Waking the Dead: Magdalene 26 (season eight, episodes one and two)

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WARNING: This review contains a major spoiler and should not be read if you have not watched it and you have any intention to do so.

Rating 2½

Created by Barbara Machin

Written by Declan Croghan

Directed by Andy Hay

Starring Trevor Eve (Peter Boyd), Sue Johnston (Grace Foley), Tara Fitzgerald (Eve Lockhart), Wil Johnson (Spencer Jordan), Félicité du Jeu (Stella Goodman), Stacey Roca (Katrina Howard), Sharon Maughan (Elizabeth), Cian Barry (Michael O’Hare), Bosco Hogan (Father Quinn), Lynda Rooke (Sister Rooke), Adam Best (Young Father Quinn), Alki David (Coban), Tam Mutu (Zafer), Sam Vincenti (Olgac), Daniel Lapaine (Samuel Knight), Danial Pirrie (Tony Muller), Denise Gough (Kathleen), Lisa Hogg (Teenage Elizabeth) and Elizabeth Barrett (Young Elizabeth)


A woman is found wondering naked and bloody along a country road. She seems to be suffering from amnesia. DNA tests places her at the scene of an unsolved crime that took place in a Soho club in 1966. When a crashed and abandoned car is discovered close to where she was found, it is traced back to her home, where her husband has been brutally tortured and murdered.

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‘Magdalene 26’ is the opening story of the eighth season of the BBC police drama series. In keeping with previous seasons, it is told across two one-hour episodes broadcast on consecutive evenings. The series began with a pilot story broadcast at the beginning of September 2000. The first season began in June 2001.

The main cast from seasons six and seven all return here, but not for long. Stella Goodman (played by the French actress Félicité du Jeu), who had been first introduced into the series during season five in 2005, had been noticeably underused during season seven and the same thing seemed to happen again in this opening story of the eighth season. In fact, it was referenced that Stella had become something of a spare part, rather ignored by her boss, the perpetually angry Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd. It also seemed odd that another character, Katrina Howard, was introduced into the story, appearing to fill a space already occupied by Stella, although she was not actually a part of the team. All was revealed in the closing scene when we learned, somewhat unexpectedly, that Stella had died following what had earlier seemed to be a fairly innocuous gunshot wound to the leg. I like this character and feel they really didn’t make the most of her, in season seven especially. Whatever the reason for her departure, it is a shame to see her go.

The story itself drew on themes already familiar from previous episodes, including a less than positive depiction of Catholics nuns, something Declan Croghan, the writer here, had delved into in the season six opener ‘Wren Boys’. Although initially quite typical of the long established style of the series, somewhat far-fetched but diverting, the story does become increasingly ludicrous during the second episode and ends up being completely barmy – involving long lost twins, barbaric nuns, Soho brothels, Turkish gangsters, as well as commentary about Britain’s less than flattering role in Iraq and the unregulated widespread greed that led to the worldwide financial crash in 2007. However, the real joy of watching ‘Waking the Dead’ is the interaction between Boyd and the team’s psychological profiler Dr Grace Foley – and the performances of Trevor Eve and Sue Johnson in these two roles. That hasn’t changed.

The series has, I suspect, long since past its best days, but it’s good to see it back and I am looking forward to the remaining three stories in this latest season.

Review posted 14 September 2009



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Waking the Dead: Skin

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Directed by Edward Bennett

Written by Craig Bradley and Declan Croghan

Starring Trevor Eve, Sue Johnston, Wil Johnson, Félicité Du Jeu and Tara Fitzgerald : With Philip Whitchurch, Jo Woodcock, Johnny Palmiero, Kelly Hunter, Russell Boulter, Cyril Nri and George Rainsford


An anonymous tip-off leads the cold case team to a partially mummified body in a ventilation shaft on a dismal East London housing estate. Their forensic scientist Dr Eve Lockhart (Tara Fitzgerald) determines that the death occurred about seventeen years previously, probably following a prolonged period of sustained beating and torture. The body is identified as that of George Andrews (Johnny Palmiero), a skinhead member of an extremist gang of neo-Nazis, a group with connections to Martin Armstrong (Russell Boulter), a member of the Democratic Nationalist Party and now involved in a local election campaign.

When it transpires that George Andrews was really Sam Cohen, who was both gay and Jewish, and whose black boyfriend, who was suffering from Aids, had died in an unsolved arson attack for which Armstrong and his cronies were the only suspects, the team is faced with the task of unravelling a tangled web of lies, deceit and ingrained racially hatred.

