Apologies (again)

My post on an old article appears below; I have been trying to post it since Saturday morning, but only now is blogger working enough to allow it go up.

Last night ITV screened Mysterious Creatures, another compelling drama for grown ups (the RTD* version would have shown the central character in nightclubs, attempting to pull, with hilarious - but tragic and inevitably bisexual - consequences), but with a curious end.

The entire drama revolves around how the parents of this 30something clearly unbalanced girl try to rid themselves of her. She is sectioned, and released. The parents try to commit suicide, and only one succeeds. Then the mother goes out to Tenerife and tries again, and fails. The end shows mother and daughter shopping. And the caption flashes up "Lisa has a new flat on Merseyside. Her mother still teaches in Birmingham" (or something very similar).

But how the hell has anyone persuaded her to live somewhere else? How has this fundamental problem, which has cost her father his life, been resolved, such that her mother suddenly has the freedom she has craved? It's like a war film that goes up to 1940 and then says "By 1945, Britain had won the war." I suppose the end only serves to further justify the title, though.

This problem, though, shouldn't detract from a powerful drama which is shot in a semi-contemporary style (shaky cameras etc) and a semi-gritty "Play for Today" or Threads style, with lingering shots of people crying or staring into space. Human misery has rarely looked more detailed on British TV since about 1984.

Some fine tv on lately then.

But not Torchwood. Obviously.


*= Russell T Davies, re-creator of Doctor Who, killer of Jesus (both played by Chris Eccleston, curiously enough), "genius" behind Torchwood. Actually RTD does have a lot of genuis in him, if only for Who and his long forgotten 1991 children's drama Dark Season, which I watched as an enthralled 14 year old. Yes I know I should have been having sex, but I preferred telly.