Nordicana 2013

The cast of Arne Dahl at Nordicana

A DERELICT warehouse in Clerkenwell, London, was the inspired setting for the first Nordicana, a celebration of Scandi TV, film and culture, which finished yesterday. You could easily imagine Sarah Lund with flashlight looking for a suspect within its twisting corridors and forgotten work spaces. 

Instead of killers and corpses, however, were screenings, Q&A sessions with the actors, in addition to glasses of Icelandic vodka, smoked salmon and massages. Oh, and the famous Lund sweater was for sale too. The two-day event featured screenings of TV's Wallander, Arne Dahl and Borgen, along with panels from actors including Charlotta Jonsson (Wallander), most of the Arne Dahl cast, and Lars Knutzon (Borgen). 

There were sessions with authors Ann Cleeves (Shetland, which is almost in Scandinavia), and David

Inspired setting – The Farmiloe Building, London

Hewson, author of the recent novelisations of The Killing. In addition, several movies were screened, including Love Is All You Need, starring Pierce Brosnan, The Hunt, with Mads Mikkelsen, and A Hijacking.

Nordicana is a sign that our liking for noir in the cold climates has taken root since The Killing became such a hit on BBC4. I was struck by how packed the two screenings for Arne Dahl were. 

This cop drama hasn't generated as many headlines as Sarah Lund, but it was clear at the screenings of the brilliant two-part series finale, Europa, that Arne Dahl has quietly built an avid following. That the cast on the panel interviewed by crime fiction expert Barry Forshaw – Malin Arvidsson, Shanti Roney, Matias Varela, Claes Ljungmark and Magnus Samuelsson – were all so charming and approachable will have done nothing to dent the series' popularity.

Nordicana was good fun. The next appointments with Scandi dramas will be back in our front rooms as BBC4 lines up Borgen 3 and The Bridge 2 for broadcast.

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Miss Marple, Crime Thriller Awards 2013, Win The Fall on DVD

• Agatha Christie's Miss Marple returns on Sunday (16 June, 8pm) with another starry cast for A Caribbean Mystery, the first of three new films. As you would suspect from the title, Julia McKenzie's sleuth is far from St Mary Mead, having headed to St Honore in the Caribbean. However, the Golden Palms resort turns out to be less idyllic that hoped for when fellow guest Major Palgrave dies soon after arriving. Antony Sher plays wheelchair-bound Jason Rafiel, who is press-ganged into being Miss Marple's helper. Robert Webb, Charity Wakefield, MyAnna Buring, Hermione Norris and Warren Brown line up for questioning.

• If you're a huge fan and bit of an expert on any of ITV's best-loved crime series, then Cactus TV may want to put you in the hot seat on air. Cactus are the people who are putting together the season of ITV3 programming that will accompany this autumn's build-up to the Crime Thriller Awards, which recognise the best TV crime shows and authors. They would like to hear from crime devotees who have extensively cased out shows such as Inspector Morse, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Lewis, Poirot, Rebus, Taggart, Broadchurch or Midsomer Murders. You could be bloggers, book club members, run fan sites or fanzines – in which case, you may be asked to go into the studio to show off your knowledge. Other experts, such as scriptwriters, will also be called on and one idea being considered is to have a quiz element pitting the fans against the scriptwriters. Anyone who fits the bill can put themselves forward by email to Roxanne at Cactus TV – roxanne.liley@cactustv.co.uk

• We have two copies of The Fall on DVD to give away. The series starring Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan has just had viewers glued to BBC2 for the last five weeks in a powerful tale of a detective hunting a serial killer in Belfast. The Fall is released on DVD by Acorn Media on 17 June (rrp £19.99, cert 15). To be entered into a prize draw to win a copy, all you have to do is leave a comment or start a new topic on CrimeTimePreview's brand new Forum.