Along the way we also have some new glimpses of Luke Boyd (George Rainsford), the long-time missing drug-addicted son of the cold case team leader Peter Boyd (Trevor Eve), a theme running through this seventh season. Aspects of each case investigated become a kind of metaphor for Boyd’s relationship with his son and his slowly evolving understanding of his own feelings and attitudes.

Peter Boyd is his usual short tempered, tactless and bull-headed self. Dr Grace Foley (Sue Johnston), the team’s criminal psychologist, takes more of a back seat in this story than is usually the case. There is very little attempt to explain what would motivate a person to become a member of an extremist group like the neo-Nazis – which is a pity, although it does not necessarily take away from the message contained in the story.

Spenser Jordan (Wil Johnson), who we know well from previous stories, is too argumentative, aggressive and arrogant to defend the democratic right of the neo-Nazis to hold and express their views, the very thing he does here in response to Boyd’s antagonistic attitude towards them. It doesn’t ring true.

The reasons behind the violent reaction of Stella Goodman (Félicité Du Jeu) towards one of the neo-Nazis is not explored further in this story, but when considered in relation to other similar incidents in early season seven episodes it does suggest we will discover something more substantial about this character before the season is finished. She has been somewhat sidelined so far, with Tara Fitzgerald’s character taking on a far greater role.

As ever, we do need to suspend our disbelief. Eve Lockhart, who seems to be a specialist in all fields, is able to make far too many exact forensic breakthroughs and far too quickly. As one example, a camcorder tape that has lain undiscovered just below the top surface of a grave for seventeen years would not provide anything remotely approaching the quality of picture and sound suggested here, irrespective of electronic jiggery-pokery.

I liked ‘Skin’ a lot, although I have undoubtedly been influenced because the neo-Nazis are presented to us in very clear-cut terms. The episode leaves no doubt what these people represent (including the “acceptable” political face of the White Power movement – here called the DNP, but very obviously representing the utterly repellent BNP).

It would be very difficult for me to be objective about this two-part story because I have very strong views about racism, neo-Nazis and fascist ideologies. I still have vivid memories of the early 1980s not long prior to the period in which the killing here is set, with misguided movements like “Oi” (enthusiastically championed by the likes of Gary Bushell) and the eventual race riots in places like Southall.

This is not the most action-packed story the series has offered us so far. Most of it takes place back at the cold case team’s headquarters, largely in various interview rooms and offices. There are relatively few characters here and not as many twists and turns as we might usually expect to find. There are few surprises to be had as the team uncover new facts and frankly it is rather surprising it takes them so long to stumble on the truth (so blatantly obvious is it).

The episode does give the impression that the writers used it as a soapbox to air their views on a specific subject and did so it a somewhat simplistic manner, even including a half-hearted ‘Romeo & Juliet’ subplot in the guise of Natalie Rose (Jo Woodcock), the teenage daughter of Jim Rose (Philip Whitchurch), the main neo-Nazi goon, and Selim Said (Sagar Radia), a teenage Muslim boy who is in the early stages of becoming more radicalised and has taken to defacing DNP election posters with aerosol paint spray.

The rather heavy-handed reference to the connection between racial hatred and religious intolerance, here expressed through the religious antipathy towards the Aids disease was not, truthfully, one of the show’s most subtle moments, and the message contained in these two hours is decidedly one sided. However, it is one I certainly have no issue with.

‘Waking the Dead’ is always interesting and most importantly the characters are exceptionally well written. It doesn’t hurt to have such a stellar group of actors. I doubt too many people would argue with my contention that Trevor Eve and Sue Johnston are amongst the very best, if not the best, actors working on British television at the moment.

Co-writer Declan Croghan began writing for the show in season five and wrote one of my favourite ‘Waking the Dead’ stories, ‘The Wren Boys’, which opened season six.


Screencaps taken from waking-the-dead-online



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Waking The Dead: Missing Persons

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Directed by Tim Fywell

Written by Declan Croghan

Starring Trevor Eve, Sue Johnston, Wil Johnson, Félicité Du Jeu and Tara Fitzgerald – With Beatriz Batarda, Justine Mitchell, Daniel Cerqueira, Angus Wright, Gemma Lawrence, Lucy Joyce and Marina Koem


The two-part ‘Missing Persons’ is the opening story of the seventh season of this successful BBC police procedural about a “cold case” unit – think a more gritty version of ‘CSI’ and ‘Cold Case’ with added oomph and less surface sheen.

