Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, Dean Andrews, Christina Cole, Nadine Marshall, Sarah Crowden, Jonathan Forbes, Thaila Zucchi.
When a dying man’s house gets burgled, it sets off a chain of events that can only, and inevitably, lead to murder. It is a murder investigation that for the four members of U.C.O.S. has a giant riddle attached to it, just who exactly would want this solved when nobody is forthcoming about the victim.
The Russian Cousin at least brought a study of a subject much missed by television as a way to bring about a decent murder story to the audiences who themselves take much delight in examining the finer points of the why’s and who’s of such British life. It sometimes boggles the mind that people would kill for something that was nothing more than a printing mistake, a piece of history in the making and yet they do and as this particular episode was at great pains to show, there are those who covet such things without even knowing their full potential and what wrath they could bring.
New Tricks has always been seen as perhaps the opposite of such programmes as Midsomer Murders which prides itself in finding ever inventive ways to have the art of murder being shown. For New Tricks it is the consequence and the reason which is its primary concern and whilst both are entertaining in arguably some wonderful macabre way, it is to the sheer honesty that surrounds the New Tricks writers that makes it at times a more adept show, it never really matters how and who for a television detective programme, it is the why that is most intriguing.
The only issue that seems to have crept in to the series after a tremendous opening two-part story and the initial excitement of a new character joining the team, is the fairly staid approach that has snuck in almost unawares and the programme has really found itself wanting in the loss of its final original character, played by Dennis Waterman, as the final link to policing in London in the 1970s and 80s has slowly been replaced by a more thoughtful and analytical approach. Nowhere has this seemed more relevant than in the admirable Tamzin Outhwaite as D.C.I. Sasha Miller not really getting the story lines she deserves, a story in which to really get her teeth and her charm into.
Philately may not be seen as a natural course to murder but people will certainly kill for almost anything that comes with a price tag attached, stamp collecting has perhaps never been more dangerous.
Ian D. Hall