|
|
Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 5, No. 38 |
 |
DONNA J. PLESH |
 |
|
LOOK WHO'S COMING BACK!
|
Can they squeeze more out
of old mystery franchises?
By RON MILLER and DONNA J. PLESH
of TheColumnists.com
Once upon a time, television was literally awash in
great British detective shows and mystery fans regularly felt
like they had died and gone to gumshoe heaven.
Then, by the late 1990s, the sleuths began to disappear, one by one.
Jeremy Brett grew too ill to continue making "Sherlock Holmes" episodes and died shortly after playing what amounted to a cameo in his last episode. Joan Hickson's advanced age made it impossible for her to do further "Miss Marple" adventures, so that series ended--and Hickson died a few years later.
Leo McKern tired of playing Horace Rumpole in "Rumpole of the Bailey" and that series also shut down. He was so closely identified with the part that nobody could ever imagine anyone else as Rumpole. McKern's subsequent death ended hopes he might be lured back to star in the new Rumpole stories author John Mortimer kept on writing.
Robbie Coltrane declined further invitations to play forensic psychologist "Fitz" Fitzgerald in "Cracker" and Ian McShane's "Lovejoy" finally ended production after six seasons.
Author Colin Dexter felt he'd gone as far as he could go with his immensely popular "Inspector Morse" novels and actor John Thaw was getting restless playing Morse, considering all the non-Morse work he was getting. So, Dexter decided to have Morse suffer a fatal heart attack in his novel "The Remorseful Day." Just a year after he filmed Morse's death scene, actor Thaw also died.
Though David Suchet wanted to go on playing "Hercule Poirot," that show also was shut down for a few years, presumably because huge profits were being made from just showing the original 45 episodes over and over all around the world--and it had become very expensive to produce new ones.
But the demand for new "Poirot" episodes grew so heavy, especially in Japan, that production finally was resumed and Suchet returned to the role in a series of two-hour movies that were enormously popular. (A&E premieres four new ones this month: "Death On the Nile" and "Sad Cypress" on Sept. 19, "The Hollow" and "Five Little Pigs" on Sept. 26.)
In the meantime, efforts to develop new detective heroes weren't succeeding very well. Long-running franchises like "Sherlock Holmes" and "Inspector Morse" aren't easy to replace. Lots of attempts at starting new franchises flopped, like A&E's effort to make a series out of Anne Perry's Inspector Pitt novels and PBS' similar efforts with Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn mysteries.
But now there seems to be a renewed attempt to re-launch some of the old, golden detective franchises with new faces. The results are likely to be rather mixed.
 |
will be the new main character, Nikki Alexander, on 'Silent Witness,' replacing Amanda Burton's Dr. Sam Ryan (right). |
 |
For example, last year the BBC produced a new Sherlock Holmes feature--"The Hound of the Baskervilles"--with Richard Roxbrough as Holmes. Shown in the U.S. on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre," it did NOT create a huge demand to see Roxbrough in new versions of the Holmes mysteries already done by the late Jeremy Brett.
Next month (Oct. 3, 10), PBS' "Mystery!" brings back P.D. James' Commander Adam Dalgliesh in "Death in Holy Orders." But fans of the series that began in the 1980s will notice a significant difference: Gone is Roy Marsden, star of all the previous Dalgliesh mysteries, and in his place is Martin Shaw, who wears glasses, looks a little chubbier in the face and doesn't have the long, mournful look of Marsden. The typical reaction of those who've seen the episode is: "He's okay, but he's not our Dalgliesh!"
This trend is about to produce some even more startling attempts to either resurrect the great TV detectives of the past or to revive interest in some long-running shows:
* A new series of "Miss Marple" stories is now being filmed by the ITV network with 72-year-old Geraldine McEwan ("Mapp and Lucia") as the spinster sleuth. The first four mysteries--"The Body in the Library," "A Murder is Announced," "Murder at the Vicarage" and "4:50 From Paddington"--are remakes of Christie stories previously done by Joan Hickson in the 1980s. Joanna Lumley from "Absolutely Fabulous" is playing a "sidekick" to Jane Marple, so we can expect this to be aiming for a more comic approach than the respectfully serious Hickson versions.
* Colin Dexter has given permission for the filming of a two-hour television movie called "After Morse," which will focus on Inspector Morse's longtime sidekick, Sgt. Lewis (Kevin Whately), trying to continue on his career after the death of his mentor. In the final days of the Morse series, Lewis was preparing to go on alone as a detective, so this may not be an unexpected development for Morse fans.
* It also has been announced that the great Albert Finney will take on the role of Horace Rumpole in a new "Rumpole of the Bailey." Though Finney is a much taller man than his predecessor, he once won acclaim playing Hercule Poirot in the 1974 feature film "Murder on the Orient Express," so perhaps he'll be able to make us forget the marvelous Leo McKern. Word is they're going to show Rumpole emerging from a long stay in a rest home, which may explain his amazing physical changes.
* Amanda Burton is in her final season as Dr. Sam Ryan in "Silent Witness." Though her character remains among the living, the famous pathologist will be turning the franchise over to actress Emilia Fox ("Rebecca"), who plays Sam's protege, apprentice pathologist Nikki Alexander, in the new series currently playing in England.
It's always a risky proposition
to hire new actors to replace the ones the public has grown to
love in certain roles over the years. A&E's late 1990s attempt
to foist Joe Mantegna off as Robert B. Parker's Boston private
eye "Spenser" is a classic example. Even though the
late Robert Urich wasn't Parker's idea of "Spenser,"
Urich was a popular player and the public liked him. Mantegna
is a fine actor, but he was nobody's idea of Spenser, except
maybe those who hired him.
Maybe that's why the long talked-about feature film version of
Lynda LaPlante's TV mystery "Prime Suspect" never happened.
Helen Mirren owns the role of Jane Tennison. Even though she
might not be young enough to carry the lead role in a feature
film about Tennison, what actress would be cheeky enough to play
the part while Mirren is still alive and kicking?
©2004 by Ron Miller
and Donna J. Plesh. The photo of Geraldine McEwan is courtesy
of ITV. The photos of Emilia Fox and Amanda Burton are courtesy
the BBC.
Ron
Miller and Donna J. Plesh are veteran television critics who
write regularly on the mystery genre. They've been exchanging
opinions and comparing notes since the early 1980s.
| Home | About Us | Archives | Talkback | Shopping Mall |