The plots have become increasingly convoluted and, frankly, quite mad with each successive season and nothing has changed here, although there are no traces of the bizarre baroque embellishments that characterised season six.

Lore Carson (played by Beatriz Batarda) defends her daughter from a teenage purse-snatcher on a suburban railway station platform and then disappears from the scene. A sample of her DNA is found on the would-be mugger and this matches another sample found on an incinerated body discovered on an unsolved crime scene in the early 1990s. The cold case team, led by the ever-grumpy Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd (Trevor Eve), begin their investigation.

At first, the team suspect it has something to do with a prostitution ring and possibly a hard-core porn BDSM movie that went wrong – or even a snuff movie. However, it soon becomes apparent that operatives from several international terrorist organisations are somehow involved – including Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

At this point one might expect MI5, MI6 and other anti-terrorist units to take over, but this is the strange world of ‘Waking the Dead’ and Boyd blunders on, becoming increasingly angry and bad tempered the whole time.

As ever, most important are the characters and their relationship to one another. This episode concentrates primarily on Boyd, who discovers that his long-missing son has apparently been found and is being held for psychiatric evaluation. Psychological profiler Dr Grace Foley (the brilliant Sue Johnston), who acts as Boyd’s moral compass, knows there is something he is bottling up inside, but she holds back from pressing him too hard to find out what it is.

The forensic pathologist Eve Lockhart (Tara Fitzgerald) is struggling with her bid to give up smoking. Detective Inspector Spencer Jordan (Will Johnson) and Detective Constable Stella Goodman (Félicité Du Jeu) take a back seat in this story, although the strikingly beautiful Goodman does exhibit another sign of her decidedly unnerving steeliness when she convincingly threatens to take the face off the Algerian terrorist and pimp Brahim Haggiag (Daniel Cerqueira) with a piece of sandpaper.

I did wonder if there was an attempt to make a comment about world events at the moment, with the all-too predictably heavy-handed approach of America and Britain and the resulting renewed threat of terrorism. If there is a message, it isn't clear, other than the suggestion that fierce adherence to an unbending ideology can cloud ones thinking and people are capable of changing.

It doesn’t seem likely that new viewers will be enticed to check out the show at this stage, but ‘Missing Persons’ is a great start to the new season.



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Hughie Green, Most Sincerely

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Directed by Dan Percival

Written by Tony Basgallop, based on the book ‘Hughie and Paula’ written by Christopher Green and Carol Clark

Starring Trevor Eve, Mark Benton, Emma Stansfield, Kim Thomson, Julia Ford, Kate Williams and Danny Webb


I am old enough to remember the real Hughie Green (pictured on the right) from our television screens and even as a child with no real frame of reference I thought he was odious.

This one-off 90-minute drama is based on the life of Hughie Green, the host of two hugely popular British television shows in the 1960s and 1970s – ‘Double Your Money’ and ‘Opportunity Knocks’. It is part of a series of dramas that began with the award winning ‘Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!’ in 2006 and has also included dramatisations of the lives of Harry H Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell (‘The Curse of Steptoe’), Tony Hancock (‘Hancock and Joan’) and the great Frankie Howerd (‘Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me’).

Hughie Green was not, as is often supposed, born in Canada. He was born in London and was a regular performer on BBC radio in his teens. However, after extensively touring Canada with his show ‘Hughie Green and his Gang’ he became a Canadian citizen. In the mid 1930s he also worked in Hollywood. It was with his return to show business after serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II that he became a household name. ‘Double Your Money’ was broadcast between 1955 and 1968. ‘Opportunity Knocks’ was first broadcast on radio in 1949, but is most celebrated for the television version that ran between 1961 and 1978.

‘Hughie Green, Most Sincerely’ covers this period of Green’s life through to his death from lung cancer in 1997. In particular, it concentrates on his fractious relationship with Jess Yates and the shock revelation, two days after his death, that he was the biological father of Paula Yates, the daughter of Jess Yates.

The cast is excellent. Trevor Eve plays Hughie Green and although he doesn’t quite look the part, he just about nails the odd mid-Atlantic accent, even if occasionally he seems to slip into an impersonation of James Stewart. The always-reliable Mark Benton plays Jess Yates.

Hughie Green was by all accounts an extremely unpleasant person, a whiskey swilling compulsive womaniser who displayed no affection for his two children. Later in his life he was addicted to amphetamines. However, it is implied here that he also had an instinctive understanding of his audience and a genuine degree of respect for the contestants who appeared on his shows. One scene also implies that he challenged the institutionalised racism that existed in British television in the 1970s. Jess Yates, on the other hand, is portrayed as an detestable individual of little or no redeeming qualities.