RULES This offer is open to UK residents only. Prize Draw entrants must leave a comment or start a new topic on the CrimeTimePreview Forum; two names will be drawn on the closing date (Saturday, 22 June) and will be posted a free copy of The Fall. The selectee will need to provide their postal address. No prize alternatives. If anyone comments or starts a discussion but declines the The Fall DVD, an alternative winner will be selected. Good luck!

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The Fall last episode – What we're watching

The murder that went wrong – Stella Gibson on the scene. Pics: BBC

Nice series, shame about the ending, says guest blogger Pat Nurse…

OH DEAR. I feel cheated. Even worse, I feel manipulated by the finale which didn't bring the The Fall to a close. 

Anti-climatic best describes the final episode following the last five weeks of anticipation in which I had hoped to see Spector get what he deserved and DCI Stella Gibson get her man and move on to the next case in the next series. Instead, we've get to wait longer for the drama to start again to pick up where this one left off – on yet another cliff-hanger.  

I had a vain hope that it might end with something of a twist when Spector was seen running down the road after the credits began to roll. Was he going to be shot by the Shankhill Road thugs out to get him? That would have been a resolution of sorts. Alas no. It was just a tease.  

It's a lot of time and emotion to invest only to find out that the saga continues, and in a lot of ways I'm

Losing control – Spector

back where I started in week one. Perhaps I'll watch it when it returns, perhaps I won't. BBC2 probably assumes that the viewer will come back because it is the only way we'll finally get the resolution, which makes me feel manoeuvred.   

Maybe Spector will just walk again and Gibson might just get that tantalising step closer again without feeling the serial killer's collar. By the time it comes back I'll either have forgotten what it was all about anyway or I'll be into something else, or I just won't want to risk the disappointment a second time around. I'm clearly less forgiving than victim Sarah's father who appealed to the serial killer's conscience in hope to persuade him to give himself up.  

I was completely hooked right up until the end. Spector has messed up, left clues in all sorts of places,  and he's gone to great lengths to cover his tracks. I guess being thought of as a paedophile, after telling his wife he'd been having an affair with the 15 year old babysitter, is marginally better than Sally finding out the truth. His lies allow him to keep control of her and prevent her from making any meaningful choice for herself or her children. Her life is still very much in his hands.  

The red herring of the Olsen assassination part of the plot appears to have fizzled away but whatever is going on with the deeper aspect of it, involving Jim Burns and the Monroes, is something I'm sure will be developed further next time.  

The best scene for me this week was at the police station when murderer and cop momentarily lock

Phone duel – Stella's conversation with Spector

onto each other's gaze. It was a transfer of power. Spector has gone from hunter to hunted and Gibson enjoys the chase as much as he does. He clearly finds her dominance a threat and he doesn't like not being in control. 

For those who do feel inclined to watch when the next series starts, Stella begins with the advantage. The latest victim has survived, she has a half decent e-fit, she has the lead with Spector's past student days, and the cover story involving the babysitter is bound to come back to bite him. However, Stella also stands in the way of Spector's  goals and although blonde, she is very much his type and she could be his ultimate kill – if he dare.
Maybe that balance of power will swing again as the need to raise the stakes shapes the next series.

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The Fall episode 4 – What we're watching

Stella helps DCI Eastwood after Breedlove's shocking suicide. Pics: BBC

As serial killer Paul Spector starts to make mistakes, writer and blogger Pat Nurse feels the tension…

Psychological crime drama The Fall was as chilling and intimate, shocking and yet gentle, as ever in episode 4. It is a paradox of contradictions and messy lives that is hurtling towards its final instalment next Monday. 

Serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) is beginning to lose the air of normality he displays in his everyday life as a grief counsellor. The caring mask is slipping and the arrogance that allows him to select, stalk, torture and kill women has burst to the surface showing his very ugly side 

Reprimanded for last week's indiscretion, he apes his boss during a disciplinary hearing. With some irony he insists he does good things to help people and that petty rules shouldn't stop him. 

