watching the season finally I thought it was very exciting and had twists and again left us wondering if Nicky an Claire are ever going to get hooked up. The addition of Mark Jones was an excellent move and the expanding role of Andrew Dunn and Emma Cleasby has added some fun to the series. Both are very likable characters. I myself am tired of most US police/detective shows. Except for CSI/Miami/Las Vegas. I go out of my way to watch any detective show from the UK and have not been disappointed.

Given how much crime drama is on TV, I don't know how programs avoid using genre formulae and "cliches" - but this show has a charm of its own. I was pleasantly surprised by it.

The charm is due in large part to Don Gilet, who provides an attractive focal point. Clichés though they are, I like the "chalk and cheese" relationship with the old-timer in uniform; the urbane at-home mentor; and the sexual tension with the lawyer (although I like the flirting with the policewoman better).

Themes of corruption and racism add some edge to the mix.

I've only been through Newcastle a few times - but the night settings not only add to the mood of this show, they also give the city an allure that might not come across so well in daylight.

We've just had the first series here in Australia. I hope it continues.

RATING: 15 out of 10!!!

There are a number of venomous expletives and expressions I could spew which would make the Ecuadorian tree frog seem like a pleasant alternative, but I shall refrain from doing so because of a three-word, God-given right we all (or SHOULD all) enjoy:

FREEDOM OF SPEECH!

That said, can I ask why all the cerebral effort to pick such a fine series to pieces?! Surely such shows are meant to serve as a means to unwind after what had been (most of the time anyway) a long hard slog of a day, which I believe 55DN achieves hands down?!

Don Gilet wears the role of Nicky well, a put-upon man trying to do the best he can with precious little, in a place that by and large either flat-out refuses to accept him or are having a hard time doing so.

So I'm glad to see that he is able to come home to a family which, although unconventional, oozes positivity. After all, it should come as no surprise that not all Black families are as chaotic and "ig'nant" as the Crouches (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0375290/) or cursed with the obligatory "black sheep" such as Paul Trueman in EastEnders (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0088512/) And as for the sweet, sweet, not-at-all out-of-place title sequence (and funky theme tune)... oooh baby, that NEEDS to be a single already!

And that's my two cents worth for the day...

I loved this somewhat undemanding show when it aired, but reading some of the inane comments in the reviews has made me want to write one. If you're easily offended I politely suggest you skip this review. Can it ever be overstated, how rare it still is to find a British detective drama – or indeed any other kind of British drama whatsoever – in which the lead is played by a black man? Or, for that matter, where the thorny subject of racism is tackled, incidentally, and with humour and generosity? I nearly fell off my chair laughing at one user comment that such issues don't exist in the area in which this show is set – qualified by adding something to the effect of: not, at least, on a large scale. No, I'm sure… But there's a 'blindness' that operates in reality in Britain: unless you have racism forced on your attention, it's very easy to persuade yourself that it doesn't exist any more in our modern and "reformed" society. The reality remains, silenced, I suspect, by the very PC movement that sought to address it, in the glass ceilings, the lack of cultural understanding, the "sleepwalking our way to segregation" as Trevor Philips quite rightly puts it.

So, how refreshing and wonderful to find this series, which I thoroughly enjoyed, even whilst fully aware of its occasional clichés, its slightly old fashioned style and dodgy regional accents, and its unsurprising romance. Who cares? – none of these haven't already been spotted before in almost every British detective drama, so all the more reason for this series to be taken on its own merits. The chief of these is the charismatic Don Gilet in the lead role of Nicky Cole, the London copper cast, through his brave but impolitic actions, into the career wilderness (and punishment) of a night shift in the police force in the north. The setting happens to be Newcastle, a rare chance to see a great-looking city, but it could be anywhere. He encounters a world often unwilling to make the necessary leap of faith, to believe in him at face value and on the basis of his record. So, like many men and women in his position, he must prove himself by working twice as hard, being twice as good at his job as everybody around him. Some of this is racism; some is good old-fashioned "you ain't from round here" suspicion of the new. But one of the pleasures of this series (beyond its making it to the screen at all!) is that this issue is still a sub-plot. Taken out of the mix, it's just an engaging police drama.

Another reviewer at the opposite end of the spectrum commented cynically on the 'PC' nature of the show, how it ticked equal opportunity boxes. In the eye of the beholder… But again, can I stress how highly unusual it is that this show got made at all? Wow, only imagine, if TV shows were really commissioned principally with a desire to address equal opportunities and represent Britain as it really is! I liked this show very much indeed, and strongly recommend it, not as a diatribe on racism but as a very enjoyable entry in the long police drama canon. Some suspension of disbelief may be required, but we're all used to that, right?