Brendan O’Regan
Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar in Unforgotten. New series ‘Unforgotten’ hits all the right notes while ‘Wallander’ and ‘Right Hook’ deals with “heavier stuff”
As regular readers of this column know I love a good crime drama and I find English ones far better than their American counterparts.
So I was glad to see the start of a new series Unforgotten, on RTÉ One Tuesday of last week. It’s a 12-parter, generous by English standards, and originally made for ITV.
The leading role is played by the excellent Nicola Walker (brilliant as a dead woman in last year’s River) as a police inspector, Cassie Stuart, investigating a 40-year-old death when a body is found buried in an old cellar. She’s supported by an impressive cast including Tom Courtenay, Trevor Eve, Gemma Jones and Cheri Lunghi.
The first episode threw a dizzying array of seemingly unrelated characters at us, but of course towards the end it became clear that all these characters were connected in some way to the dead man and no doubt some deep dark secrets will be revealed over the coming weeks.
One such character was an Anglican minister comfortably played by Bernard Hill – Rev. Robert Greaves is likeable, down to earth and charitable but having some low level domestic issues, though I’d better not get too enthusiastic about this positive portrayal of a clergymen until I find out what he was up to in the past!
Meanwhile, over on BBC One, Sunday nights, Wallander is heavier stuff. Based on an original Scandinavian noir, Kenneth Branagh again plays the Swedish detective in this latest season. The opening episode was just about tolerable, with Wallander transported to South Africa investigating a political crime in the wide open spaces. In fact it could have been any detective, but the last two episodes have seen a return to form in the more brooding and claustrophobic Swedish landscape, with Wallander’s family and health issues back in the frame. It seems modern cops have to have psychological or health issues!
Last Sunday night’s episode brought the short season to a close in a most intense manner. The crime story was well up to scratch but Wallander’s deteriorating health was, if anything, more central, and it was handled in a most humane way.
Empathy
One could even argue that it was pro-life in the broadest sense, with kindness, empathy, concern and family support the hallmark of an approach to serious illness. I won’t give away the ending but it was one of the most touching and satisfying I’ve seen for a long time.
Speaking of detectives with issues, I’m reminded of more innocent times – Ironside, the detective in a wheelchair, or Longstreet, the blind detective. Should characters like these be played by disabled actors? Should Native American characters be played by Native American actors? Should black characters be played by black actors? Did I hear someone shout ‘Othello’?
I’m sure people will have very definite answers to the latter questions, but the portrayal of disabled people on screen has become more of a hot issue in the last week courtesy of the apparently pro-euthanasia film Me Before You, currently in cinemas.
On last Friday’s Right Hook on Newstalk (with Shane Coleman filing in as presenter), disability campaigner Suzy Byrne was critical of the “very wrong messages” of the film and of the way disabled people are generally presented on screen – either it’s what she called “inspiration porn” (the heroic disabled person struggling to overcome the disability) or tragedy in the case of this film, when the message conveyed was “death as a solution to disability”.
Films may focus on disability but we rarely saw the disabled doing ordinary stuff while disabled (at this stage I thought of Ironside, detecting effectively while being wheelchair bound). Byrne thought there should be more disabled people playing these roles, and didn’t have much time for film makers’ pleas that they couldn’t find the right people.
Coleman seemed impressed by the arguments he quoted from disabled actress Liz Carr, one of the most trenchant critics of the film, to the effect that when non-disabled people talk of suicide it’s discouraged and preventive support is offered, but when it comes to the disabled and suicide the debate is over taken by terms like ‘choice’ and ‘autonomy’. I must say I rarely hear pro-suicide campaigners challenged on this paradox – the popularity of campaigns to combat suicide with tacit approval in the media towards those pushing assisted suicide (aka killing). That’s worrying but maybe now people will think twice about the contradiction.
Pick of the Week
At Your Service to the Rescue – Penny Dinners RTĖ One, Sunday, June 12, 8pm Expert hoteliers Francis and John Brennan are on a mission to help Penny Dinners soup kitchen in Cork.
FILM: A Walk to Remember BBC 1, Sunday, June 12, 12am (midnight) (2002) Popular teen melodrama notable for a positive but not preachy attitude to religious faith.
Living right with Dr Ray EWTN, Tuesday, June 14, 9.30pm Fr Larry Richards and Dr Ray expand on the Church’s teaching regarding same-sex attraction.