But he has surely directed his client to a domestic violence shelter, and reported her husband on her behalf, because he was manipulating her to cover his tracks. After all, the woman's husband – a paramilitary from the Shankhill Road – has threatened Spector and he needs him out of the way. 

Things are starting to go wrong in other ways too. He writes to apologise to the family of victim Sarah, who we saw in episode one, but not because he's feeling remorse as much as bitterness that his perfect kill is tainted by news of her pregnancy. 

Things don't get better as he moves in to slaughter his latest victim. She isn't alone when he grabs her. A male friend is in the house and he attacks Spector, there is a furious struggle and Spector bludgeons him to death. 

Meanwhile at home, his daughter is still drawing disturbing pictures and his wife still seems oblivious to what her husband is up, though she is preoccupied by the baby whose life support has been switched off in the neonatal unit where she works. 

DCI Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) has a possible lead. A professional woman tells her about a student she met at University who had a penchant for sex with the unconscious, and he almost strangled her to death in bed. This left her so traumatised she has spoken to no one about it – apart from her friend the pathologist who, conveniently for the plot, passes this news onto Stella. 

We now know that the partner of murdered drugs squad officer James Olsen, Rob Breedlove, was up to his neck in a drugs and prostitution racket – as well as having an affair with Olsen's wife. He is suspended from duty and fears for his life. Rather than surrender his gun at the police station, he shoots himself in the head, leaving his boss dazed and in shock. 

Stella immediately jumps in and takes charge of the incident. Lesser women are screaming in shock but she is in total control and knows what needs to be done such is her cool, calm and composed professionalism – the sort of woman perfect for Spector as a victim – except as a blonde, the hair colour is wrong. 

Perhaps this is deliberate. Gibson is no victim although her superior Jim Burns accuses her of victimising men and says she clearly has no idea of the effect she has on the opposite sex. Really? With all that open shirt, busting cleavage on show and summoning men to her bed with a click of the fingers? 

Maybe she is the female Spector without the killing edge, although she can be accused of murdering male pride. 

There is still plenty to resolve in this fast paced thriller. Spector must be caught. The Olsen incident needs more explanation – how deeply, if at all, was he involved? Stella has to look at whether her 'Sweet Night' – where she takes men to bed for one night only – is really what she wants. Most of all, will we be left feeling let down or satisfied that the world is back in order and everyone is where they should be at the end of this five-week journey into the warped and twisted mind of a serial killer and the unconventional female cop out to catch him. 

We'll have to wait and see next Monday at 9pm on BBC2 when the final episode is aired.

Watch your back – is Stella about to come face to face with Spector next week?

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Poirot – Elephants Can Remember, ITV, with David Suchet, Greta Scacchi PREVIEW

Zoë Wanamaker, David Suchet and Greta Scacchi. Pics ITV

Rating: ★★★½

ITV: Sunday, 9 June, 8pm

Story: While Poirot is pre-occupied with investigating the strange and gruesome murder of an elderly psychiatrist, his old friend, the crime writer Ariadne Oliver, has a case of her own to solve.

MES AMIS, it is almost time for a last au revoir. Having first played Hercule Poirot 1988, David Suchet is stepping into the spats for the last few times as ITV starts showing the final five remaining Agatha Christie adaptations of the Belgian sleuth's mysteries.

Elephants Can Remember is a suitably lavish and star-studded production, featuring the return of Zoë Wanamaker as Poirot's old chum Mrs Ariadne Oliver, along with Greta Scacchi – rather shockingly the former screen siren turns up as an old battleaxe – Iain Glen, Vincent Regan and Vanessa Kirby.

Who shot who?

It's a tale of two investigations. Ariadne is cornered at a crime writers' convention by a domineering old

Vincent Regan, Annabel Mullion and Ferdinand Kingsley

boot, Mrs Burton-Cox (Greta Scacchi), who insists she look into two 10-year-old unsolved murders. Did General Ravenscroft shoot his wife, Margaret, Ariadne’s old school chum, or did Margaret shoot the general?

