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Messiah

Marc Warren as Joseph Walker
  • Posted at 4:05pm
  • 17 January 2008
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 2 comments

Sunday night on BBC1 throws up one of those divinely barmy conjunctions of television programmes. At 8:00pm we have Lark Rise to Candleford, a dainty soap opera based on Flora Thompson's novels that uses the 19th-century postal service as a metaphor for social division. It's well-mannered and nicely dressed, everyone knows their place and the heroine is the prim postmistress (played by Julia Sawalha). It's Cranford-lite, but fills the gap for anyone who yearns for more bonnets in their lives.

Then comes the 9:00pm watershed, when the gates are opened and a ravening beast is unleashed - Messiah. My nightmares are still troubled by the last story, where one victim of an ingenious serial killer with a religious fixation was forced to eat his own faeces before he was murdered. They'd never get away with that in Lark Rise to Candleford, you mark my words.

This new story (which concludes on Monday) isn't quite the gore-fest of previous efforts, though it's still pretty splashy. So if more delicate members of your family are still dunking custard creams into their cocoa as the Lark Rise end credits roll, and they look set for an evening on the sofa, I suggest you throw a blanket over their heads and lead them from the room pretty quickly.

Messiah is a strange, tormented thing - broody and dark, and it takes itself intensely seriously. Marc Warren replaces Ken Stott as the troubled lead cop with a mysterious past (where have you heard that before?). As Joseph Walker, he's a similarly dour loner. Unfortunately for Walker, he's saddled with a halfwitted pair of sidekicks.

The male detective is a buffoon and the female is an idiot. She has an affair with her boss who's subsequently run over in front of her and she doesn't tell a soul; she lets a woman die through complete carelessness, and she sleeps with a suspect. The actual murders are icky and messy and the solution probably won't surprise connoisseurs of the crime drama genre.

If all of this is just too debauched for your tastes, then you'll find a comfortable berth in Kingdom, ITV1's painful Stephen Fry vehicle. It's dire, with a barely there script which consequently leaves the poor actors looking as if they are acting underwater.

The same could be said of The Palace (Mondays, 9:00pm, ITV1), a drama about a fictional monarchy, which is just a great big chunk of cheese. It's not funny, so it can't be a satire. So what, then, is it?

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times.

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Comments

  • Posted on 20 January 2008
  • at 4:05pm
  • by karenburge

Me too, I like Marc Warren. To be fair, Alison hsn't said it is rubbish though I am a bit dismayed to hear the female character is a twit. Let's see.

  • Posted on 19 January 2008
  • at 2:18am
  • by Bela

If, as you say, Messiah is rubbish, then it is very sad because Marc Warren is a wonderful actor. I've been waiting for him to get a meaty lead role since his amazing performance as Monks in Alan Bleasdale's adaptation of Oliver Twist, all those years ago. He has been underused until now (what was he doing in the recent Ballet Shoes?).

I will give Messiah a try on Sunday, anyway. *sigh*

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