Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Nicola Walker, Lesley Manville, Eddie Marsan, Adeel Akhtar, Owen Teale, Georgina Rich, Michael Maloney, Turlough Convery, Sorcha Cusack, Jim Norton, Steve Nicolson, Josef Altin, Peter Bankole, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Lydia Leonard, Franz Drameh, Shannon Tarbet, Steve Edwin, Souleiman Bock, Andrew Byron, Andrew Byron, Ali Craig.
The fine line between genius and insanity is never truly explored on television unless it is in the form of a great detective and for those there are too few to whom the reason for their own peculiarities are ever given credence or perhaps respect.
To name Sherlock Holmes’ own insanity, his habitual drug abuse is perhaps the biggest Detective in literary history to whom scholars and armchair detectives can look to further their cause but John River, the Swedish Detective based in London could arguably be seen as a person to rival the muse of Arthur Conan Doyle; if not in stature but certainly in his ability to be misunderstood by colleagues and be scorned at by the general public.
Having witnessed his colleague die, played by the consummate Nicola Walker, River, Stellan Skarsgård, finds his troubled soul, beset by images of ghosts, lost spirits, even further torn apart as he seeks those responsible and the frightening realisation that he didn’t truly know his one true friend at all.
The biggest curve ball thrown into the delicate mix that stands between the shows psyche was the appearance of the Victorian murderer Thomas Neil Cream, The Lambeth Poisoner. This deeply unsettling addition worked well to explain the way that all policemen, all detectives, professional and arm chair ones, carry old murders in their heads especially when the cause of their minds has never been truly explored.
What was refreshing, aside from the ever superb acting by Eddie Marsan in the role, was that the writers went down the route of not being clichéd to set Jack The Ripper into the story and instead put the just as deeply steeped in blood but articulate Thomas Cream in as John River’s antagonist. The relationship between the two men could have descended to the level of farce but instead it came across as a near perfect exchange of views between detective and criminal to whom the matters of the brain and the subsequent delusions were of the highest importance.
With tremendous support in the shape of Lesley Manville, Nicola Walker, Eddie Marsan, Owen Teale, Jim Norton and Adeel Akhtar, Stellan Skarsgård’s appearance on British television in a lead role was always going to hit the heights, a man who makes acting seem so natural cannot fail to be enjoyed and respected by television viewers.
The door is open for a second series, there are still questions that deserve answers and to have the likes of Stellan Skarsgård appear in such a dynamic role on British television is be applauded and one that should be repeated as quickly as possible.
River is as good a television series as is likely to be seen this year, a true gem waiting to be unravelled.
Ian D. Hall