It has been a while since the demise of 'London's Burning', a one-time soapy ITV staple alongside 'Peak Practice' and 'Soldier Soldier'. Sky One have decided it's time for more everday tales of muscular, blokey men fighting fires, each other and their womenfolk.
Before we go any further, we must establish some pro-Jamie Bamber credentials... for one of us anyway. No prizes for guessing who cried when his character breathed his last in 'Hornblower'. We are talking a three-hankie misery-fest that no amount of chocolate could comfort. Mr. Bamber was also responsible for turning outrage at a remake of 'Battlestar Galactica' (because what could be as wonderfully terrible as the original?) into - well, acceptance. His 'Law and Order: UK' cop was probably the basis for his casting here. The well-spoken actor was likeable London detective Matt Devlin, who caused more wet hankies when he was gunned down in the street.
OK, so here, as Kev Allison, he ditches understatement to play the brash fireman who wets those hankies in the first scene of the whole series, thanks to a fire on a housing estate. It's a strong scene, and viewers are left in no doubt that Kev's suffering is thanks to the sort of penny-pinching cuts that are so prevalent in the UK and elsewhere now. Still one TWNH though: we hear the baby crying, and from the reaction of the firemen, so do they, but it's unlikely when they are wearing helmets and other protective gear in the middle of a blazing inferno.
Fast-forward 9 months and it's Kev's first day back at work, and what a day. Showing White Watch playing poker, eating donuts and watching porn may not be the stuff of great drama, but this is serious overkill. Surely never in the history of firefighting did anyone have such a full-on, lousy first day back? Our Kev starts by rescuing a woman from a car wreck and then tackles a fire on the very estate where he had his trauma. Far from being pleased to see him, the occupants throw him out and the local kids run off with his jacket, triggering an uncontrolled, violent response. Returning to the station, paranoid about an assailant who tried to kill him during the original fire, he is tracked by the dad of the woman he rescued: she died. Then he's forced to talk to a counsellor (err, wouldn't this have been necessary before he was allowed to return as fit for duty these days, especially in view of his attempted suicide?) and then gets drunk before going to collect his medal and reveals all, literally, to the shocked guests. His girlfriend Trish (Jodie Whittaker, who hasn't had much to do yet) has told his workmates, you see, that the burns have affected a rather delicate part of his anatomy....
The episode ends cutting between the crew going about their business and a reveal of just who the would-be killer is, setting things up nicely enough for future episodes. But... the script was leaden, the characters cliched and one-dimensional and at least one of the cast was wholly unconvincing. This wasn't Jamie, we hasten to add, although it has to be said that he is not the obvious choice for Kev. Calling everyone 'sweetheart' or 'darling' and eating a McFlurry aren't sufficient to get us inside Kev's headspace and world in a way that would be more believable from an actor like Daniel Mays, for instance. And shouting about 'ALPs' may be authentic but it's just frustrating for a lay audience 'til you work out what the hell the acronym stands for. Maybe 'London's Burning' fans will feel at home with this, but we can't help thinking that far from setting the world afire, firefighting dramas are still treading water after a couple of decades.
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