McCallum

The series is centered on Forensic Pathologist Dr Iain McCallum (John Hannah) who is a Scot working in London. He works on a team that is suitably quirky and dysfunctional but is also a very tight knit group. He drives a motorcycle, tangles with authority and has a somewhat tumultuous relationship life with his live-in girlfriend Joanna (Suzanna Hamilton). The stories are centered on criminal cases investigated by the Forensics and Pathology team working with the police.

The strengths of the series include a solid cast and some very interesting characters, of particular note is John Hannah probably best known for playing Jonathan in The Mummy and its sequels. The series also make very good use of the London locations, focusing mostly on the more rundown and disreputable areas. The morgue/forensics laboratory is appropriately dark and dingy, far removed from the hi-tech antiseptic look of most American procedurals.

The weaknesses as I see them seem to have to do with focus or direction of the series; it seems at times to want to concentrate on the cases and at other times on the character development and unfortunately for the most part it doesn't adequately service either. For me the cases also rely far too heavily on coincidence to connect McCallum closely with them. Less of a problem are the more typical complaints seen in procedurals, McCallum is involved in a great many criminal investigations and the police with whom he works seem to be constantly one step behind our hero.

One minor quibble in that some of the incidental music does not appear to be original, some of it sounds distinctly like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The series ran for nine episodes over two seasons

I love this (all too short) series. I also enjoyed John Hannah in the few episodes he did of the 'Rebus' series. He was a probably a bit too young for that role ( I expected an older heavier kind of presence, one with more 'rough gravitas'). No matter, I really enjoy all his work, and that universally admired Scots accent is a big contributing factor. It's interesting that this is a role that has as the main characters a Scot(John Hannah) and and Irish lady (Zara Turner),with the whole show set in London! I suspect that the accents add a great of appeal to the show (and probably prompt a good deal of rewinding of some scenes to catch the meaning for many North Americans). This note is actually a query,because the opening theme music is a lovely guitar sequence, but I can't find out any more than that except that the music appears to be written by 'Daemion Barry'. Yes, but who played the theme tune? It's very evocative of an Eric Clapton style, but I'd love to find the actual recording of this tune. Any info welcome.

As with some of the best films and series, I stumbled across this quite by accident. It was late, a storm was in full force outside and I was sitting comfortably on the sofa when I flicked past a channel that was just about to show one of the episodes. I intended merely to watch a couple of minutes while waiting for the commercials to be finished on another channel before switching back to some or other sitcom. About an hour and a half later I remembered my resolve and was so happy that I hadn't done that. Needless to say I made sure I saw all the other episodes.

John Hannah has been brilliant in almost everything I have seen him in and he does not let down here either. All other cast members do a stellar job too. My personal favourite (aside from John Hannah, of course) is Gerard Murphy.

The only negative side to this series are the limited amount of episodes. Only 8 with JH himself and an additional 1 with someone else. I would love to see McCallum back on the screens, though it would have to be with JH!

I like the series but have always wondered if Brits can recognise accents.

They keep indicating that Zara Truner's character is from Dublin. Now, there is no way that you can miss her Belfast accent, so why bother? Just doesn't make sense.

John Hannah was excellent & so are the rest of the cast. I love British shows. They are good clean shows with not a lot of vulgar language, etc. I definitely recommend watching this show. I only wish there were more seasons. Three seasons is not enough...