Yates was known as ‘The Bishop’. He created the popular religious show ‘Stars on Sunday’, which ran from 1969 to 1979. He also presented the show until 1974, when a sexual scandal ended his career. It is now accepted that it was Green who leaked the story to News Of The World journalist Noel Botham (played here by Danny Webb) as retribution after Yates had become a producer on ‘Opportunity Knocks’, brought in to bump up the ratings. It was also Botham who revealed that Hughie Green was the biological father of Paula Yates. This revelation came as a shock to all concerned, but was subsequently proved to be true by a DNA test. All of this occurred less than one month after the death of Michael Hutchence, who was the partner of Paula Yates and the father of her fourth child.

To some degree, ‘Hughie Green, Most Sincerely’ chooses the wrong path by deciding to concentrate on Green’s supposed distant devotion to his secret daughter. He did not, as far as is known, meet her during his lifetime and the knowledge that he was her father was a closely guarded secret until after his death. There was plenty of other material to draw from his decidedly sleazy life without resorting to this tissue-thin speculation – for example, the infamous “Stand Up And Be Counted” song and speech at the end of an episode of ‘Opportunity Knocks’ in December 1976 that somehow lit the spark that resulted in the election of Margaret Thatcher as the British Prime Minister some two and a half years later.

It is also true that the material is stretched very thin over ninety minutes. However, Trevor Eve’s central performance is superb and that alone makes it all worthwhile - and I mean that most sinecerely!


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Waking the Dead

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Created by Barbara Machin

Starring Trevor Eve, Sue Johnston, Wil Johnson, Claire Goose (2000-2004), Holly Aird (2000-2004), Esther Hall (2005), Félicité du Jeu (2005-present), Tara Fitzgerald (2007)


The BBC crime drama series ‘Waking the Dead’ follows the investigations of an autonomous “cold case” unit, working under the umbrella of Scotland Yard. The original pilot episode was broadcast over two nights in September 2000 and there have been six seasons of the show since then, each one comprising four or six two-part stories.

The show shares some obvious similarities with the American procedural series ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigations’, which premiered on the CBS network in October 2000, and ‘Cold Case’, which premiered on CBS in September 2003, although it is far less glossy than the former and doesn’t promote the moral certainty of the latter.

Like most crime dramas, it is somewhat implausible, although, unlike many of its American equivalents, it does at least suggest that some actual mundane police work takes place. The stories told are often graphic – for example ‘In Sight of the Lord’ from season four, in which old soldiers are killed by having their heads nailed to the floor.

Its real strength is the characters. The team is led by Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd (superbly played by Trevor Eve), who is authoritarian and often extremely bad tempered, which brings him into conflict with the rest of the team and the wider Police establishment. Dr Grace Foley (the excellent Sue Johnston) is the team’s psychological profiler. The complex working relationship of these two characters is brilliantly portrayed and Eve and Johnston.

Initially, the team was completed by two more detectives, Spencer ‘Spence’ Jordan (Wil Johnson) and Amelia ‘Mel’ Silver (Claire Goose), and a forensic pathologist and scientist, Frankie Wharton (Holly Aird). The casting in each case was inspired. The characters were very believable and worked extremely well together. The perpetually borderline grumpy Frankie Wharton, for example, an employee of the Home Office rather than the Police Authority, was always far less prone to provocation by Peter Boyd than were Mel Silver and Spence Jordan, his direct subordinates.

There was never any attempt to “glam up” the characters (for example Claire Goose, excellent in the role of Mel Silver), something that is often seen in American shows – the wonderful ‘Cagney & Lacey’ being a very notable exception.

Goose and Aird left in 2004 after four seasons and were replaced by Esther Hall and the French actress Félicité du Jeu (very likeable in the role of Detective Sergeant Stella Goodman). Hall was replaced by Tara Fitzgerald in season six.

That sixth season has a somewhat more baroque and fanciful feel to it than had previously been the case. This is possibly due to the absence of earlier key writers like John Milne, Stephen Davis, Simon Mirren and Ed Whitmore, but it does include one of the shows strongest and most memorable stories, ‘Wren Boys’, with Félicité du Jeu in particularly good form and a guest appearance by the tremendous Carey Mulligan as an other-worldly young novice nun who displays signs of stigmata.


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