Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, David Haig, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Geraldine Somerville, Ramon Tikaram, Denise Gough.
Not many police dramas have the guts to show what can happen to a murder suspect when the near relentless pressure of questioning becomes too much to bear, especially when that suspect has been on an emotional rollercoaster themselves having lost a parent to the person they are accused of murdering, then again and true to good form, not every programme is as acutely aware of the ramifications of such lines of enquiry as New Tricks.
The penultimate episode of the long running B.B.C drama, Life Expectancy, saw the team facing several choices and the implications of those selective viewpoints as they investigated the murder of a man to whom all thought was nothing short of the most compassionate man they had met.
Aside from the special quirks that each member of the team brings to the fore, this was an episode that hung on the process of police due diligence and how the law can be interpreted when under pressure. It was a revealing aspect that resonated and fought with passionate writing and one that was expressed by Larry Lamb’s and Denise Gough’s characters.
The addition of Geraldine Somerville to the production added a confrontational aspect that hadn’t been seen in the programme before. The spiky feminine display of cold emotion and calculating, spider-like drive between Ms. Somerville and that of the good natured but professional D.C.I. Sasha Miller, played with absolute depth by Tamzin Outhwaite was one that set the hairs on the back of the neck on edge and the feeling that all will not end well as the long running series comes to a final bitter close.
Whilst the subject matter revolving around the episode may be one of alien thought to many viewers it gives it the strength to suggest that justice, like death, is eternal and no matter how well you plan a murder, eventually the law will catch up with you, Life Expectancy like the shadow of the sentence passed down can seem like forever.
Ian D. Hall