Review: Dalgliesh (S2 E1&2/6)

DCI Adam Dalgliesh (Bertie Carvel) returns for a second series, handling murky cases while tackling his own personal demons – will he achieve any sort of resolution in his personal life while continuing to face the deepest and darkest of human motivations?

We’re pleased to see the return of Bertie Carvel as Adam Dalgliesh – the first Channel 5 series was well received, and with 14 of PD James’ original novels to adapt, there was obviously more material to explore.

While the character has been presented on TV before, notably by Roy Marsden on ITV and Martin Shaw on the BBC, Bertie Carvel captures Dalgliesh extraordinarily well. A private and reserved man, Dalgliesh is working through the grief of losing his wife in childbirth and is reluctant to commit to any other relationship. Softly-spoken and empathetic, he deals with crime analytically, but also with an insight into human emotions. He is a lauded published poet, and clearly expresses his grief through his work. Immaculately besuited, driving a lovely E-type Jag and quoting Plutarch, Dalgliesh has a rather dashing Byronic air.

In setting the series in period, the 1970s, and accompanying it with gloomy neoclassical music, Channel 5 has given Dalgliesh an atmosphere something between Inspector Morse and Life on Mars – there’s plenty of chance to spot dodgy haircuts and contemporary props, such as a phone book, David Cassidy pinups, a lovely old (Fordson?) tractor, a Jensen Interceptor and some fantastically ugly curtains, while avoiding having to explain why the crimes can’t be solved by CCTV and mobile phone tracking.

Though Dalgliesh is nominally based in London, the C5 stories tend to take place outside the big city, in this case, Norfolk, which gives them a bucolic air – in fact, they’re filmed in Northern Ireland, with city scenes shot in Belfast.

Previous adaptations tended to stray from the originals quite a lot. This version is more faithful, though as before the books are being filmed out of the original publishing order, which does present some continuity problems. For instance, the first two-part story of season two, Death of An Expert Witness, was actually the first novel to be published.

Carlyss Peer returns as DS Kate Miskin, Dalgliesh’s partner, a determined and efficient detective, obviously devoted to Dalgliesh, and possibly a little too involved in his psychodrama.

So, to the plot. In Death of an Expert Witness, a biologist in a Home Office lab, Lorrimer, is battered to death with a mallet, presumably the murder weapon in the case of a young woman found dead in a chalk pit. Lorrimer’s killer must have been associated with the lab, but are the two cases related?  

There are plenty of suspects – disaffected lab assistant Bradley (Perry Millward) who argued with Lorrimer, his fey boss Howarth (Sam Hoare) who is more interested in finances than solving cases, a cousin Angela (Carolina Main) who Lorrimer diddled out of an inheritance, and a louche young woman, Domenica (Margaret Clunie), with whom Lorrimer was having a tense affair.

When it turns out that Lorrimer has left his money to the lab’s receptionist Brenda, we think she might be next; but found hanging in a church is Angela’s lover Stella (Shanaya Rafaat).

At this stage the chief suspect becomes a local copper, Doyle (Stuart Graham), who had access to the lab, and whose wife’s car was seen at the scene of the crime, but we have our eyes on Dr Rollinson (Richard Harrington), a colleague of Lorrimer’s.

It’s a tense and atmospheric opener, with Wicker Man-style supernatural overtones. Dalgliesh gets to read his poetry, on which we won’t pass judgement – his agent wants him to pack in the ‘policing’ and go on tour to America, but we know that’s not going to happen, at least not until a few more novels have been adapted.

In the second part, Dalgliesh notes inconsistencies in the rope used to hang Stella, and, doing his own forensic work, picks up some hair samples – they match the deliciously devil-may-care Domenica, and suggest that Lorrimer conducted his affair with her in the church, using numbers on the hymn board to set appointments.  

Dalgliesh doesn’t believe Stella’s death was suicide – for one, she was too close to finishing her novel.

So are we any closer to the truth? Was Doyle being blackmailed by Stella? Was Brenda’s relationship with Lorrimer innocent? Had Lorrimer been arguing with his colleague Rollinson?

Dalgliesh reveals to Miskin that he was brought up in this insular part of the world, and needed the support of his parents to move on; he promises her that he will support her career progression, though she seems reluctant to move on. Certainly he lets her develop her theories about the killer/s, though we assume she’s on the wrong track.

The truth comes to light through Rollinson’s interfering housekeeper Miss Willard (Deborah Findlay), who reveals he was having an affair with Domenica. Lorrimer found out and used this to blackmail Rollinson over his custody battle; confronted by Dalgliesh, Rollinson confesses to killing Lorrimer in an argument, but then also to killing Stella, who had seen him leaving the lab using his climbing skills to descend from a high window.

Dalgliesh is merciful enough to let Rollinson have ten minutes with his ghastly children before he’s taken away in cuffs. Miskin looks on, clearly besotted.

It’s a satisfactory ending, though slightly predictable from the fact that Rollinson was initially the only apparently motiveless character, and he does have a beard.

What’s slightly more unconvincing is that the gorgeous, young, voracious Domenica would have pursued affairs with two middle-aged, dumpy, miserable men. 

Nonetheless, we loved this season opener, completely convinced by Bertie Carvel’s performance and the sound support of Carlyss Peer. The production standards are great, and the pace is agreeably languid, but not tedious.

If Adam Dalgliesh is lost to the world of poetry, it will be a loss to policing as well as to our viewing pleasure.  

Chris Jenkins

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.