The start of the end came with Mens Sana, the second episode of the 7th series. Although this is one of my favourite episodes, after 6 years of perfection, it started the rot with a significant change in the format. I can still remember the review at the time that pointed out that after 6 years of being a cop show someone had suddenly decided the show was a comedy. This episode featured Dalziel recovering from yet another heart attack at a sanatorium where too many people are dying, and fun though the set piece comedy routines were, the writers had started the process of not treating the characters with respect.
At the end of series seven, Wieldy left starting a revolving door for the third copper role, none of whom had as much screen time or personality as he had. Then the set changed from the cramped and filthy inner city cop shop to something high tech and soulless, presumably so that it wouldn’t look out of place amongst all the glossy American imports. Then the show was split into two-parters as apparently attention spans could no longer cope with sitting still for 90 minutes waiting to find out how that long dead twin feigned his death 40 years ago. The need to have something that made sense even if you missed part one slowed every story down. Then directors who thought they were destined for greatness arrived and were stylish and annoying with strange experimental techniques. The episode where Dalziel sees his memories played out on screen without a cut was a theatrical idea that the director should have learnt never to do when he was still at art school.
And then, finally and most disastrously, Dalziel got a new haircut. This may not seem important but somehow that changed everything. His posh new suit and immaculate coiffure made him irresistible to the ladies (on the other hand he always was), but after several years of being near to death his poor health was forgotten about and Dalziel became fitter than Pascoe. He even stopped scratching his nuts. But to compensate Warren did forget how to act.
Pascoe also changed as, with his wife now gone, he had nothing dramatic to do leaving the actor looking bored. But the really bad thing was that the plots became head-swimmingly convoluted with no feeling that the writers were aware of the novels and how they made even the most complex of plots work. There were a few classic episodes left to enjoy including the one where Pascoe is in hospital and falls in love with Nurse Deadmeat (known in our house as the - is she dead yet episode) and the one where Detective Deadmeat takes up a new hobby of solo underwater cave exploring (known in our house as the - is he dead yet episode). But for the most part the final years show a steady and then a sharp decline.
The 12th and final series loses all sense of reality with incredible plots featuring nanobots, the search for eternal life and devil worshippers. So to conclude these articles next week I'll look at Demons on our Shoulders, which in my opinion is the worst episode of any tv series ever made. And bear in mind I've seen the Star Trek: Voyager episode where Tom Paris turns into a lizard, mates with Captain Janeway, and produces baby salamanders.
After the 46th and final film, in which Pascoe ignores how he's behaved for the previous 45 films and forms his own one-man vigilante organization to kill off suspects, the BBC put it out of its misery. Bad ending or not, the show, at its best, was as good as the cop show could get.
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3 comments:
I adore Warren Clarke in this role and could slap the director for allowing that overly silly, performance. Playing his heart condition for laughs is unfunny, but his convalescence could have been cuter if done "small". But that pales in comparison to how poorly they staged Pascoe asking out a witness in an active murder investigation. A grubbier tone showing Pascoe's poor emotional health with Dalziel away, no wife or child at home, and Wield with a lover would lead right into an easy target for seduction. He was too un-bothered about seeing the doctor. A darker, more bitter "I'll have my shirt back." would have played better as well since his stupidity should have had him sacked.
I was enjoying some of the reruns currently being shown on Freeview lately and it struck me how vital Wieldy was to the core dynamic of the main duo. I really liked his sort of stoic, broody presence and good coppering skills. One of those supporting roles that make the team work and his private side showed he was quite a tender, loving person just looking for the right guy to come along.
I too adore Warren Clarke and one of my favourite lines was when Pascoe went to interview some old sod who said: 'Yon fat's one's been here, scratching his fancies and found nowt.'
I was always mystified by Ellie and Pascoe though. Wieldy could make good emotional connections with men, the dashing Dalziel could chat up the ladies well enough but Pascoe came off as cold and distant throughout, which might have been deliberate. Just little things you notice running alongside the main plotlines, but a brilliant show at its height.
Wieldy was brilliant, very human, honest and funny. Ivor, Tweedie, Spike and Posh were all good, but Wieldy's disappearance was a big loss, and NOT EXPLAINED. Lateef should not have been killed off like that, and the last programme of the entire run was by far the worst. It was nasty, gruesome and also left the relationship between Pascoe and Dalziel unclear. They could have given the old boy a better send-off. However, it was Clarke's obsession ith justice that held it all together. Over the entire run, his performance was a masterpiece.
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