Ariadne requests Poirot's assistance, but the buttoned-up detective is already fully engaged in the case of a psychiatrist who has been murdered in one of his old treatment baths, a rather cruel looking contraption.

It would be interesting to compare this latest Poirot with one of ITV's productions from the early years. Surely those originals come nowhere near today's almost fetishistic recreation of the 1920s, with its luxurious settings and beautiful furnishings, clothes and wirelesses, right down to the tea sets. If you like period setttings, this is a feast.

Ariadne and Poirot

Another trademark is the gentle humour in the scenes between Ariadne and Poirot, who's often perplexed by his friend, and during Ariadne's questioning of several forgetful old biddies in her quest for a solution to the Ravenscroft case.

Of course Poirot and his stablemate Miss Marple are hardly cutting-edge television. Poirot is a pretty

Chief Insp Beale and Hercules Poirot confer

dull character (Ariadne is more fun), and much of the dialogue is dreary exposition – 'Awful business… they left the house for a walk… didn't come back… somebody or other found them dead… the revolver was lying by their bodies… bloody hard on the dog…'

But there has long been a big audience for period whodunits, and as Poirot comes to an end, ITV has fairly perfected the recreation of Agatha Christie's world.

This thirteenth series still has The Big Four, Dead Man's Folly (still to be filmed), The Labours of Hercules and Curtain: Poirot's Last Case to come. Poirot and the whole cosy drawing-room whodunit game feels dull and bland to many of us, but there is no doubt that a swathe of fans will miss him in their millions. Man alive, the thing airs on over 200 broadcasters worldwide including: USA (WGBH), Australia (ABC), Brazil (Globosat), France (France Televisions), Italy (Mediaset), Japan (NHK) and Russia (TV Center).

So, perhaps a homburg should be raised to ITV for lavishing so much care on the detective for 25 years. They've done him justice.

Cast: David Suchet Hercule Poirot, Zoë Wanamaker Mrs Ariadne Oliver, Greta Scacchi Mrs Burton-Cox, Vanessa Kirby Celia, Adrian Lukis General Ravenscroft, Annabel Mullion Lady Ravenscroft, Ferdinand Kingsley Desmond, Iain Glen Dr Willoughby, Jo-Anne Stockham Mrs Willoughby, Vincent Regan Detective Inspector Beale, Alexandra Dowling Marie, Danny Webb Superintendent Garroway, Elsa Mollien Zelie, Claire Cox Dorothea, Caroline Blakiston Julia Carstairs, Hazel Douglas Mrs Matcham, Maxine Evans Mrs Buckle, Ruth Sheen Madame Rosentelle
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Creating Sherlock – Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue, Mark Gatiss at Crimefest

Sue Vertue, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. (Pic: R Jarossi)

'HOLMES WAS a dangerous young man doing exciting stuff,' writer/co-creator Steven Moffat told fans of BBC1's Sherlock at Bristol Crimefest on Saturday. He was explaining how the makers wanted to reinvent the character to be as thrilling as he would have been to Victorian readers. 'We wanted to strip out all the stuff of making it in period.'

He was sitting alongside his co-writer Mark Gatiss, who also plays Mycroft, and Sue Vertue, executive producer of the hit series and also his Moffat's wife.

The organisers of Crimefest, the annual crime fiction convention held at Bristol's Marriott hotel, have long wanted to get the trio behind Sherlock to come and talk about the series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman

'We had no idea how people were going to take it to their hearts,' said Mark Gatiss. 'It made Benedict Cumberbatch a star.'

Filming on the show, they revealed, has stopped for the moment, while Martin Freeman flies off to New Zealand to film more of The Hobbit. 'Filming [of the third series] is going well,' Sue Vertue said. 'We're having fun.'

