Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Tala Gouveia, Jason Watkins, Claire Skinner, Jack Riddiford, Lily Sacofsky, Saira Choudhry, Rosie Day, Nitin Ganatra, Nicholas Goh, Siobhan Hewlett, Sarah Parish, Rhashan Stone, Andrew Greenough, Mark Meadows, Emily Joyce, Richard Dixon, Leah Balmforth, Flora London, Romani Wright, Bex Hainsworth.
It’s not what you know, it’s who you can reach…the modern mantra of the social influencer is such that it pervades into our everyday lives, and it divides opinion as easily as it spreads its word and sales pitch on the internet.
The rights and wrongs of the social influencer are not up for debate, whether you think it is an insidious ploy of the 21st century entrepreneur, the sense of doom you have as you open another message and see the person in question selling their soul for a product given to them in exchange for their radiant smile and time, or if you think that it is harmless, a modern technique that has placed the kudos of being a star on those with the charm and presence of those who can sell easily and with little effort; that is not the debate…what is how they can seem to get away with murder.
The murder in question is often the smokescreen they place before them, the power they have over the detail, the conjuring it seems to have thousands follow them, to have, as Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson once sang, “You can share your views with a population that wants to be like you”, and it is those dedicated souls that drive the market of the influencer, that makes people as Rose Boleyn news when it is announced she has died under the surgeon’s knife.
The War Of The Rose is an oddity of timing, an episode of McDonald & Dodds that is perfect for the times it is written for, but one out of place within its own space. The death of a social influencer vying for attention to the fact that the episode was meant to be part of the previous series, and whilst cleverly reshot around Claire Skinner, an actor who has added greatly to the overall tone and pacing of the programme, is one that seems oddly understanding of its intention.
Time and place regardless, War Of The Rose cleverly plays with its own historic name, both in British history and in cinematic terms, the long term film fan recognising the parallels of the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner/ Danny DeVito smash hit and the destruction and fall out when marriage takes an ugly turn.
The narrative is such that whilst the majority of the episode was filmed a year before, it actually feels as though it is more affluent in its overall presentation because of the allusions to history, the new way of selling and fame in collision with time honoured ideas that even now seem to resonate long after they ceased to be of relevance.
War Of The Rose, out of its own time but very much part of its series history, a confrontation between modern practise and old habits, one in which there is always one factor that binds them, murder.Ian D. Hall