Mon 12 Jan 2015
Archived TV Review: THE INSPECTOR LYNLEY MYSTERIES: Playing for the Ashes (2003).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[8] Comments
“PLAYING FOR THE ASHES.” An episode of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. BBC television: Season Two, Episode One, 10 March 2003. Shown on PBS television in the US. Nathaniel Parker, Sharon Small, Lesley Vickerage, with Clare Swinburne, Phylllis Logan, Joe Duttine, Neve McIntosh, Curtis Flowers. Based on the novel by Elizabeth George. Director: Richard Spence.
This is the first of the second season as shown in England in March 2003. It’s not quite clear to me yet, but I believe that each season has consisted of a month’s worth of four adaptations of Elizabeth George’s novels, following a one-shot pilot show which appeared in 2001. [Season Six, 2007, the final season, had only two episodes.]
In the US they’ve been shown as part of the PBS Mystery! series, and this sample of size one was enough to show me that they’re hands-down better than 99% of the mystery and detective fare that US networks provide.
Not that I have ever read any of the books they’re based on. They’re huge, and sometimes I intimidate easily. Truth be told, though, I tried one and (a rarity for me) I stopped after two or three chapters, thinking the book to be only one of those gloomy class-based rants where one’s socio-economic status is the primary factor in one’s standing with the rest of the populace.
Well, it could be that I was right, but if I’m wrong, you can tell me. All I’ll do is to promise that I’ll go back and read another as soon as I can, either way. I have the feeling, though, since the paperback version of this particular book consists of over 700 pages of small print, and the TV movie is only 90 minutes long – well, they couldn’t have gotten it all in, could they? So they streamlined the story (I’m assuming) and concentrated mostly on the mystery – the mysterious death by fire of a soccer star who’d been having problems recently, domestic and otherwise.
There are class differences between Lynley (Nathaniel Parker) and his partner in investigation, Sgt. Barbara Havers (Sharon Small), to be sure, emphasized by the fact that I had to concentrate quite a bit to follow the [lower class] accent of the chirpy Havers. The soccer star was black, his wife white (Swinburne) and their son Jimmy (Flowers) in this hugely dysfunctional family is an emotional mess, and he is the one who confesses to the murder. (Lynley doesn’t believe him.)
The soccer star’s benefactor, the wealthy Miriam Whitelaw (Logan) has an estranged daughter Olivia who is even more of a mess, doing tricks on the street, doing drugs, and doing things for the pro-animal activists led by Chris Farraday (Duttine), who has taken Olivia in off the streets for his own reasons.
So, OK, there’s still enough socio-economic differences between all of these people to make a pretty good book, even without the mystery, but the detective work is solid and well above average in competency, and that’s what will have me coming back for more. The rest is a bonus, and altogether it makes for an excellent hour-and-a-half’s worth of entertainment.
Definitely a highlight: Neve McIntosh’s performance as the mostly distraught and definitely disturbed daughter. Somewhat puzzling: Lynley’s attraction to case profiler Helen Clyde (Lesley Vickerage). There’s no chemistry between them at all, and she makes her disagreements with him on the investigation seem as much personal as they are professional.
[UPDATE] 01-12-15. Note that two additions to the original text, which appeared in one the paper editions of Mystery*File, which issue not known at this time, appear in brackets.
January 12th, 2015 at 9:41 pm
There are several things I wish I could say, and one of them is that I wish I remembered this episode more than I do. It comes back to me only in the vaguest of memories. And yet I see that I gave it nine stars out of ten on IMDb. You’d think that with a rating that high, I’d remember more than I do, but even if I don’t, I’ll stand by what I said at the time.
I also wish that I’d trying tackling one of Elizabeth George’s books in the meantime, but alas, they seem to have gotten even longer as the years have gone by. I also wish I’d watched another of the TV episodes, but that’s a wish that may still come true.
I also note that I said in the review that I seldom stop reading a book once started, no matter what. This is no longer true. Sometimes it take only three pages before it’s on to the next one.
January 12th, 2015 at 10:09 pm
Twice, I tried to sit through an Inspector Lyndley case — and twice I failed to complete my assignment. The sexless social structure crap was all there, but not a problem, that came from interminable and boring low-keyed correctness.
January 12th, 2015 at 10:54 pm
Barry
If you felt that way about the TV version, then you ought to try reading one of the books. I know the books have their fans, but given what I said about them 10 years ago, I have a feeling that I wouldn’t be likely to change my mind now.
But I did like the one episode of the TV show I watched, so who knows?
January 12th, 2015 at 11:06 pm
Oh, Steve, this is something a grown man needs to wok out between himself and his maker. In this case, not a religious figure, but an acute observer of stories — fun stories. Upper, or working class characters, all seem to be playing as if they are in all library and have been hushed by the person in charge. In fact, they do not need a person to hush them, they have been hushed, or neutered, by life. And while I am not going to go further with this, have just run the final five episode in series thirteen of Poirot. Almost nothing made sense but, surely I will watch them all soon again.
January 12th, 2015 at 11:40 pm
The ironic thing about all this business about British class structure is that like Martha Grimes Elizabeth George is an American though I think she actually lived there. But then John Dickson Carr was American too so nothing new there.
The episodes I watched were good, and I did like the difficult dynamic between Lynley and Havers and the actors had a good rapport. Given the length of the novels they seemed faithful.
I recall one or two fairly well, and keep meaning to watch others on NETFLIX. Over the years Havers has moved more to the center of things in the books.
The ones I watched were well acted and written, with complex problems well worked out, in fact I preferred them on screen to the admittedly over long books they are adapted from.
One politically incorrect and often funny aspect of the series is how much more class conscious lower class Haver’s is than Lynley — a fairly accurate observation from my time in England to some extent. His charm keeps unsettling the chip on her shoulder, and his keen intelligence keeps undermining her prejudice while despite that he admires her quite a bit.
It’s a bit of an Odd Couple dynamic that Parker and Small handle quite well.
But I’d much rather watch POIROT over all like Barry.
January 13th, 2015 at 12:03 am
Steve,
Small typo there, it’s Lynley not Lyndley. You have it right in the body of the piece, but not the title.
January 13th, 2015 at 12:24 am
Don’t know where that D came from, but maybe I deserve it. It’s fixed now, of course. Thanks!
January 13th, 2015 at 11:53 am
Thanks David,
I thought I had it wrong and picked up the D as well. But, it looks elegant that way. So…I’ll keep it.