While not giving away secrets about the new stories – The Empty Hearse, The Sign of Three and a so

Sherlock and Watson. Pic: BBC

far secret third story – they did talk about the trial and error process of refining the modern Sherlock (they tried Benedict Cumberbatch in jeans at one point), the difficulty of coming up with brilliant in deductions for a contemporary world (Arthur Conan Doyle became slapdash here, according to Moffat) and how Sherlock's mannerism in steepling his fingers under his chin was borrowed from Jeremy Brett's version on ITV.

While Moffat said he would be happy to continue making Sherlock, both he and Gatiss agreed that if Cumberbatch or Freeman – 'Two of the biggest movie stars in the world,' said Moffat – decided to leave, they would not want to continue.

Finally, in response to a question from the floor about whether Moffat, who's also the showrunner for Doctor Who, would consider Cumberbatch as a future Time Lord, the answer was no – 'Benedict couldn't do another icon.' That, he suggested, would be too confusing.

But Gatiss added, 'There's nothing to stop him playing James Bond.'

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The Fall 3 — What we're watching

Blogger and writer Pat Nurse watches as Paul Spector continues to evade DSI Stella Gibson in episode 3 of BBC2's The Fall…

Three episodes in with two to go and the pressure begins to build on serial murderer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) in BBC 2's Monday evening crime drama The Fall on at 9pm. 

Top cop Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) is beginning to get inside his head to understand

Gibson addresses her team

what motivates him to stalk professional young women of a certain type who he then kills for sadistic pleasure. She knows that murder for him is an art form and he is creating a pictorial visual account of his killings in a scrap book he keeps along with trophies taken from his unfortunate victims. 

His wife Sally-Ann, a neo-natal nurse played by Bronagh Waugh, still has no idea of her apparently placid husband's secret hobby but their small daughter appears to have seen his hideous notebook and is having nightmares about it. She tries to tell her mum about what's hidden “in the ceiling” but Sally-Ann doesn't quite get it – yet. 

Meanwhile, Spector has found a new hiding place in the country to indulge in his fantasies. Police are to release some details about Spector's crimes including the cutting of a lock of hair from victim Sarah Kay, played by Laura Donnelly, which is bound to resonate with the Spectors' babysitter Katie (Aisling Franciosi), who found it in last week's episode. 

Spector has discovered that Sarah was a few weeks' pregnant at the time he killed her and this appears to unsettle him. Nevertheless, he has found a new victim in an area of Belfast that is ruled by paramilitary types. He breaks a confidence about one their group in his real life role as a grief counsellor to get himself out of trouble when he strays into territory where strangers are not welcome.

The pathologist Reed-Smith (Archie Panjabi)

 Former Calvin Klein model Durnan is perfect in the role of Spector. He's damn good looking with a gentle face that is at odds with what he does, but he can look menacing at times making this series ooze with uncomfortable sex appeal.

Anderson's Gibson adds to the sultry feel of the drama. She makes no bones about the fact she likes sex, sees no reason why a one night stand should be exclusive to men and appears to have no conscience about sleeping with married James Olsen (Ben Peel) at a time when his marriage is going through a difficult patch due to the loss of a son.
Olson has been shot on his own doorstep and seems to have been involved in something dodgy, but we don't know all the details yet.
More is to be revealed as the final two episodes gather pace. Will Spector be caught before he gets victim No 4? 

• The Fall has been recommissioned for a second series by BBC2. 

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The Americans, ITV, Matthew Rhys, Keri Russell, PREVIEW

All-American couple Elizabeth and Patrick. Pics: ITV

Rating: ★★★★

ITV: Saturday, 1 June, 10pm

Story: In 1981, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings are undercover Soviet intelligence agents from the Directorate S of the KGB, sent to the US 15 years previously to work deep cover in Washington, DC. 
Their assumed identities are a married couple who run a travel agency, and even their own children Paige and Henry do not know their secret.

MOST OF US would hate to be married to our work, but that's literally where Philip and Elizabeth Jennings are. Marrying each other is part of their job description, the job being highly pressured and dangerous – spying on the United States while posing as Americans.

