RIVER and DETECTORISTS

cinema à la carte                                                  2  4 the eruidite viewer

RIVER The original drama series centers on John River (Skarsgård), a brilliant police officer whose genius and fault line is the fragility of his mind — a man haunted by the murder victims whose cases he must lay to rest. Nicola Walker (Last Tango In Halifax and —"Ruth on SPOOKS)— will play River’s colleague and confidante, Detective Sgt. Jackie “Stevie” Stevenson, with Adeel Akhtar (Utopia) as Detective Sgt. Ira King. Lesley Manville (An Adventure In Space And Time) will play their superior, Chief Inspector Chrissie Read. Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan) plays a notorious killer who haunts River. Additional cast includes Sorcha Cusack (Father Brown) as Stevie’s mother, Bridie, and Georgina Rich (Sherlock) plays Rosa, a police psychiatrist. River was commissioned by BBC One Controller Charlotte Moore and Ben Stephenson, Controller of BBC Drama Commissioning. Jane Featherstone, Manda Levin, Abi Morgan and Lucy Richer are executive producers. Chris Carey (Run, Ambassador, Dirk Gently) produces, and Richard Laxton (Burton And Taylor, Him And Her) directs. Note: If you watch this series you will almost certainly wonder what the hell is the name of that song Nicol Walker sings.  Here it is (I Love To Love). In a nutshell, River's partener is murdered and in death still hangs around.  "I see dead people" for adults. Brilliant.  Here's another jewel I tripped over; "Detectorists" “ Not a great deal happens in Detectorists, which began its second series tonight. For those who've not managed to catch this novel sitcom you need to know the following. First, well, not much happens. Very much like the lives of the metal "detectorists" (never "detectors" – those are merely the machines they use, you see), things meander along at a pace which makes Last of the Summer Wine feel like Spectre. It has a slight Vicar of Dibley feel to it too, but it is much more intriguing and edgy than any of its gentle comedy predecessors. Which brings me to my second point – it is very nicely written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, who also plays one of the major roles, the semi-happily married Andy, and, no, I can't resist adding that he has come a long way since he played the gawky, immature and bizarre-looking Gareth Keenan in The Office. Crook is joined in his quest by his older and lonelier mate Lance, as portrayed by the brilliant Toby Jones (whose resemblance to Ian Hislop, by the way, is unnerving). Andy's mother-in-law is Diana Rigg, who does a fine line in withering contempt. ”   Both from Netflix  You're welcome