A post from February recording the BBC's decision not to recommission this series attracted quite a few comments. A couple more in the last few days draw my attention to it again. Zen has been aired in north America by PBS over the summer (with the final episode due on 31 July) and viewers there have found this site and left comments. Yesterday, Maclean's magazine in Canada reported on it in an article headed 'Intelligent viewers have spoken' - the title says it all.
Thanks all for the comments. Further comments can be left by clicking here.
Meanwhile, PBS has some new interviews (with Rufus Sewell and Ed Stoppard) to accompany the series, as well as further videos which you can find here. Sample below.
At the opposite end of the spectrum on TV at the moment, Case Histories is proving a delight. Humour comes in unexpected places, sometimes unintended I suspect. In episode 1 I burst into fits of giggles when the sisters buried their dog. This was a funeral so unlike the one they held for their late father (but given the story, it can be understood). So much emotion.
Having enjoyed Collision very much, I was pleased that the twitterati reminded me that Injustice was coming up so I didn’t miss it. But I did miss some of it. Staying away last week meant that Case Histories took precedence on Monday evening, so I joined on episode two. It felt like I had missed nothing. What on earth could have gone on in episode one? A whole load of backstory? Could an episode packed with backstory prove interesting?
We must be hitting the time when things of the 60s and 70s provide fond memories for some. Earlier this year Zen had a planned and distinctive 70s feel to it; now we have the opening credits for Scott and Bailey looking like it was a 70s programme. And perhaps with Detective Constables Rachel Bailey and Janet Scott we have a British Cagney and Lacey for this millennium?
Keenly mixing domestic lives with the daily grind of life as a copper, the opening hook is not so much the apparent suicide that turns into a murder investigation as the dirty ditching boyfriend who stuns Bailey at dinner when she was expecting a marriage proposal. It had been two years invested in the relationship and DC or not, Bailey reacts like any other human female would, but has a few tools to hand that others don’t, even if the use of them could lead to a police disciplinary.
Finally, we now know that Case Histories, based on the Kate Atkinson novels, airs on Sunday 5 June at 9pm, the first of six episodes with the second following on Monday at the same time. Jason Isaacs takes on the lead role of Jackson Brodie.
BBC site here for further info. And from the Radio Times:
Troubled private investigator Jackson Brodie visits a regular client to help look for her lost cat - but the seemingly innocuous task takes a peculiar turn when her neighbours plead with him to find their sister, who went missing 30 years previously. However, his priorities become complicated when an old acquaintance arrives at his office. Crime drama, based on the novels by Kate Atkinson, starring Jason Isaacs and Amanda Abbington, with Sylvia Syms, Natasha Little, Fenella Woolgar and Phil Davis.
So, with a double bill and a plot twist straight out of Tom and Jerry, this time around the apprentices will not compete to be hired but to gain an investment of £250k from Lord Sacch(arine) for their own business. But some things don’t change and again we are presented with an ardent and earnest crew who don’t see the world as we normal people do. It’s time, yet again, to forget the benefits of family, friends, social life and the rest of things ‘humanity’, for as someone said, it’s all about winning in business and that’s all that matters. (But it’s good to sneak in a slot with a decent hair stylist & make-up artist, plus a pedicure and manicure, and some shopping for fab clothes when you can. Learning how to pull a small piece of luggage with deportment and ease also helps.) And no one’s the potential ‘apprentice’ now, all are potential ‘partners’. Not that you’d see that from some of the behaviour.
With so many people in the early episodes, I won’t go into detail. Let’s just look at some of the stars/highlights.
For some reason, the two-part The Field of Blood only aired on BBC Scotland earlier this week. Luckily it is available on iplayer here because, as crime dramas go, this one hits the 'not to be missed' slot. With a wonderful main performance from Jayd Johnson as ambitious newspaper copy 'boy' Paddy Meehan and with an esteemed supporting cast, this drama brilliantly drums up the early 1980s. Let's hope it does get a broader airing, but in the mean time don't miss it and catch it on iplayer.
Are you watching Vera on ITV and would like to know her better? Those lovely people at one of the best UK publishing houses, Pan Macmillan, have offered up a full signed set of Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope series.
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