The New Year whodunnit Lynley (BBC One, Monday, 8.30pm) was filmed in Dublin, Wicklow and Cork, but precious little of Ireland has made it to the screen in the BBC’s tale of dark deeds in rural England.
In fact, it is hard to think of a more thoroughly British detective show than this team-up between a posho detective and his working-class foil – a duo who spend a fair chunk of their screen time re-litigating the great English class war via snarky put-downs and pointed silences.
It’s a fun addition to the grey January schedules – though at nearly 90 minutes, the first outing by DI Tommy Lynley (an Oxbridge graduate and blue of blood), and DS Barbara Havers (lives with her parents and is as common as Saturday night on ITV) constantly risks wearing out its welcome. Whatever happened to brevity?
The leads at least have great chemistry. Lynley (Leo Suter of Vikings: Valhalla) is a low-key snob who drives a shabby-chic Jensen Interceptor and is baffled when Havers (Sofia Barclay of Ted Lasso) suggests that a Cambridge undergraduate may be responsible for the murder of a local bigwig. Isn’t an accomplished student too smart for that sort of thing?
Havers, for her part, is locked and loaded with the working-class chip on the shoulder so beloved of British drama. When Lynley explains he is Oxford-educated and newly arrived in Norfolk from the London Met, she reveals that her parents are big in iron and steel. “My mother irons and my father steals.”
It’s all a bit Ken Loach does Agatha Christie, and the class distinctions will quickly bore Irish viewers. That said, the mystery is at least compelling. A toxic toff has been coshed to death and is revealed to have left behind a trail of disgruntled lovers and furious relatives. Factor in his vast fortune and his enthusiasm for recording his trysts and you have a surefire recipe for murder.
Oddly, the creepiness of coastal Norfolk adds to the ambience. Odd because Lynley is, of course, shot largely around Wicklow – not a part of the world generally associated with the spooky and unnverving (unless the toilets at Bray Wanderers Football Club count).
The cast is largely British – though Malaysian/ Irish actor Niamh Walsh is set to star in part two as Lynley’s love interest.
Still, despite its uncanny valley qualities – those “Irish but not really” vibes – Lynley is a solid slice of January sleuthing and a suitably stark respite from all the Christmas claustrophobia we’re still working out of our systems.