Heat of the Sun

Acting, directing, and writing are all fine. It's mysteries set in 30's Africa, and uses many of the conventions of films of the time, but from a modern perspective - not unlike the approach taken in Indiana Jones - and it generally works well.

I'm usually the first one to quibble about technical errors, but this series was sooo well done that I never noticed any of the ones noted in other reviews here. Mind you, I had a hard time with Valentine shooting guns out of people's hands, and with a flaming homosexual in that time and place, but I just let the excellent story telling carry things along. Somehow, it seemed ** right ** that Valentine was able to shoot guns out of people's hands, and that there were Nazis lurking, etc.

One of the most enjoyable things on TV in a long time, and I hope there will be more. Let's have a DVD soon, please.

In 1931, after taking justice into his own hands, Scotland Yard detective Albert Tyburn (Trevor Eve) is given the choice of prison or reassignment to Nairobi. He chooses Nairobi determined to do the best job he can, but he encounters obstacles everywhere he turns. You will find yourself loving to hate his superior, Police Commissioner Ronald Burkett (Michael Byrne).

From the beginning Tyburn doesn't fit in with his fellow countrymen. Mainly because he sees the natives as people. that have feelings, intelligence and rights. Tyburn seems to view the behavior of the pompous Englishmen he encounters embarrassing at best and down right despicable at times.

This video set includes three separate episodes: "Private Lives", "Hide in Plain Sight" and "The Sport of Kings". Investigating these cases Tyburn encounters arson, drug-dealing and murder. Each head scratching mystery will keep you riveted to your seat, but watch out for some surprising twists along the way. Running through the stories is the possibility of a budding romance between Albert Tyburn and the fiercely independent Emma Fitzgerald (Susannah Harker).

Great writing, compelling characters, beautiful scenery and a wonderful music score all combine to make "Heat of the Sun" a joy to watch over and over again.

This series mixes genres and conventions in a most enjoyable way. It has elements of police procedural, hard-boiled detective story, historical mystery, and colonial soap opera. Trevor Eve is fun to watch as Tyburn, the tough, incorruptible British cop who is both repelled and amused by British society in 1930s Nairobi, Kenya, while refusing to become enmeshed in its racism and decadence. The lovely Susannah Harker is under-used as his aviatrix girl friend. The rest of the supporting cast is highly effective. I am not an expert on the period, but the stories give a good flavor of life as it was lived in that place and time.

It is hard for me to think of a TV program which I considered to have finished at the right time, the majority no matter how good they are out stay their welcome, while a few go too quickly. However I can honestly say that Heat of the Sun is the most depressing example of the later I have come across in a long time.

This series has its faults: Historical and continuity inaccuracies that only the nick picking would notice, an over sentimental last episode and a few wayward performances. But at its heart this is a decently written and well acted period detective drama. Not only that, compared to almost all of British television's recent detective dramas it is refreshing, both in its unique period setting and the fact that it's detective is for all intense purposes mentally stable.

And so it is for the above reasons that I believe this series deserved more than three episodes. It had places to go and stories still to tell and it is just another example of some of the poor decision making that has been going on at ITV over the last couple of decades! For at the end of the day Waking the Dead is a great series (as to lesser extents so are some of its ITV replicas) but I would have much preferred to have swap a few series of Boyd for a handful or so more episodes of Tyburn and this forgotten and under-appreciated gem of a show.

Colonial Kenya provides an exotic, fascinating backdrop for this excellent PBS Mystery series. Heat of the Sun is what I call the "kitchen sink" approach to detective fiction, with every crime imaginable--from murder, arson, and drug-running, to blackmail, banditry, and slave trading--perpetrated under the hot African sun. The excellent acting, the palpable romantic chemistry between the two main characters, the hypnotic setting, and the clever, convoluted plots, all combined to make this a memorable viewing experience. Hopefully, we'll be seeing the continuing adventures of Superintendent Tyburn, Emma Fitzgerald, and company, before too long!!