Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: David Morrissey, Mandeep Dhillion, Christian Camargo, Roon Cook, Robert Firth, Lara Pulver, Maria Schrader, Paprika Steen, Danny Webb, Lee Bagley, Cokey Falkow, Michael Moshonov, Amélie Chantrey, Barry Aird, Morfydd Clark, Corey Johnson, Kasia koleczek.

There was once a view point that there were books that just could not be filmed, regardless of cost, the story-line was just too complex or even off the scale in its imagination to hold a television or film audience’s attention, at least not without confusing them and losing interest. View points are subjective, The Lord of the Rings would have been considered impossible, Terry Pratchet’s work would have been consigned to this particular undead realm, and books such Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and ideas such as Alien would have long been left on the shelf.

However just because a book can be taken to the big screen or the Friday night prime time slot, doesn’t mean it won’t suffer under the weight of expectation, that it will be blur and become divisive amongst even its own strident followers and fans. It is a fate that looks down with kindly eyes but a hard heart on the adaptation of China Miéville’s The City & The City, a semi dystopian look at how two worlds, two cities can exist in the same space and yet be vastly different, a world in which the Noir genre can be brutally poised and exploited to its maximum effect and yet still be sadly lacking even in its own comfortable skin.

It might only be seen as a small detail, an issue within the filming of the story, but it must be noted that for a television series that was filmed partly in the city of Liverpool, where the action took in iconic building such as St. George’s Hall or the depths of The Williamson Tunnels, there were hardly any faces from the Liverpool acting fraternity to be spotted, not as main characters, nor as back ground faces; without the incredible talent of David Morrissey, the city, despite being the back drop, would have had little representation in such a popular book being adapted.

There is a lot to enjoy in The City & The City, especially in David Morrissey’s performance as the beleaguered and struggling detective but in the end the series doesn’t quite hit the spot on the imagination, it seems laboured at times, even false, a passion misplaced, the beauty is there, the style intriguing but the final result of a careworn battering on the sense of belief leaves the watcher and armchair witness to the mechanics of the story, puzzled and under pressure to take pleasure in.

A good series but nothing more than that, neither illuminating or down at heel and not matching the genius of the book.

Ian D. Hall