I WONDER how detective pairings come about in real-life? I don’t imagine human resources engage in an elaborate matching service. Officers just have to take who they get.
Television is different. On television, it is practically the law that opposites should attract. It has been the same since the original and best match, that of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Sherlock was a flash of lightning, Watson was a stick in the mud; Sherlock was brilliant but mercurial; Dr Watson was a steady as he goes type.
To put it another way, the Donny and Marie Osmond way, it is best if one detective is a little bit country and the other is a little bit rock and roll. If nothing else it helps the viewer distinguish between them and generates friction, adding to the drama.
McDonald and Dodds (STV, Sunday, 8pm) is a perfect case in point. DCI Lauren McDonald (Tala Gouveia) is a young, hot-shot go-getter who has moved from London to Bath in the hope of faster career progression. She’s smart, tough, and in a heck of a hurry, tearing up the fast lane.
Pootling away in the slow lane is DS Dodds (Jason Watkins). Taking his cue from his name, middle-aged, anorak-wearing Dodds seems a doddery sort. He footers endlessly with his specs, and his rolling West Country accent makes him sound like a hick from the sticks. Underneath all that, however, is a sharp as a scalpel operator who gets results.
This opposites attract pairing proved popular enough with viewers for a second season to be commissioned. Besides the winning double act of Gouveia and Watkins, the Bath setting is handsome, the humour is nicely sly, and a famous face usually turns up for the ride.
Last time it was Robert Lindsay playing an obnoxious millionaire playing his heirs off each other, Succession-style. The new series of three, two-hour stories boasts Martin Kemp, Patsy Kensit, Cathy Tyson and Rupert Graves as pals with secrets in their pasts, and Rob Brydon turns up as an air accident investigator after a balloon trip goes wrong.
Warm, undemanding, with just the right amount of froth, stepping into McDonald and Dodds is like slipping into a Sunday evening bath.
Peter Sutcliffe’s horrific crimes did not want for coverage in their day, and contemporary documentary makers seem just as drawn to the subject. After BBC Four’s The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story, and Netflix’s The Ripper, comes The Yorkshire Ripper's New Victims (Channel 5, Thursday, 9pm).
The 90-minute film opens with news reports of Sutcliffe’s death last November. After a reign of terror lasting several years, he was convicted of 13 murders and seven attempted murders. It was always suspected he had attacked more. One group of people who knew this was definitely the case were his actual victims, some of whom tell their stories here.
A few of the faces are familiar from other documentaries, but their stories never fail to chill. Each of these “forgotten victims” recounts the night they crossed paths with Sutcliffe, taking the cameras to the spot where the hammer attacks occurred.
In every case, the victims reported the crimes in detail to the police. They helped to create artist impressions of the psychopath that were to prove uncannily accurate. When Sutcliffe began what the films call his “official murders”, his forgotten victims went to the police again and again, urging them to see the connection. If the police had listened, say these victims, many lives could have been saved.
It is hard to argue with that, and difficult not to become angry all over again at the sheer incompetence of the police investigation, detailed here by reporters, retired coppers, experts, and of course the victims who lived to tell the tale. All those leads ignored.
By the by, there is also an excellent episode of The Reunion radio show that brings together people involved in the case at the time. Sue MacGregor is the host.
It is coming up for a year since the word lockdown entered the language and every home became an open prison. We were all banged up – still are – but at least there was plenty to watch, read, and listen to. If you ran out of ideas, you need only Facetime a friend, or watch Shelf Isolation (BBC Scotland, Sunday, 10.30pm).
Back for a second series, the no fuss format sees presenter Damian Barr ask writers and other celebrities to recommend their favourite books, box sets, movies and music.
The first of six programmes features Douglas Stuart, author of the Booker Prize winning Shuggie Bain, speaking from his home in New York. Among his inspirations are some Scottish music hits from the 70s and 80s. Still to come: Lorraine Kelly, fellow TV presenter Iain Stirling, Ian Rankin, comedian Fern Brady and actor Alex Norton.
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