Work and home life blur as they raise the two all-American kids they brought into the world as cover,

Matthew Rhys as Philip

run a travel agency, dupe government employees to give away secrets – him by subterfuge and her by giving sexual services. And on their nights off they get to kidnap KGB defectors and risk exposure and imprisonment. Talk about pressure.

It is on such a night that we encounter Philip and Elizabeth in a heart-pounding opening sequence to The Americans. Their mission is to capture traitorous KGB captain Timochev and put him on a night voyage back to the Soviet Union, but the handover goes wrong and the couple have to keep him in the boot of their car.

Philip and Elizabeth have a defector in their garage

And then carry on as though nothing is out of kilter, breakfasting with their son and daughter while they ponder whether to kill the guy in their car. And wouldn't you know it, but their new neighbour turns out to be an FBI agent.

OK,  The Americans is a bit of a stretch in the plausibility stakes, but it is still fairly compelling. It is hard not to compare it to Homeland as they both deal in subversion on American soil and divided loyalties.

Like Homeland, The Americans is often overwrought and over the top, but as a portrayal of characters on the edge, playing lethal games of hidden identities, it is equally gripping.

Good neighbours

Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell

The two shows also toy with the friction and duplicity between the leading couples. Philip, played by Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, and Elizabeth, portrayed by Golden Globe winner Keri Russell, are hardened espionage operatives, but the strain of defying their emotional lives to keep up their cover is reaching crisis point.

The capture of Timochev brings a host of problems to a head. He tells Philip the Americans would give him millions of dollars if he also defected, while Elizabeth is forced to revisit a personal trauma as she has encountered the brutal Timochev during her KGB training days.

On top of all this, Philip may be getting too immersed in his role as American dad, seduced by the life there, loving his children, and his 'wife' too.

The Americans is set during the 1980s Cold War era

Where Homeland's backdrop is contemporary terrorism, The Americans is set in Reagan's America,

Elizabeth moonlighting as a spy

and the period is handled well and unobtrusively (though the odd sequence of Phil Collins music does send a shiver down the spine).

The Americans is inspired by the 2010 arrests of Richard and Cynthia Murphy of New Jersey, really Vladimir and Lidiya Guryev. It is made by FX in the US and has some strong talents behind the camera, including showrunner and creator Joe Weisberg (Falling Skies), a former CIA man himself, executive producer Graham Yost (Justified) and Gavin O'Conner (Warrior), who directed the pilot.

It is packed with morally complex, three-dimensional characters, along with intrigue and break-neck action. In TV terms, a marriage made in heaven.

Cast: Keri Russell Elizabeth Jennings, Matthew Rhys Philip Jennings, Noah Emmerich Agent Stan Beeman, Maximiliano Hernandez Agent Chris Amador,  Holly Taylor Paige Jennings, Keidrich Sellati Henry Jennings,  Margo Martindale Claudia

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Mad Dogs 3, Sky1, with John Simm, Philip Glenister, Marc Warren, Max Beesley

Don't look now – Rick (Marc Warren) faces a threatening future alone. Pics: BSkyB

Rating: ★★★

Sky1: starts Tuesday, 4 June, 9pm

Story: After the law finally caught up with them at the end of the last series, Woody, Quinn, Baxter and Rick are now being interrogated in a dilapidated prison in the Moroccan desert.

THOSE MAD DOGS who managed to turn a fun reunion in Spain into the holiday from hell involving stolen drug money and murder are now hitting their third series.

The law of diminishing returns dictates that this should be poorer than those preceding it. But while it is not as engaging or funny as the first series, it does pack surprises and have the guts to take the story on a new trajectory. 

Jaime Winstone as Mercedes

Woody (Max Beesley), Quinn (Philip Glenister), Baxter (John Simm) and Rick (Marc Warren) find

Caged – Woody (Max Beesley)

themselves in a rundown interrogation centre in the Moroccan desert as episode one starts. The treatment they get is rough, they look rough and there's a tough young female prisoner there giving them a hard time.

