BOLAM SLAMS AUNTIE

We just wanted to see a lurid tabloid headline for variety.  News has broken that James Bolam is to leave 'New Tricks', and just after the nation rejoiced at the announcement of two further series.  This is no exaggeration; 9 million viewers is as much as the nation unites around one telly channel these days.  The prime-slot crime caper of three old timers and their lady boss notches up more viewers than the much-praised 'Downton Abbey'.

There are already pages of comments ranging from pleading by fans to the usual insults by the unpleasant.  Ali would like Mr B to stay too - the show's success is in the chemistry in her opinion - but it's none of her business.  It says strange things about our relationship to famous people we've never met that we feel we have the right to comment on career decisions.  To say he's 'ungrateful' for leaving the show is absurd: is he not allowed to retire, take a break or work on other things?  No doubt he's unperturbed at anything the Twittering classes have to say.

If the show isn't stale to watch, it's because of the cast and some sharp writing, but energy is hard to sustain over several series, and with a 56' format.  Mr B has said in rare interviews that he's unsentimental about his work and it's maybe one of the qualities that's allowed him the versatility to play the likes of Terry Collier, Trevor Chaplin, Harold Shipman and Jack Ford.

RIP Jack Halford, you'll be sorely missed, but we hope to see Mr B again very soon.

New Tricks

Not new at all.  Another programme that feels like it’s been on forever, and with more justification, since the new series is the eighth.  What would be terrible with a lesser cast and dull writing is actually quite fun, though visibly just as much for the actors as for the audience.  It’s not going to take you anywhere unexpected, and probably not anywhere you don’t want to go, which is part of  its charm.  It does its stuff just well enough to be an amiable diversion, and if you watch TV to see good actors, then the regular and guest cast are usually worth the hour. Brian, Gerry and Jack are pretty well-defined as, respectively, the reformed alcoholic visibly on the autism spectrum; the bluff, womanising, chain-smoking old-schooler (ok, Dennis Waterman combines his roles in 'The Sweeney' and 'Minder' here, even singing the theme tune, but hey) and the mostly gentle but curmudgeonly widower.  They are anchored, sometimes almost literally, by boss Sandra, who despite looking much too glam for the job, is just about as convincing a detective as Jane Tennison. 

Just don't expect it to be TWNH-free.  If the cases veer regularly into the wildly unlikely, however, at least it's done with less hand-wringing angst than the thematically similar 'Waking the Dead'.  Enjoy it while it lasts because despite its popularity with viewers, it's one of those programmes the BBC seems uneasy about.  The Beeb appear to think it appeals to the same age range as the cast, i.e. not everybody's target audience of adolescents (of any biological age).  Since we're apparently an ageing population, according to their reckoning this series is headed for a ratings explosion.  Meanwhile, I'll just fetch my slippers, plump up the cushions and wait for Dennis's dulcit tones....