In the TV series, the sea is unrelentingly menacing. Cleeves loves the coast and has set the story in spring. Or it had to me, it might be an Australian thing. The setting is exactly where Cleeves set the book, but the sensibility is changed. (As an irrelevant aside, his wife Grace is played by Anita Dobson who she is married to Brian May of Queen.) I have a set against him because his ponderous voice gives him gravitas without earning it, but it’s perfect for this role. He is best known as Detective George Gently. I don’t feel the same way about the cult leader, Dennis Stephenson, played by Martin Shaw. On-screen, I felt that lightness when she appeared in a scene. In the book, she is a redhead who lightens Matthew’s life with her irreverence. In both the book and TV series, she is a very good detective. As an actor I like and believe her characters, they are flawed but good-natured. Matthew Venn’s second in command is a single mother DS Jen Rafferty, played by Pearl Mackie. I’ll be looking at the last episode, it may be there, in the background, and I missed it. In the book, he loses his ability to think clearly when in a messy environment. I missed the more nuanced elements of his character, such as his need for order. His conflict with his mother and the baggage from the sect are well represented. The silence is informed by flashbacks and conversation with his husband, but the viewer inserts their own interpretation. The book’s characters’ internal conflicts and their (or the author’s) comments and generalisations have to be presented in a different way.ĭetective Matthew Venn, played by Ben Aldridge, is the strong silent type.
She has produced a very watchable show that has a similar feel to the Vera series.Īdaptations always require some changes. She has strong credentials ( Des, Baptise and Call the Midwife). Unusual to get a series up and running with a woman at the helm in both roles. The TV series was developed and written by Kelly Jones. Without any spoilers, Matthew is a now happily married gay man living on the Devon coast but he was brought up in a religious sect based in the area. It’s the first story in a series, introducing a new lead character, Matthew Venn. The series is based on the Ann Cleeves’ book of the same name. The personal drama is in the steps towards a potential reconciliation with his mother. The crime drama is in Detective Inspector Matthew Venn’s search for the killer of a man found stabbed on the beach. That provided a whole new perspective on the TV series. To find out what happened, I read the book. SBS is dropping an episode a week so this review is written without watching the final episode. This is a moody drama with the typically bleak British seaside setting.
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