qui_j

This series has been around a long time with Brenda Blethlyn practically owing the character. Her curmudgeonly ways are not attractive, and it's a wonder any of her "staff" even stay to work with her. The episodes are kind of hit or miss. Some are comprehensible while others have plot events, however illogical, introduced to make the narrative work! Seriously, what Chief Inspector of police would be meeting in cafes or restaurants with suspects in the case, or interviewing them in the comfort of their homes, alone? The wind up at the end of each episode does not always explain things well. It's watchable fantasy , but be prepared for a lot of repetition with little in the way of character development.

This series is based on a premise that's been used on screen multiple times, the mismatched crime solving duo! It's funny for the first 2-3 episodes but then becomes formula driven since the characters can never develop or the plots can never change. Pretty soon, the episodes all start to look and sound the same and eventually viewer interest plummets! It became impossible after a while to continue watching the actors go through the repetitive grimaces, actions, dialogues etc associated with their characters. Not even the natural beauty of the Welch countryside could prevent one to stop watching this and move on to something else!

This two part series deals with the theme of childhood trauma and subsequent attempts to reintegrate into the life of a small English village. The theme is the usual one of a misunderstood misfit. The novel might have been better, but the screen adaptation and script leaves much to be desired. It's as if the screenplay was developed from having read the novel, remembering a few events from that, then stringing those events in no special order to try a tell the story to others. There is little in the way of continuity. The actors spend a lot of time looking downcast, or just staring at one another. There's also a lot of mumbling and incoherent dialogue. It's not worth the watch! May be better to just read the novel!