The
lowdown: 'Randall & Hopkirk (deceased)' is a BBC remake
of the 1970s ITV series of the same name, and stars
Vic Reeves as Marty Hopkirk
and Bob Mortimer as Jeff Randall. They run a private detective agency,
and Marty is killed
in a car accident
during a case. However, he returns as a ghost to help his business partner
to find his killer, and has
only one night before he
must return to his grave forever. He can only allow one person to see and
hear him, and chooses
Jeff rather than his fiance,
Jeannie. Marty helps solve his own murder. However, he stays out of his
grave for too long, and
is destined to walk the
Earth until Jeff dies. Each episode features Marty helping Jeff to solve
crimes, while he often uses
his ghostly powers to save
the lives of Jeff and Jeannie. The BBC series also stars Emilia Fox as
Jeannie and Tom Baker
as Wyvern, Marty's guide
in the spirit world.
David Tennant appears in
the first episode, 'Drop Dead' as artist Gordon Stylus, who hires the detectives
to watch his wife,
as he believes that she
is about to commit suicide. His wife dies in the car accident that kills
Marty, but the detectives are
convinced that there was
more to the accident than it seems. Kenneth Crisby, the manager of Gordon
Stylus, was being
investigated by the detectives
when the series opens; he blames them for the breakup of his marriage,
and has vowed to
get his revenge. Tennant
is brilliant as the manic artist who is mentally anguished by his wife's
death, and he suffers a
particularly grisly fate
(while wearing a wedding dress!)
The
verdict: Many critics are not very impressed by this BBC remake,
but it is a highly enjoyable series with a much
more interesting premise
than most detective shows. The combination of humour, action and drama
makes it well worth
watching. The two leads,
Reeves and Mortimer, take a few episodes to get in their roles, but needless
to say Tom Baker
is brilliant as Wyvern,
a character that was created specificially for the remake. Some of the
episodes pay homage to the
original series, while the
BBC series regularly features cameos by other well-known British actors
such as Hugh Laurie,
Dervla Kirwan, Derek Jacobi
and Mark Gatiss (who was also one of the writers of the show). Only 13
episodes were made over two seasons, compared with the 26 episodes of the
original ITV series.
|
|
