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A Touch of Frost

David Jason as Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost
  • Posted at 5:20pm
  • 23 October 2008
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 6 comments

We're all doomed. Nothing to do with the global financial meltdown, but with Kerry Katona. The gurning former Atomic Kitten, who appears to labour under the illusion that she's a much-loved public figure, is currently screeching her way through her latest TV ad campaign for a certain frozen food supermarket chain.

With her "friend", the shrieking Katona is seen lurching through the serried ranks of mega-freezers, both alighting gleefully on new products. And - this is the point where the world tilts off its axis - her friend picks up a box and announces, "Look, this is new: chicken tikka lasagne!" We might as well all abandon hope right now. Do you want to share a planet with chicken tikka lasagne? Think about it, that's a mixture of curry and pasta. Curry and pasta.

We might as well start whitewashing our windows and fashioning makeshift shelters out of dining-room furniture if such culinary abominations are to be routinely let loose on a troubled world. And please, I can't even bring myself to say anything about Johnny Rotten advertising a brand of butter. No, it's just too much. Is that the Four Horsemen I see cantering along the road?

And talking of things coming to an end . . . David Jason recently told RT that next year will mark his last as Detective Inspector Jack Frost. Having watched this week's episode of A Touch of Frost (Sunday ITV1), the demise of Frost won't come a moment too soon.

It's a wheezy old thing these days is A Touch of Frost, and it's not just Jason who is showing his age (the man is 68 after all). Its fossilised plots are dragged out to a lethargic two hours, with the elderly detective and his creaky sidekick Detective Sergeant George Toolan pottering about eating full English breakfasts as the bodies pile up.

Frost munches bacon sarnies at crime scenes (I think this is supposed to mark him out as An Ordinary Bloke) and has comedy run-ins with his buffoonish boss, barely troubled by the fact that, in Sunday's episode, three shrouded bodies have been discovered in a mass grave.

What's really astonishing is that A Touch of Frost has survived this long (it began in 1992), into an era of unforgiving gore-fests like Wire in the Blood, Silent Witness and anything by Lynda La Plante. I suppose it's got everything to do with a curious national devotion to David Jason and the fact that Frost is broadcast on Sunday nights.

And we all know TV's oddly 1950s view of Sunday nights, where it's still bath night, dad still polishes the shoes for school the next day, there's honey for tea and nothing disturbing on the telly.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times.

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Comments

  • Posted on 03 November 2008
  • at 10:57am
  • by Ali282

If you think as Peter does that Frost deals with real-life situations then think again. In a recent episode a diabetic woman was portrayed as being in danger because she could not obtain her insulin injections. She was then shown eating a calorific snack... Any diabetic will tell you that this would hasten her demise! How inaccurate can you get!? Also in my opinion the programme is not only well past its sell-by date but is covered in mould.

  • Posted on 31 October 2008
  • at 4:44pm
  • by Peter

Alison

I regularly read your column. Usually, I find it interesting and your opinions are very similar to mine. Please, keep up the good work.

However, on reading your comments about the demise of "A Touch of Frost" not coming a moment too soon had me a little troubled.

With all due respect, has it ever occurred to you that the reason "A Touch of Frost" is so popular is not due to a devotion to David Jason? I was a fan of "Del-boy". So, when I watched the very first episode of "A Touch of Frost" I considered it would be a flop. I was totally wrong.

In my opinion, the reason why the programme has been so successful is because it deals with real life situations. As for "fossilised plots", when did you last read your local newspaper, or even sometimes the Fleet St. media? They usually have the same old "fossilised" stories like burglary, mugging, car theft, stabbings and murder. "A Touch of Frost" just deals with things in a normal way - well, normal for Frost.

Also, David Jason, John Lyons and Bruce Alexander act their parts superbly and they are like real people we all know! I work with someone just like Mullet, but about half his age. Many of my co-workers are like George Toolan! Most of us work hard and relentlessly, get dropped in the brown smelly stuff by superiors (often our Mullet), have full English breakfasts - and the odd bacon sarnie!

Has it also ever occurred to you that there are MANY people in the real world who do not wish to see "unforgiving gore-fests" constantly? I gave up enjoying them when I saw "The Exorcist", an excellent but disturbing movie and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", an absolute turkey!

Finally, I do agree with your outlook that Sunday night TV is still 1950's. So, we still agree on some things!

Thank you for reading this.

Peter Fay

  • Posted on 30 October 2008
  • at 1:36pm
  • by bluebanana

Alison Graham is right about Frost, it has been going on a bit too long. And although TV does had a fifties view of sunday nights, I wouldn't want it any other way.

  • Posted on 30 October 2008
  • at 11:59am
  • by ChilliConkCarny

I have to agree with Alison. Frost is past its sell by date. Whenever I see it about to be broadcast, I reach for the Radio Times to see if something else is on. Much the same as when the music comes on for The One Show....

  • Posted on 26 October 2008
  • at 7:08pm
  • by WhistlingWind

What is Alison Graham for - that is, what purpose is she supposed to serve? I read her articles weekly with increasing irritation at her sneering and unquestioning (of herself that is)opinions. Who is she writing for? Does she suppose that she's speaking for all viewers? Or is her lip-curled technique yet another journalistic way of showing off?

  • Posted on 25 October 2008
  • at 5:57pm
  • by PyroClaire

I usually agree with Alison's observations but on Frost I think she has lost the plot.

I am no stranger to the true gore fest, or real forensics and police. While most cop shows now seem to rely on edgy shaky camera flachbacks and characters doing jobs they never would in real life to keep people watching, Frost has realistic plots with complex and interesting characters and moral quandaries, and a type of copper that really exists.

Rather than being boring, it is entertaning, comforting, and perhaps even inspirational for the viewer, rather than being frightening them beyond beleief as many shows try to do today.

As for being tv of the 1950's, all I can say is I wasn't around back then so I have no comparison, but as someone in their 20's I love Frost (as do many of my friends) and I will be sorry to see it end.

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