Death Valley (BBC1)
The final episode of the first series of Death Valley opened at a school reunion. ‘It’s so hard juggling the aromatherapy with being a mumfluencer,’ moaned Rhiannon Hopkins to her former classmate.
I can’t have been the only viewer hoping Rhiannon would come to a sticky end. Perhaps not ending up as the actual corpse, but definitely getting locked away for a very long time.
Mumfluencer indeed. Just the word should carry a five-year term.
In the end, it was a mechanic called Dean who was battered to death in the boiler room with a spanner, which at least was another Cluedo weapon ticked off for pathologist Helen Baxter.
‘God,’ she sighed. ‘I’d love a lead pipe killing — that’s the hard one.’
Death Valley has divided opinion. To call it quirky would be an understatement. Interviewing Dean’s wife, DS Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth) complained: ‘It’s quite hard to get what you’re saying — maybe you could try speaking between sobs.’
If you take your whodunnits very seriously, this is not for you. It’s basically a delightfully gentle comedy with a bit of violent death thrown in.
But it’s cleverly written, with plenty of well-judged sad bits as contrast. And the characters have depth and back stories.
Death Valley has divided opinion. To call it quirky would be an understatement (Pictured: Timothy Spall as John Chapel, left, and Gwneyth Keyworth as Janie Mallowan)
If you take your whodunnits very seriously, this is not for you. It’s basically a delightfully gentle comedy with a bit of violent death thrown in (Pictured: Steffan Rhodri as DCI Clarke)
It’s cleverly written, with plenty of well-judged sad bits as contrast. And the characters have depth and back stories (Pictured: Rithvik Andugula as DC Evan Chaudry)
The star turn is Timothy Spall. He plays retired actor John Chapel, who is best known for playing TV detective Charles Caesar. In the first episode, he helped Janie solve the murder of a property developer, and she’s been his sidekick ever since.
They bicker like an old married couple. If Chapel were 30 years younger, this would end in a romance that would probably be revealed in a tear-jerking Christmas special.
As it is, one of the mysteries about widower Chapel is his love life. There is obviously somebody, but who?
This was revealed right at the end. I won’t ruin the surprise for catch-up viewers, but the result was more bickering between Chapel and Janie (named Jane, by the way, after Miss Marple and Mallowan after Agatha Christie’s second husband).
A lot of loose ends were tied up in last night’s episode.
Janie finally made it up with her boss, DCI Clarke, a worryguts whose main fear is that he’s not up to the job. Played by Steffan Rhodri, he is just one of an excellent supporting cast.
He told her that she’s been promoted to inspector, and Chapel had been recruited as an official consultant. Oh, and the mysterious suicide of Janie’s best friend, Sian, a constant theme through the series, was finally cleared up.
You know what this means, don’t you? The decks are now clear for a second series. Perhaps we might even get that Christmas special.
Pathologist Helen might even get her perfect corpse — coshed by somebody called Colonel Mustard with a candlestick in the conservatory.
