Devices and Desires

My copy of the novel runs to 500 pages, and I feel it could have benefited by some severe editing. The miniseries runs to about 5 hours, and that's a lot of exposition and some unnecessary characters: the second killing of a power plant employee is set up so elaborately you want to say Get on with it! There is some very effective acting, particularly from Gemma Jones as the sister of the plant director, and Nicola Cowper as a reluctant activist in the protest against environmental hazards. Lisa Ellis, who's had parts in many series, notably EastEnders, is very good as Blaney's daughter, but the tempo does drag at times.

For those who worry about Roy Marsden's quiet acting style, I'd like to remind them that Dalgleish is a poet who drives a sports car, thus he's at the antipodes of standard detective heroes (George Gently comes to mind). This is one of those stories in which the detectives, for all their competence, are peripheral to the action. The killers do their work, and are dealt with summarily by the author.