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Kiss of Death

The cast of Kiss of Death
  • Posted at 3:26pm
  • 22 May 2008
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 1 comment

Think of Bank Holiday Mondays and what comes to mind? Rotten weather (of course), visits to DIY superstores, buying sofas, pottering in the garden, maggoty dismembered corpses…er, let's back up, shall we. Yes, I realise the latter probably isn't up there with putting your slippered feet up as you watch The Sound of Music (2:50pm, BBC1) for the 10,000th time in your life, but maybe a savage serial killer drama will hit the spot after a long day doing nothing in particular? If so, then prepare to unwrap that bar of chocolate you've been keeping at the back of the cupboard (go on, you know it's there), put on your most comfy dressing gown and settle down to an evening of gore and torture with Kiss of Death on BBC1 (9:00pm).

It's written by Barbara Machin, who invented Waking the Dead, and it's pretty icky. I also found its wibbly-wobbly camera work, coupled with in-your-face-close-ups, slightly sickmaking, like being on a particularly bumpy cross-Channel ferry.

Of course, it's very slickly done, with lots of clever editing and a fast pace, but boy is it gory and unpleasant. There's a serial killer on the loose - of course - and we know who he is fairly quickly, so there's no whodunnit aspect to Kiss of Death. The tension comes from the way the killer (played by the splendid, terrifying Brian McCardie) taunts the police and a particular member of the investigation team. The action is seen from the points of view of various members of the team, and the killer and his victims, which makes things repetitive.

There are lots of nasty bits, including parts of a hacked-up body littering a foreshore and a maggot-ridden head in a box. Nice, eh? And there are some uncomfortable scenes featuring a woman victim being tormented by her captor.

If you need a little light relief later in the week, there's always Filth: the Mary Whitehouse Story (Wednesday 28 May, 9:00pm, BBC2). Not that it's a comedy, though it has some funny moments. But Amanda Coe's script is so multi-layered, it turns out to be much more than an easy dig at an even easier target. Julie Walters is note-perfect as the infamous clean-up television campaigner, wearing a succession of ludicrous hats.

The story centres on Whitehouse's clashes with the then head of the BBC, Hugh Carleton Greene (though he always refused to meet her), during the permissive 1960s. She complained about an awful lot - Doctor Who and even Pinky & Perky. The final straw came when she objected to the word "knickers" in a broadcast of The Beatles' I am the Walrus.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times - read her column in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale now.

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  • Posted on 14 June 2008
  • at 12:30am
  • by Jan
How did you know I had a bar of chocolate in the back of the cupboard?

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