This is Jaime Winstone playing Mercedes, and she seems to be following in dad Ray's footsteps by being the hardest character on display. Mercedes is a soldier who strayed but shows her combat readiness by throwing Quinn to the ground.

She's also a lot more clued-up than the clueless foursome. When Quinn whinges about their rights being infringed by their incarceration, Mercedes tells them, 'This place doesn't exist.'

Mad Dogs is again intriguing, surreal and pretty silly 

Flying by the seat of their pants – Baxter, Woody, Rick and Quinn

They are, of course, in this pickle after being duped by Mackenzie (David Warner) at the end of series two. Instead of arriving in Barcelona with the three-million euros, the ship container they were travelling in turned up in Morocco, where they were greeted by armed men who took the money.

Writer Cris Cole instils the new series with intrigue and surreal touches again, including a scary little African figure haunting proceedings this time. It's a disorientating touch, similar to 'Tiny' Blair's appearance in series one.

That was a triumph for Sky1 in 2011, getting nominated for a Bafta and winning terrific ratings for a non-terrestrial channel (episode one got 1.6 million viewers). The plot was slow in places but the theme of old mates meeting up in disappointed middle age – and played with relish by the four actors – gave the drama emotional impact while the lads got sucked into Alvo's criminal enterprise.

The lads are now on the run from the CIA

This new series has lost much of that as the foursome's characters are subsumed in a hectic story. Where 'Tiny' Blair was bizarre, funny and sinister, here the scary masked figure is part of a more

Wired – Rick under interrogation

confusing set-up.

Anton Lesser eventually turns up as Alex, who appears to be from the British government and tells the guys they are on a CIA hit list (don't ask). From there the drama spins off into another country and another cliffhanger.

Mad Dogs is now a story charging along so fast it's hard to get a grip on who's who and what's happening. The final moments of this opener do, however, set up some interesting possibilities for the remaining three episodes, so perhaps the dogs will stop chasing their tails and the series can recapture its earlier charm and character focus.

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The Fall episode 2 – What we're watching

Blogger and writer Pat Nurse is on the case for episode 2 of BBC2's The Fall…

THANKFULLY the suspense and edge-of-the-seat fear was not as intense in the second episode

Gibson attends another murder. Pic BBC

of new BBC2 crime drama The Fall, but still every bit as chilling.
Family man and serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) has finished off his latest victim and is savouring every last detail he writes or pastes into his sick little fantasy notebook. He isn't even on the radar yet for investigator Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson), who is trying to solve the murders of professional women she now knows for sure are linked. 

Stella has her own problems. She's in hot water over a meeting with a journalist, even though she said nothing, and her steamy one-night stand with drugs squad police officer James Olson (Ben Peel) ends in her rejection of him – and his assassination in front of his young son on his own doorstep.
Spector's trophy of hair washed and cut from his victim have been found by his family's teenage babysitter and he plays rough to get it back after she hides it in her pocket. This is witnessed by Spector's young daughter, who is causing concern at her school for drawings that appear inspired by her father's notebook keepsake.
The pressure is building on him. He's lied about who the hair belongs to and questions must be asked about why his daughter's artwork is so dark, but with three more episodes to watch on Monday nights at 9pm, there is clearly more killing to come before he is found out. 

The juxtaposition of family man aka serial killer, and compassionate grief counsellor aka cruel sadist, gives the baddie the sort of cover few in reality would ever suspect. The voyeuristic nature of Spector's crimes is what makes the series hard to watch but also absolutely compelling. We're rooting for Stella to solve this quickly and as all hope lies in her hands we can forgive her flawed and selfish character.
Next Monday's episode sees Spector on the hunt for a new victim in his Belfast killing fields and Gibson is urged to carry a gun for her own protection. This is a series that is a must watch, however uncomfortable it makes us feel.

Family man Paul Spector and son Liam

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