Terrible title, cliched show. Actually we're not even sure we can say anymore about this. Dedicated, maverick Ash is a customs officer recruited to a crack-but-shadowy team who go after the big criminals rather than the small fry they usually manage to catch at borders. Dialogue by numbers, some who-cares chases and some gadgets had us tuned out halfway through. We suffer for our blog, but only within limits.
Magic has been absent from England's shores for around 300 years by the end of the 18th Century, and while the clique of dilettante students of the arcane arts meet regularly for meals, they don't attempt any actual spells, something seen as rather naive.
Enter Mr. Norell (Eddie Marsan), an unlikely last magician residing in a cavernous abbey near York. Sought out by a frustrated young magician, Norell proves his worth by bringing to life the statues in York Minster. Inspired to believe his time has come, he takes a house in Hanover Square.... Meanwhile, Jonathan Strange (Bertie Carvell) needs to find a useful occupation in order to win his beloved's hand. When street magician and all-round weirdo Vinculus (Paul Kaye) tells him that he and one other are destined to bring back magic to England, Strange decides to follow his fate.
A brave choice for the BBC 9pm slot, despite being based on a popular novel by Susanna Clarke, but so far this appears to be more than a classy fantasy along the lines of 'Atlantis' et al. Eddie Marsan evokes immediate sympathy, even when he conjures Marc Warren as a sort of Ziggy Stardust evil alter-ego. The hokus pokus is charming, but Norell's journey as a self-taught talent at the time of the Napoleonic Wars is also perhaps an everyman struggle. Could well turn out to be magic indeed.
